Powell walks elephant path in African forest
Date: 09-Sep-02
Country: GABON
Author: Jonathan Wright
The violent world outside intruded on the tranquillity of his stroll in Gabon when an aide, alerted by mobile telephone, whispered in his ear that someone had tried to assassinate Afghan President and U.S. ally Hamid Karzai.
Powell was visiting the Pongara national park, just south of the Gabonese capital Libreville, one of a network of 12 new parks declared by President Omar Bongo as part of a Congo Basin Forest Initiative, which Washington is helping to finance.
He is on his way home from heading the U.S. delegation on the last day of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which closed in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
During the walk, Powell and a small group of aides received a briefing from Michael Fay, a biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, who tried in vain to find some elephant dung to show that the animals were recently in the area.
"If President (George W.) Bush asks me, I'll tell him the high point of my trip was not the summit in Johannesburg. It was my walk in the forest with Michael," he told a round-table discussion at an eco-tourist village on the beach nearby.
"I am so proud to be Secretary of State of the United States here today and to be a small part of this," he added.
The United States is offering $53 million over four years to the project, which is meant to protect the world's second largest equatorial rainforest from encroachment by loggers, farmers and people hunting for meat.
"For the United States, this is money well spent. We didn't ask for anything in return. There is no geopolitical angle. We do it because it is the right thing to do," Powell said.
The 12 new parks cover 10 percent of the territory of Gabon, a relatively wealthy central African country which has lived off oil revenues for years but now faces dwindling production.
Other countries in the region - Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo - are also partners in the Congo Basin Forest Initiative.
More money is coming from the European Union, individual European countries, South Africa and a consortium of non-governmental conservation groups.
Fay told Powell the Pongara park held elephant, buffalo, wild pig, many monkeys and duikers - small antelopes.
Powell said it reminded him of the central highlands of Vietnam, close to the Laotian border, which he saw as a soldier during the Vietnam War.
Towards the end of the walk, an aide received a telephone call from a U.S. operations centre with news of the attempt to kill Karzai. Other calls followed and one aide caught up with Powell and Fay on the beach to pass on the report.
Powell nodded gravely.
Later last week, Powell will have talks over dinner with Bongo, one of Africa's longest-serving rulers.
A senior State Department official noted that Bongo invited opposition party members into his cabinet recently, opening up the political system a fraction.
"It's a first step, but a welcome first step," the official said.
