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Security Council U.S. Turns Spotlight On Africa Gore to Chair U.N. Session on AIDS
By Colum Lynch
January 6, 2000
Washington PostUnited Nations, Jan. 5-Vice President Gore will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday on the AIDS crisis in Africa as the Clinton administration begins a month-long effort to focus attention on African problems, U.S. Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke said today. The United States, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member Security Council, has designated January as the "month of Africa" to spotlight wars, epidemics and economic needs--and to try to convince skeptical Africans that wealthy Western nations really do care about them.
Gore is scheduled to preside over a debate on the impact of the AIDS epidemic, the first time that the council has ever focused on a health issue. The vice president also will make a statement on Washington's AIDS policy for Africa, Holbrooke said. Later in the month, former South African president Nelson Mandela will speak about Burundi, a Central African nation plagued by ethnic violence between its Tutsi-led government and Hutu majority.
Holbrooke said he also has asked Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to chair a Jan. 24 meeting of African heads of state who are pressing for the United Nations to send peacekeepers to Congo. He said Albright, who is engaged in U.S.-sponsored talks between Syria and Israel, will come if her schedule permits.
Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an outspoken critic of the U.N. bureaucracy, also has agreed to meet with council members Jan. 20, Holbrooke said.
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