Transcript: Powell Q & A on Plane en route to Bamako, Mali, May 22

24 May 2001

Transcript: Powell Q & A on Plane en route to Bamako, Mali, May 22

Secretary of state responds to reporters' questions

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell took questions from reporters May 22 aboard a U.S. aircraft en route to Bamako, Mali.

Asked about his feelings as the first black secretary of state traveling to Africa, Powell noted that there had been many "firsts" in his career, saying he was pleased to be able to represent U.S. foreign policy under President Bush and to show that the president has a deep interest in Africa.

"We realize the importance of the continent, the opportunities of the continent, and especially the problems that the continent is facing," Powell said. "So this gives me a chance to show that interest by going, and also get a firsthand look."

In taking a look at the difficulties in Africa, Powell said, he will not be going "as a black man looking at a black problem, but as a secretary of state of the United States looking at a human problem."

However, as an African-American visiting Africa, he added, "there is an emotional connection, and I always feel it when I am in Africa."

Responding to a question, Powell said that the training of Nigerian peacekeepers to aid in addressing the conflict in Sierra Leone will continue, noting that "the president is supportive of the focused relief effort that is under way to train the remaining Nigerian battalions."

Asked about U.S. contributions to health funding, Powell noted that the United States has given more in funding to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa than any other country or group of countries. "We have doubled funding for HIV/AIDS in Africa in the last three years, over two administrations," he said, adding, "I think there is great receptivity up on the Hill for even more in the future."

Upon arrival in Mali, Powell planned to meet with President Alpha Oumar Konare, tour a malaria research center, meet with the diplomatic and American communities, and review Malian troops undergoing crisis response training before departing Bamako for Pretoria, South Africa, May 24.

Following is the transcript of the question-and-answer session, released on May 23:

(begin transcript)

Remarks to the Press Aboard Aircraft en Route to Bamako, Mali

Secretary Colin L. Powell
Remarks to the Press
Bamako, Mali
May 22, 2001

SECRETARY POWELL: Good evening, everyone. How are you? Thank you for joining me on this trip. I'm ready for your questions. We'll keep it short for this flight.

QUESTION: As the first African-American Secretary of State, what does this trip mean to you personally? And secondly, why are you going to Africa now, before you go to China, Russia, Latin America, Europe, these places where past Secretaries of State have gone first?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well obviously I'm (inaudible) by the fact that I am the first African-American Secretary of State to visit Africa. I was also the first African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I'm trying to think if I was the first African-American National Security Advisor, but I didn't go to Africa as National Security Advisor. But I am pleased to be able to represent the foreign policy of the United States under the Bush administration to Africa to show that we have an interest in Africa, that the President has a deep interest in Africa. We realize the importance of the continent, the opportunities of the continent, and especially the problems that the continent is facing. So this gives me a chance to show that interest by going, and also get a firsthand look.

It's been some years since I've been here. I helped supervise the Nigerian elections two years ago with President Carter. I was the deputy election commissioner for him through the Democratic National Institute. A bit of trivia, I was also the deputy for the Republican National Institute from the days when I was (inaudible) in my politics. So it gives me a chance to learn on the ground what's really going on and what it looks like. We picked these particular countries because, one, they are in different parts of the continent.

Mali is a country that has been a successful democracy, a democracy that moved back into it even before economic development had taken place, where often the reverse -- economic development leads to democracy. In this case, it is the other way around. That was interesting and they are very proud of it, and they have an election coming up where they will peacefully hand over power. Everything seems to be rather stable.

South Africa, of course, is the most important country in the region, and I am looking forward to seeing President Mbeki. I do know him. I was last in South Africa for President Mandela's inauguration in 1994 as part of Vice President Gore's delegation representing America. I will never forget that particular moment.

Then, up to Kenya where we have another nation in transition getting ready for an election next year. That is a little less settled, a little less sure as to what might happen. And with parliamentary elections coming, I hope will be open and give the people a chance to reflect through the ballot box what kind of parliament they want and get themselves a selection next year, for president.

And then Uganda, which I'm interested in for two reasons. One, the role that it has been playing in the Congo. I have been involved with President Kabila and President Kagame in trying to improve the situation in the Congo. Uganda is also a part of that. I also want to see firsthand how they have dealt, rather successfully, with the problem of HIV/AIDS. Through their education programs and through their prevention programs, I think, is really at the heart of the solution to HIV/AIDS. We have got to find a cure. We have got to do treatment. But more important than all of that, is prevention in the first place. And they have succeeded in bringing their rate down significantly.

So it is a combination of political issues, strategic issues, economic issues, and health issues which undergird so much of it. And in Mali we will also see a malaria research institute being run by our NIH, with the Malian (inaudible). So it should make for an interesting trip.

I will be going to Latin America next weekend for the OAS Summit with a brief visit to Costa Rica, and I've been to Mexico and Canada, so we have dealt with our hemisphere pretty well. And in due course I will get to Asia. In fact, as you know, I have a trip to Asia coming up in July at the latest. I may go before then, but certainly in July to Vietnam. And I've spent a lot of time with Russians recently so I will get to Moscow in due course.

QUESTION: (inaudible) African-American male, you are going into a country that's in such bad shape. I know there is a lot of good happening. I know that democracy is happening in certain places. But as an African-American male, when you go to countries like this, and you see particularly the HIV/AIDS problem, how do you feel personally? I know you haven't seen it yet.

SECRETARY POWELL: I think there is a particular connection. When Alma and I visited together, for the first time when I was chairman and we went to Senegal and Sierra Leone, we visited the places where slaves were exported from Senegal right at Sierra Leone -- especially in Sierra Leone, out in the bay. If you have ever been out on the island and seen those old plantation houses and places that were holding pens, and then to see the actual transfer prisons before they put them on the ships. And to know that -- even though I came from Jamaica, and Alma came from, we don't know where exactly -- but to know that somewhere back there a few generations, our relatives came through there, our ancestors came through there, mine via the West Indies to the United States and Alma's more directly. But to know that there is a connection that we thought we would never ever (inaudible). But it was rather meaningful for us.

So going back this time I'm going back not to see it as a black problem and as a black man looking at a black problem, but as a Secretary of State of the United States looking at a human problem. But there will be an emotional twinge to it all. Knowing that this is where my folks came from, just like other folks had their folks come from England or Scotland or Wales or France or somewhere else. So there is an emotional connection, and I always feel it when I am in Africa.

QUESTION: Don Rumsfeld has sounded like (inaudible) that perhaps stopping some of the programs of peacekeeping, training African troops to go into Sierra Leone for instance. Do you think that is a possibility and how would you feel about that?

SECRETARY POWELL: The President is supportive of the focussed relief effort that is under way to train the remaining Nigerian battalions. Secretary Rumsfeld is always looking for opportunities to back off on some of the overseas commitments we have, and that's his job. The President wants to do that. But we have to balance it against our responsibilities. Also, we have to balance it on the one hand with the United States wishing to do not quite as much overseas -- we'll always be overseas, but not quite as much -- and asking others to do more.

When we have the capability to help others do more, especially in Africa where there are units, there are nations willing to commit those units to peacekeeping and peacemaking operations, we have something of an obligation to support that effort. We'll always be looking for that right balance, so there really is no disconnect between Don always trying to make sure it is the right mission and an important mission and worth our investing in it, and the State Department sort of anxious to move our foreign policy along by training these guys in peacekeeping units. So we're always tugging at this; but it is not a fight, just trying to find the right balance between getting too committed and not getting committed enough.

QUESTION: But it's not something you'd want to see disappear?

SECRETARY POWELL: To see stopped? No, I support the training and the President specifically told President Obasanjo when he was in the Oval Office a couple of weeks ago that he would continue to furnish that training.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, sort of along those lines, the previous Administration twice sent troops to Africa to help with large-scale humanitarian relief, once when you were Chairman to Somalia and also to Rwanda --

SECRETARY POWELL: The Administration before.

QUESTION: Clinton continued that Somalia effort. Would this Administration do likewise if called upon? Does our interest in Africa extend to large-scale humanitarian relief?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think we would have to examine the situation. We have activities in Africa, and Admiral Doran who is here with me can probably talk to you about that in the course of our trip. But I don't really see any missions coming along where I can anticipate a need for or see a need for US combat troops. I can't rule out hypotheticals, but I don't see anything on the horizon that would suggest a need for US troops, especially when other troops are available and can be made ready for these kinds of missions. I mean, in Sierra Leone the United Nations is now building up to 17,500 troops, and aside from just a few liaison and training-type people we have there, there's no need for US combat troops.

QUESTION: What do you see in terms of Sudan? Is there a new way of looking at Sudan and getting more humanitarian aid there?

SECRETARY POWELL: We have quite a bit of humanitarian aid going to Sudan, and we just started providing relief supplies to the north. Andrew Natsios is on the trip with us, whom I swore in earlier today as the new Administration of AID and is now also the designated Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sudan. In the very near future the President will be appointing or I'll be appointing a new overall coordinator for our political and other efforts to try to bring some peace to that very, very troubled country to see if we can help them along.

So yes, I would expect that our interest in Sudan will remain high, and our efforts to solve the problems in Sudan, humanitarian, political, economic and otherwise, will also increase.

QUESTION: Will you be addressing that on this trip when you're in Kenya, for instance?

SECRETARY POWELL: I expect that in Kenya and Uganda I'll have a chance to talk about it.

QUESTION: The President recently announced $200 million for the Global Health Fund. Do you feel that's enough money, and do you think that - to what degree does it demonstrate US leadership that you actually go to Africa?

SECRETARY POWELL: The question is the $200 million for the Global Fund. I think it is a very, very creditable start. It was an idea that we worked on rather quickly, came up with a concept, Secretary Thompson and I and our staffs, working together with the United Nations and others. Two hundred million dollars is not an insignificant amount of money on top of all of the other funding that we have going to HIV/AIDS, both in the State Department and especially in HHS.

It isn't just a one-time contribution of $200 million and that's the end of it. We're going to try to do more in the years ahead. It is a trust fund, not just an appropriation that gets spent out gone. We will use this as seed money to encourage other countries to do likewise and to get the private sector involved, the business sector involved, non-profits involved, and hopefully grow the fund because the need is great. Anywhere from 5 to 7 billion dollars is the range of money people talk about for sub-Saharan Africa. But it's not all coming out of that trust fund when it is built up. There are other monies going in toward that 5 to 7 billion dollars, but we're still way short of it.

I don't think America has anything to apologize about. We are giving so much more to this problem than any other country or group of countries that we should be very proud of what we have done and be energized to try to do even more. We have doubled funding for HIV/AIDS in Africa in the last three years, over two Administrations. I think there is great receptivity up on the Hill for even more in the future.

QUESTION: Did you have to overcome resistance to some of the more budget-minded people in the Administration?

SECRETARY POWELL: For any new program that has not been previously appropriated for, you do have to have a discussion with your colleagues in the Administration, and especially in OMB. But in this instance we found opportunities to reprogram from various accounts; OMB was very supportive. Mitch Daniel, the Director of OMB, and Sean O'Keefe, the Deputy Director, came to the meeting where we decided it and got a recommendation ready for the President to make a final decision. OMB was very supportive throughout this process. It's always a tussle when you're looking for money.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

SECRETARY POWELL: We'll roll it to the next budget cycle, but we had to get started now and the President's budget had already been submitted, so we had to find from existing accounts and re-prioritize and reprogram it and amended it into these accounts.

QUESTION: In South Africa you are going to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe. Are you considering any further sanctions or pressures on Zimbabwe as the situation continues to deteriorate?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm troubled by the situation and I'd like to hear President Mbeki's assessment, and I will have my own assessment to present to him. But I'm not carrying in my pocket a list of additional sanctions or anything of that nature. I'm here to speak to the leaders in the region, speak out for democracy and for the free enterprise system and America's role in Africa. But I do not have a list of additional sanctions in my pocket.

Okay?

QUESTION: Thank you.

[End]

Released on May 23, 2001

(end transcript)