October 14, 1999

Dear Secretary Albright:

Human Rights Watch welcomes your forthcoming trip to Africa, as well as the efforts you have made over the past several years to visit the continent and to address issues of importance there. We are writing to you to urge you to use this trip to emphasize the importance that the U.S. government attaches to respect for human rights in Africa. Ultimately, no sustainable economic development or regional security arrangements can be effective where fundamental human rights are violated with impunity. The ongoing cycles of violence and impunity in the Great Lakes dramatically highlight this problem, just as the transition in Nigeria offers hope that respect for human rights will contribute to stability and economic progress.

The U.S. has a crucial role to play in Africa, and President Clinton's historic trip last year raised hopes for a new era in U.S. relations with Africa. However, 1999 has been a sobering year for U.S. policy. The international response to Kosovo galvanized the attention of high-level policy makers and overshadowed the dire conflicts raging in Africa. The deepening complexity of many key crises furthered the marginalization of Africa. The Clinton administration's effort to launch a new Africa policy—aimed at bringing Africa into the world economy, symbolized by a partnership with Africa's "new leaders" and crowned by President Clinton's historic visit to the continent—unraveled as these very leaders descended into armed conflict with each other.

Your visit provides the opportunity to correct many of the perceptions and misconceptions about U.S. policy toward Africa, especially in the wake of Kosovo and East Timor. For example, a focus on accountability for atrocities in Sierra Leone would signal to those responsible for such abuses throughout the continent that the U.S. is committed to justice for crimes against humanity in Africa as well as elsewhere in the world. In addition, a strong expression of support for efforts of civil society to promote human rights would be extremely important. The U.S. should consider developing a mechanism by which attacks on civil society activists are regularly monitored and protested, and instruct U.S. embassies to work with other international actors to create a network to protect activists in danger. Effective use of public diplomacy, which was so evident during President Clinton's visit, should be continued to ensure that the concerns of U.S. policy are transmitted to a wide audience. This strategy implies more public and consistent condemnation of human rights violations, which too often are relegated to private meetings.

We welcome the high-level attention that your administration has devoted to the continent, reflected in the many trips made by cabinet-level officials and by the ministerial meeting in March. But again, these missions should carry the message that respect for human rights is central to U.S. policy and essential for sustainable development, not simply focus on increasing and facilitating U.S. trade. Publicly and privately, these missions should make clear that U.S. aid programs and trade benefits will be contingent upon respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The following are specific recommendations for the countries you will be visiting.

Nigeria

The inauguration on May 29 of the first civilian government for 16 years in Nigeria offers a real hope that the country can take its rightful place as a leader of the African continent and that its citizens can enjoy the respect for human rights to which they are entitled. Nevertheless, serious concerns remain, including defects in the electoral process and the lack of a democratically drafted constitution, as well as the heritage of military rule; in particular, ongoing security force abuses. The U.S. government can play an important role in supporting legal and practical reforms by the Nigerian government through technical assistance and diplomatic pressure, and by assisting civil society organizations working towards increased respect for human rights. Any U.S. military assistance to Nigeria should be carefully tailored to ensure that it cannot be used to benefit officers who have been responsible for human rights violations or in situations where human rights violations are likely. The U.S. should also express its concern about recent incidents in which soldiers have fired indiscriminately on civilians in the oil producing regions and make clear to the Nigerian government that any attempt to resolve the crisis in the Niger Delta, where there is serious discontent at the terms of oil production, in a way that does not respect the rights of those who live in the oil producing regions is unacceptable. Equally, the administration should insist to the U.S. oil companies working in Nigeria that they must play their part in ensuring that oil production does not continue only due to the threat or actual use of force against those who protest their activities.

Sierra Leone

The U.S. has played a leading role in the international community in assisting the peace process in Sierra Leone. Yet the commitment to justice shown to Sierra Leone falls far short of that shown to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, especially Kosovo and East Timor, even though the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone match or surpass anything seen in these crises. While the first priority for Sierra Leone is to ensure that the fragile peace process is sustained, and therefore that a credible U.N. peacekeeping force be deployed, Human Rights Watch also believes that for long term peace to be secured the question of impunity for human rights violations must be addressed. We therefore urge you to support the creation and operation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a strong investigation component, as required by the Lomé accord. In addition, we urge support for the work of Bethuel Abdu Kiplagat, appointed by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to explore the possibilities for establishing an international commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Sierra Leone. We also urge you to back a stronger mandate for a UN peacekeeping force, which would include Chapter VII powers authorizing them to use force to protect civilians.

We hope that you will use your meeting with Foday Sankoh, the leader of the Revolutionary United Front who has now joined the government, to urge him to release thousands of abductees. At least 2,871 children have been missing since the rebels' January offensive on Freetown. The rebels are still using hundreds of girls and women as sexual partners whom they have pledged to release.

The management of the country's diamond resources will be critical for the success of the peace process. The Lome agreement set up a Commission for the Management of Strategic Resources, National Reconstruction and Development (CMRRD), which is to be headed by Foday Sankoh. We urge the U.S. to work with the Sierra Leonean government to establish a mechanism for international monitoring of this commission. Given the well-known link between diamonds and arms purchases in Sierra Leone, effective and transparent control of the diamond resources is essential. In this regard, the U.S. should continue to notify neighboring governments, especially Liberia, that its assistance with the peace process as well as with ending arms flows to Sierra Leone will be a key to future U.S. assistance.

Kenya

Kenya remains in a state of worsening political and economic crisis as the government continues to stall on promises of reform that would bring greater democratization. While some cosmetic changes have been made by the government of President Daniel arap Moi, little or no genuine progress has been achieved in diminishing the absolute power enjoyed by the executive branch. Although human rights concerns remain on the U.S. agenda, trade and economic concerns as well as international terrorism have increasingly taken precedence over human rights. As other donors, the U.S. has focused its attention on Kenya's worsening economic situation and its dismal record on corruption. Since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998, the U.S. has also brought strong pressure to bear on the Kenyan government to address the unimpeded flow of arms and suspect foreign nationals into Kenya. One negative offshoot of this valid security concern, has been growing indiscriminate police harassment of migrants and refugees in Kenya.

Human rights concerns in Kenya include the need for greater independence of the judiciary and accountability for police brutality. Even more disturbing is the growing reliance on state-sponsored gangs to attack government critics or ethnic groups perceived to support the opposition. State-sponsored political violence since 1991 against select ethnic groups has resulted in the displacement of some 400,000 people. The authorities have consistently failed to provide adequate security to those under threat or to hold those responsible for the violence accountable. Although a wide array of independent and outspoken nongovernmental groups and newspapers are able to publish relatively freely, the independent media and the human rights community is not exempt from retaliation.

We urge you to address the fundamental rights issues at the heart of Kenya's political and economic crisis. Although corruption and anti-terrorism are important issues, without stronger pressure being brought to bear on President Moi's government to strengthen accountability and the rule of law in Kenya, it is unlikely that the economic reform and national security issues that the U.S. seeks to promote will be fully implemented.

Sudan

During your stop-over in Kenya, we understand that you will be devoting some time to Sudan. When you meet with Kenyan and relief officials, and possibly rebel representatives of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), two items are of particular importance. First, regarding peace and reconciliation: the People-to-People process, sponsored by the New Sudan Council of Churches, holds great hope for improving human rights in southern Sudan by reconciling ethnic differences and stopping the fighting among southerners, while setting up machinery to enforce human rights and the rule of law. This process deserves your encouragement. The second issue involves the SPLA diversion of food. Congress is considering legislation that would authorize the president to give food aid to the armed opposition. Relief officials would have opinions on that and would know about SPLA admissions of diversion of as much as 30 percent of the food during the 1998 famine. These admissions were made at a meeting with the U.N. and nongovernment organizations in May 1999 in Mapel, Bahr El Ghazal, Sudan.

Tanzania

Arusha, Tanzania, is the seat of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which was created to try the authors of the 1994 genocide. The US government has made prevention of further genocide and war crimes in Central Africa a cornerstone of its policy. Although not all war criminals in the region can be tried, the important leaders on all sides who decided on slaughter of civilians as a strategy must be prosecuted, wherever the crime was committed. The accumulation of unprosecuted crimes in combination with an already functioning international tribunal offers policy makers a unique opportunity to establish an even-handed justice. In order to do so, the mandate of the ICTR must be expanded to enable it to prosecute crimes against humanity in the DRC and Burundi and, like the ICTY, it must be enabled to prosecute crimes on an ongoing basis until the Security Council deems the conflict in the region no longer a threat to international peace. Accountability for these abuses is critical to ending impunity in the region, just as long-term stability is inconceivable while they continue.

We hope that you will use the opportunities presented by your trip to speak out about the critical human rights issues facing the continent. Thank you for your attention to these important matters.