The Obama administration is currently reviewing its policy against piracy
The United States has pledged to help Tanzania in the war against piracy. The US secretary of State, Mrs Hilary Clinton, made the pledge during a co-press conference with his host, President Jakaya Kikwete, at the State House in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Her remarks came after President Kikwete informed her that lack of facilities such as navy ships that could fight the pirates in the deep water hindered Tanzania’s crusade against piracy. President Kikwete said the country was considering talking to the US to see how it could help Tanzania fight piracy in the Indian Ocean.
However, in her response, Mrs Clinton was non-committal and didn’t specify if her country was ready to send the appropriate facilities to contain pirates who were operating from Somalia.
“The Obama administration is currently reviewing its policy against piracy. We will try to see what we have not been doing and what should be done in the future regarding piracy,” she said. She added: “I cannot say precisely that we will give you the required navy ships because that will depend very much on the outcome of the review.”
Mrs Clinton also commended Tanzania for its efforts in the fight against terrorism and piracy, which included the decision to amend its laws to allow pirates to be tried in the country.
According to President Kikwete, there have been 27 piracy attacks in Tanzania’s waters between March 2010 and this year while 11 suspected pirates have been arrested in connections with the attacks.”In the 27 attacks, four ships were seized by pirates from which our navy forces have been able to rescue only two ships….Piracy is a big problem that hits our economy badly,” he said.
Mrs Clinton also commended President Kikwete and other African leaders for their initiative to establish bigger Regional Economic Communities (RECs). She hailed them for their decision to harmonise policies and programmes of the three RECs in the areas of trade, customs and infrastructure development.
Her remarks follow the recent meeting of African leaders in South Africa in efforts to the merge East Africa Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) to establish a Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA). Mrs Clinton said although the decision will take time to bear fruits, it was a commendable effort by the African leaders since, according to her, integration was still crucial for economic growth.
The envisaged FTA would include 26 countries with a combined Gross Domestic Product of $624 billion and a combined population of 527 million people.Speaking about the ongoing border dispute between Southern Sudan and the Sudanese government over the Abyei Region, Mrs Clinton supported the sending of robust peacekeepers to the region to prevent re-occurrence of civil war.
“As we are waiting for the outcome of the ongoing meeting between President Omar el Bashir and Vice President Salva Kiir chaired by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zanawi, our stand point is that peacekeepers must be deployed to the area to prevent the re-occurrence of civil war, which claimed 2 million lives in the past,” she stressed.
The two leaders also reaffirmed each other on the commitment to the economic and political partnership between the two countries.
While President Kikwete reassured Mrs Clinton that the US tax payers’ money disbursed to Tanzania was utilised accordingly, Mrs Clinton said she was impressed with how the US-funded projects in Tanzania, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, were implemented.
She said she was amazed by the level of commitment shown by those who work in the MCC-funded projects in Mlandizi, Coastal Region and at Buguruni in Dar es Salaam.For his part, Mr Kikwete said the funds provided by the US have, among other things, contributed in eradication of malaria in Zanzibar. He said that in the mainland, statistics show that the number of people who die from malaria has dropped by half compared to the early 2000s.
HIV infections also have dropped by 5.4 per cent last year, partly thanks to interventions by the US government, the President said. Mrs Clinton, who arrived in the country with her delegation last Friday, departed yesterday afternoon to Madagascar where she will conclude her tour of Africa.
Source: The Citizen
