Root out seeds of terrorism in sub-Saharan countries

It wasn't long ago that a meeting of former heads of African nations could be held only in the hereafter. Most of these men -- who came to power after colonialism gave way to self-rule in the 1960s -- hung onto the reins of government until they succumbed to natural death or a bloody coup.

Next week, six former African leaders who left office standing up will meet at Boston University to talk about ways to strengthen Africa's emerging democracies.

Billed as a summit to consider ''the short-term impact of the Iraq war on African economies,'' the meeting also will focus on the terrorism threat in sub-Saharan Africa.

''I think it has become increasingly clear that the folks who would do the United States harm view Africa as a staging area for terrorism and that this nation's national security is directly related to the economic security of African countries,'' Charles Stith, director of Boston University's African Presidential Archives and Research Center, said in an interview.

Stith should know. A former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, he arrived in that country to take up his post a month after the August 1998 car-bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy that killed 11 people and wounded 85. A simultaneous assault on the U.S. Embassy in Kenya took 213 lives. Stith oversaw the early stages of the construction of a new $50 million American Embassy in Tanzania, which he said had a dramatic economic impact in an impoverished section of Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of that East African nation.

''The foot soldiers of terrorist groups tend to be on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder,'' Stith said. ''I think that over the long term, economic engagement, not special ops, will be the most effective means of ending terrorism. We simply don't have the capacity to police the planet.''

Getting the United States and other international donors to significantly increase aid to Africa will be a daunting task, especially now that President Bush is committed to spending billions of dollars on repairing the war damage in Iraq. Even so, Stith hopes that the presence of the six former African leaders -- Jerry Rawlings of Ghana; Nicephore Soglo of Benin; Ketumile Masire of Botswana; Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania; Navinchandra Ramgoolam of Mauritius; and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia -- will make this issue more than a small blip on the Bush administration's radarscope.

Terrorism already has a foothold in sub-Saharan Africa. U.S. officials believe that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s organization was behind the embassy car bombings. People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, a South African-based fundamentalist Muslim vigilante group, is believed responsible for the 1998 pipe bombing of the Cape Town Planet Hollywood that killed two and wounded 26.

Islamic terrorists are also suspected of being behind a November 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that took 12 lives. At about the same time, two shoulder-held missiles were fired at an Israeli passenger jet as it took off from an airport in the nearby city of Mombasa.

''People who have hope tend not to be inclined to strap 100 pounds of explosives on their bodies and go into a crowd and blow themselves up,'' Stith said. ''People who have hope are not inclined to lie in wait outside an airport with a missile looking for a plane full of tourists to shoot down.''

Stith hopes the summit, which also will be attended by U.S. business leaders, academics and midlevel administration officials, can focus attention on the problems that have made Africa a fertile breeding ground for terrorists.

Let's hope so. If the awful events of Sept. 11, 2001 have taught us anything, it is that helping other nations attack the root causes of terrorism is far less costly than trying to weed out terrorist organizations once they're in full bloom.

More Africa: US wants "Comrade Bob" out, transitional government in Zimbabwe: senior official*** WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is urging Zimbabwe's neighbors to step up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to hand power to a transitional government to pave the way for new elections, a senior State Department official said. "What we're telling them is there has to be a transitional government in Zimbabwe that leads to a free and fair, internationally supervised election," the official said. "That is the goal, he stole the last one, we can't let that happen again," the official said, referring to a widely condemned election last March in which Mugabe won re-election. "It has to be internationally supervised, open, transparent with an electoral commission that works," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The official would not say whether Washington had gotten positive reactions to its call from any specific country in the region, but said generally the "neighborhood" was increasingly aware of the problems posed by Mugabe's rule. "The neighborhood -- meaning southern Africa -- is realizing that this is not going well, this is breaking bad," the official said. "The food situation is going to get nothing but worse, the economic scene is disastrous." ***

None of the six are poster boys for integrity, which is the attribute most needed to transform African politics.

Ah well, I guess one has to make do with what is at hand.

My recommendation is to give them a demonstration of American firepower and military technology, a Predator demo.

Then send them on a "speaking tour" to their reignng colleagues in Africa with the keepsake videotape.

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