Posted on 05/02/2002 9:59:10 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials are scrambling to cope with what could become the worst humanitarian crisis since President Bush took office: a potentially catastrophic famine in drought-stricken southern Africa that threatens 5 million people with starvation.''What's unfolding in southern Africa is very big,'' Roger Winter, the assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development's humanitarian assistance bureau, said in an interview Tuesday.
''Even though we don't have in hand all the information we need, we have in hand enough to know that we have to respond big-time,'' Winter said.
The looming disaster also could have political ramifications for Bush. For many foreign aid advocates, how aggressively his administration responds will provide the first practical test of whether Bush will keep his word to boost U.S. assistance for needy countries.
Bush's commitment this year to spend as much as $10 billion more on U.S. developmental aid by 2005 -- roughly double current spending -- was praised by aid advocates. But activists want to see how the administration reacts to a real crisis.
''People have been encouraged by a lot of the speeches and rhetoric that Bush and people around him have used to talk about poor and hungry people,'' said Tom Freedman, an adviser to President Clinton who now is a visiting fellow at Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank.
''Now we have a concrete case. And there's a lot of folks who have their fingers crossed that the action will live up to the rhetoric,'' Freedman said.
Judith Lewis, regional director of the United Nations World Food Program, said in a telephone interview from Kampala, Uganda, that she had just returned from a tour of the afflicted region, where relief efforts are centering on food shortages caused by a severe drought in six countries: Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The United Nations feeds 2.6 million of the 54 million people in those countries. Lewis said she believes the aid will have to at least double because of food shortages already being felt.
Lewis said the famine in the region is ''certainly the worst we've seen since 1992,'' when a drought left 18 million people without sufficient food. Lewis said she hopes the world will not lose sight of the crisis because of the war on terrorism. ''We just have to get people to turn back to Africa because there are a lot of competing crises,'' she said.
Experts say conditions are particularly bad in Malawi, with Zambia and Zimbabwe close behind. Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster Tuesday.
U.S. officials blame President Robert Mugabe as much as the drought for food shortages in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe recently won a questionable re-election that has plunged the country into chaos.
U.N. teams are still conducting a survey of the region, and Lewis said a plan of action won't be proposed until early June.
But U.S. officials said they already are responding, even in Zimbabwe, despite their unhappiness with Mugabe. Winter said the Pentagon, State Department, CIA and other agencies met April 11, and reports on the famine have gone to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Bush.
Winter said Washington is providing food assistance -- a shipment of 35,000 metric tons is on the way and 40,000 metric tons are ready for shipment. That's enough to feed approximately 375,000 people for a year.
''President Bush has said there will be no famines on his watch,'' Winter said. ''We take that very seriously.''
Aid groups point out that the famine is a natural disaster, which Bush's pledge did not address. He promised new foreign aid for long-term poverty reductions in countries that show progress and spend the money responsibly.
But aid advocates say more money is needed to avert short-term crises, such as famines, if some struggling countries are ever able to achieve long-term gains.
''The U.S emergency response frequently is generous, and we hope it will be here because there can't be long-term development for people who are in the middle of a famine,'' said Bill O'Keefe, government relations director for Catholic Relief Services.
Bush's actions on the famine also will be seen as a pivotal factor in how high Africa ranks on his foreign policy agenda.
Though last year's terrorist attacks and the resulting war in Afghanistan have diverted attention from U.S. policy on Africa, activists say they are generally pleased with Bush's approach. Both Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill have visited the continent.
''I give them reasonable marks . . . on a scale of one to 10, maybe a six or seven,'' said Melvin Foote, president of the advocacy group Constituency for Africa.''
Foote said Jendayi Frazier, the Africa specialist on Bush's National Security Council, recently told the group that Bush plans to visit Africa next year.
I'm with you, give us back OUR MONEY
This makes me sick. It's our money -- it should go to our people, not some third world AIDS ridden, uncivilized, prejudiced country. Let 'em starve...maybe they will stop all of their BS and learn to get food on their own.
In Africa people are an expense, not an asset. One does not insure an expense.
It should be kept by those who earn it.
Maybe they can call it the "Free Sandwiches for Murderous Dictators" program.
I expected no less from Bush.
you'd be talking about your president......
Right. Our people who earned it, but also to help the needy here in our own country...I'm not talking about fedgov handouts here - but there is a place for helping the poor get on their feet, educating (not indoctrinating) people, providing services for the incapacitated and elderly....etc.
''Even though we don't have in hand all the information we need, we have in hand enough to know that we have to respond big-time,'' Winter said.
Ofcourse the Bush Administration is foolishly going to pour Billions of OUR tax dollars into the bottomless pit of Africa. Until Africa abandons its anti-white pro-communist policies the suffering will be never ending.
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