African summit fosters anti-US sentiment

Two of the Bush administration's highest-profile bogeymen, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made appearances at an African Union (AU) summit in the Gambian capitol Banjul last weekend, spouting their trademark virulent anti-US, anti-neocolonial rhetoric to an audience of African heads of state. Among African leaders in attendance were South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Kenya's Mwai Kibaki. Chávez and Ahmadinehad's high profile internationally is a result of their nations' oil resources. Iran is the fourth-largest global oil producer, while Venezuela ranks fifth. Both men are presently embroiled in confrontations with Western powers. Chávez wants Venezuela to have the open, rotating seat on the United Nations Security Council over the Bush administration's vehement opposition. Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, is facing US and European Union pressure to cease its development of nuclear power, which the Iranian leader has insisted will be used only for peaceful purposes despite his notorious claim that he'd like to see Israel wiped off the map. The striking presence of such anti-Western figures, particularly the Iranian leader, raised eyebrows among the large number of foreign envoys observing the summit, diplomats said. One non-aligned ambassador who asked not to be identified said the invitation to Chávez was more understandable than that to Ahmadinejad, since Venezuela has AU observer status. He said the Ahmadinejad invitation was apparently extended unilaterally by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, and provoked criticism from some countries in the 53-member AU. Ahmadinejad's visit was seen as an attempt to bolster Iran in its standoff with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program. The Iranian president has made several high-profile trips to Asia, where he drew crowds of Muslims cheering Tehran for defying the West. He prayed with African Muslims at Banjul's main mosque on June 30, encouraging Gambian Muslims to "come together on the path of Islam to God." Ninety percent of Gambia's 1.6 million people are Muslim, and Islam is a powerful force throughout much of Africa. Citing the example of Venezuela and Bolivia, Chávez urged Africa to seize greater control of its energy resources. He described the low royalty payments made by some foreign oil companies as "robbery." "In Venezuela, we were tired of all our oil going to Count Dracula," said Chávez , referring his government's decision to raise taxes on US oil companies. "Now Venezuela is free and we have recovered control over our oil." Chávez railed against US "hegemony" and Western neoliberal economic policies. "The powerful nations will continue to dictate to us via multinational companies and neoliberal economic policy, and if we cannot resist this neo-colonialism, we will be crushed," said the former paratrooper, praising the African socialism of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. "No to the Pax Americana. No to Superman. No to the American Empire. No to the American way of life. No. That is the way to hell," he said. Africa's abundant natural resources–ranging from precious metals to iron ore and oil–should make it a wealthy continent if it were freed from outside exploitation, Chávez said. "Africa has everything to become a pole of world power in the 21st century. Latin America and the Caribbean are equipped to become another pole," he said. Chávez reacted angrily at the summit to US opposition to Venezuela's bid for one of the rotating seats on the UN Security Council. "If there was real democracy in the world, the US government would be placed under administration because it is a government of the United States that ignores the democracy of its people and ignores democracy in the world: it invades countries, murders and bombs cities," Chávez said. Chávez appealed for African unity with Latin America. "We should march together, Africa and Latin America, brother continents with the same roots.... Only together can we change the direction of the world," he told the opening day of the AU summit, to applause. The Venezuelan leader called for a commission to evaluate joint energy projects between Africa and Latin America, as well as a media venture dubbed Telesur (TeleSouth) and a joint bank Banco del Sur (Bank of the South). Chávez denied he was using the African Union summit to make a bid for the leadership of the developing world. "I am just a foot soldier in this process of integration. Peoples should lead, and we men should do what we can." Ahmadinejad said that Western powers were annoyed by the technological advancement of smaller developing countries. "People see that the bullies of the world get angry because of the technical and scientific advancement of other countries and they wish to keep the countries and nations backward," he told a session of the summit on July 1. Professor Shadrack Gutto, director of African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa, said the presence of Chávez and Ahmadinejad should not be seen as anti-Western. "The AU is not suddenly turning against the West. These visits were not ideologically decided and there isn't necessarily an anti-Western aspect to it," he said. But he added that it was easier for Africa to assert its independence from the West when meeting in the AU than as individual countries, many dependent on Western funding.