MONDAY, 29 MARCH 2004
501 U.S. Defense Official Places Nigeria in Forefront of
African Militaries
(Col. Nelson commends peacekeeping in Liberia, low AIDS rates) (750)
502 Text: Conference on HIV, Malaria and TB Drugs to Be Held in
Botswana
(March 26 State Department media note) (400)
*AEF501 03/26/2004
U.S. Defense Official Places Nigeria in Forefront of African Militaries
(Col. Nelson commends peacekeeping in Liberia, low AIDS rates) (750)
By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- U.S. Army Colonel Victor Nelson recently had high praise for the Nigerian military, calling it a force for stability that has earned a reputation as one of the most capable armed forces in Africa.
Nigeria's military, although underfunded, has met some extremely tough peacekeeping challenges while confronting the problem of HIV/AIDS in its ranks, Nelson told the Washington File during a March 23 interview in his Pentagon office.
On the peacekeeping front, the U.S. colonel, who commanded troops in the first Gulf War, said a battalion of the Nigerian 26th Infantry Regiment (Sokoto) "did a very fine job" as part of the recent U.N. peacekeeping mission in Liberia. The Nigerian battalion commander, who benefited from professional training in U.S. Infantry, Ranger and Airborne schools, is "as good as any we've got, and that battalion is as good as you'll find in Africa," he said.
The Nigerian military also is doing a good job battling HIV/AIDS, Nelson said, and has managed to hold down infections to between 6 and 10 percent of its troops, compared to the militaries of other African nations like Botswana and South Africa, whose infection rates range from 20 to 40 percent. (The U.S. government currently helps fund an 8 million Naira prevention program with the Nigerian Armed Forces Program on HIV/AIDS [AFPAC].)
Nelson, who now runs West Africa programs for the Pentagon's Office of International Security Affairs, was formerly U.S. defense attaché for three years in Abuja, where he was instrumental in building cooperation between the Nigerian military and the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) during the African nation's transition from military dictatorship to democracy. In that role, he helped arrange U.S.-Nigerian military partnerships like Operation Focus Relief (OFR), the 2001 training program that prepared several Nigerian battalions for service in Sierra Leone.
Nelson mentioned another U.S.-African military partnership called the Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI), that involves Mali, Chad, Niger and Mauritania. The State Department-administered program helped train and equip the countries' security forces, and troops from Chad, Niger and Mali recently concluded a successful operation against an Algeria-based terrorist group operating in the Sahel.
PSI, part of an overall U.S. policy against global terrorism, is meant to help Africans cooperate at the regional and subregional levels to secure their borders. It seems to be succeeding and fostering greater cooperation with Maghreb countries like Algeria, he added.
The subject of Nigeria arose after Nelson was asked for his views on a recent commentary in the Washington Times entitled "Al Qaeda into Africa," whose author warned that Nigeria "is now on the verge of becoming a failed state. It is breaking apart along ethnic and religious fault lines."
Nelson rebutted the statement, saying: "I do not believe Nigeria is on the verge of becoming a failed state. They have too much oil wealth to be a failed state." Noting that public violence in Nigeria, whether based on religion, politics or ethnicity, gets high visibility from a vibrant and free press, he added: "We have to remember Nigeria is a huge country, with 133 million people, and so on any one day there is something going on. The thing to watch for is whether or not the security forces -- the police and army -- are able to maintain control, so then the government is not threatened. And that is the case today."
As for its relations with the United States, Nigeria "has been very supportive of American foreign policy," Nelson said. "Nigeria sends peacekeepers when we request it do so, and the example of Liberia is that they send some very good peacekeepers. It even took a warlord, [Liberia's] Charles Taylor, so that we could help advance the cause of peace in the subregion. Nigeria has signed Article 98 [impunity agreements seeking to shield U.S. peacekeepers from prosecution by the International Criminal Court] because we requested it.
"Sure, Nigeria has social problems," Nelson said, "but most countries do. The important point is that Nigeria is a force for stability in the region and a friend of the United States in many ways. Its military is the fifth largest in Africa and is a regional superpower. Although it doesn't receive much credit, it provides security for the nation and sends forces for peacekeeping in the subregion."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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*AEF502 03/26/2004
Text: Conference on HIV, Malaria and TB Drugs to Be Held in Botswana
(March 26 State Department media note) (400)
A conference on the evaluation of certain HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria medications will be held in Gaborone, Botswana, March 29-30, the U.S. State Department announced March 26 in a note to the media.
Following is the text of the announcement:
(begin text)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
March 26, 2004
MEDIA NOTE
Conference to Develop Safety, Efficacy, and Quality Principles
for Fixed-Dose-Combination Drugs (FDCs)
A conference will be held on March 29-30, 2004 in Gaborone, Botswana in a step forward in the continuing global struggle against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The purpose of the meeting is an attempt for the drug regulatory agencies of many nations and key international organizations to develop common principles to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and quality of fixed-dose-combination medications (FDCs) for use treating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
Co-sponsors of the conference are the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS, the World Health Organization, the Southern African Development Community, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the co-sponsors and other collaborating organizations is to develop a set of commonly agreed-upon principles - based on current knowledge - which address the quality, safety, and efficacy of FDC therapy for the three diseases.
Representatives of the co-sponsors and other expert advisors met in Cape Town, South Africa this February to develop the first draft of the scientific and technical principles. The first draft of the Principles Document is available at http://www.globalhealth.gov/fdc.shtml. Those unable to attend the meeting should e-mail their comments on the draft Principles to aborlo@s-3.com.
Conference attendees will include government officials representing drug regulatory agencies from various nations, public health leaders, representatives of the research-based and generic pharmaceutical industry, health care providers, patient groups, academia and members of non-governmental organizations concerned with the care and treatment of these three diseases.
The Principles Document is not intended to address specific quality issues, or to develop clinical, therapeutic, or regulatory guidelines. The document will provide scientific and technical principles to consider when developing, evaluating, and/or considering FDCs for application in treatment programs.
The meeting is being held in the Gaborone Sun Hotel, in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. For more information go to http://www.globalhealth.gov/fdc.shtml.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of
State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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