South Africa

South Africa's human rights record is not perfect, but it has acted as goad for improvement in other countries across the continent. Clinton's stop here offers an opportunity to focus on some larger regional issues. Africa is the region of the world most heavily infested with landmines. The U.S. has actually supplied many of the millions of mines still in the ground in Africa, particularly in South Africa's neighbors of Angola and Mozambique. All six of the nations Clinton is visiting have signed the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, as have 32 other African nations (and 124 nations globally), but the U.S. government has refused to sign.

Question: Have Clinton's interlocutors in Africa raised the issue of landmines? Question: South Africa has been one of the world's strongest supporters of an International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The U.S., meanwhile, wants to let individual governments control the court's docket, which would weaken the court significantly (see Rwanda above). Did U.S. and South African officials discuss the ICC, and if so, who persuaded whom?

Question: Given the role that the U.S. and South Africa (under the apartheid regime) played in supporting Jonas Savimbi and fomenting war in Angola, what are both countries doing now to help ensure the peace? What are both countries doing about sanctions-busters who continue to supply arms to Savimbi's UNITA?

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