EUA - The New York Times
Título: Clinton Seeks South African Support on Zimbabwe
Data: 08/08/2009
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
CULLINAN, South Africa — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to rebuild American relations with South Africa on Friday after years of frustration over the nation’s approach to issues like AIDS and the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Promising to “broaden and deepen” American ties to South Africa, the continent’s economic and political powerhouse, she said the two countries would “work together to build a global architecture of cooperation.”
But she also made clear her disapproval of the nation’s past policies on AIDS, which have been widely criticized as lagging behind science and allowing the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of people through government inaction.
“We have to make up for lost time,” she said at an American-financed AIDS clinic here.
South Africa is stop No. 2 on Mrs. Clinton’s seven-nation tour of Africa, and a big part of her visit here seems to be about mending fences. South Africa’s previous president, Thabo Mbeki, questioned the link between H.I.V. and AIDS, which deeply discouraged American officials who saw his nation as a crucial battleground over the disease. Nearly one out of five South African adults is H.I.V. positive.
Mr. Mbeki also refused to take a hard line against Zimbabwe, South Africa’s neighbor, which has sunk into despair under the autocratic rule of its president, Robert Mugabe. Beyond that, the United States has been irked by South Africa’s attempts to tone down or prevent United Nations action against Myanmar, a notorious human rights violator.
The American-South Africa “relationship was fraught with far more difficulty than the previous administration was willing to acknowledge,” said an aide to Mrs. Clinton, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We had little access and even less influence.”
But with new administrations in both South Africa and the United States, there seemed to be a new spirit of cooperation on Friday, or at least a lot of talk about it. Mrs. Clinton called South Africa the “economic anchor of Africa” and praised the nation’s strong financial sector, which she said had mostly escaped the credit crunch that plagued much of the rest of the world. “Frankly, we could learn a lot from your example,” Mrs. Clinton said at a business leader luncheon.
But the South Africans were vague about exactly what they might do differently after her visit. South Africa’s foreign minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said, “We promised to continue to work with the people of Zimbabwe to implement the agreement that they signed,” referring to an awkward power-sharing agreement Mr. Mugabe struck with Zimbabwe’s opposition after a bloody election season last year.
And compared with Kenya, where thousands of people lined the street just to catch a glimpse of Mrs. Clinton ducking into her armored Chrysler, the public reaction to her arrival in South Africa was decidedly cooler.
It was hard to find stories about the visit in local newspapers, and at the business luncheon where she spoke, there were dozens of empty seats. Mrs. Clinton’s aides also confided that there were complications trying to arrange a meeting with South Africa’s new president, Jacob Zuma. The two are scheduled to meet Saturday, but the Clinton entourage will have to detour several hundred miles to Durban, on the Atlantic Coast, to see him.
On Friday morning, Mrs. Clinton visited the father figure of post-apartheid South Africa and a hero across the world, Nelson Mandela. It was not so much an official act as a time to see an old friend. Mr. Mandela, 91, is no longer actively engaged in African affairs, as he was during Bill Clinton’s presidency, when he and the Clintons grew close. According to a person who witnessed the visit, he was frail and quiet as Mrs. Clinton chatted with him, holding his hand.
As the sun was sinking and the hills were darkening, Mrs. Clinton stood shoulder to shoulder with two patients at the AIDS clinic here. “When I first found out my status, I felt my world was collapsing on top of me,” said Simangele Ncube. “But look at me today. I stand in front of you a beautiful woman. The virus is not written in my face. But I am H.I.V. positive.”
Mrs. Clinton seemed almost too moved to speak and nodded solemnly
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