U.S. rethinking its Africa ‘crisis chain’

Press, 1 September 1982, Page 20

U.S. rethinking its Africa ‘crisis chain’

From

ALISTAIR MATHESON,

in Nairobi

Recent developments in Africa are causing American strategy planners at the Pentagon to rethink their existing arrangements for facilitating the transit of the'United States Rapid Deployment Force should it be needed to defend the Gulf and other Middle Eastern oilfields.

The present chain of military staging posts, extending from Mbrocco, through Egypt, Somalia, or Kenya to offshore bases at Oman’s Masirah Island and the Diego Garcia atoll, no longer appears ,as dependable as it did, even six months, ago. Because of the changing situations ■ which could jeopardise the reliability of this chain, an alternative routing is. now being considered.

This would stretch in a more southerly arc through Senegal and Liberia to Zaire, from there •• connecting up with Kenya for transit facilities through Nairobi airport or Mombasa, and on to the Indian Ocean and the. approaches to Gulf, oilfields, or the major United States naval and airforce base on Diego Garcia.

Despite the support which the United States has given King Hassan of Morocco over the past five or six years (said to be rising to $lOO million next year) and the recent pact signed in Washington making major naval and air bases available to the R.D.F., there

are growing doubts in United States military and diplomatic circles about the Moroccan regime’s ability to win its bitter war against the Polisario forces seeking to control the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Morocco’s new agreement, signed by King Hassan’s advisers at the end of his recent Washington visit, has aroused such strong opposition within Morocco itself that its terms have been kept secret. Foreign Minister M’Hamed Boucetta has told his fellow countrymen only that its chief objective is to defend Morocco’s territorial integrity, rather than installing United States bases, or-mili- . tary garrisons. As with Morocco, Egypt’s close political and military ties with the United States have already caused most Arab League members to distance themselves from Cairo and Washington. Only Saudi Arabia, which is Morocco’s biggest backer after the United States;: remains on reasonably good terms with the Reagan Administration. The participation of Egyptian and Sudanese, troops, alongside American military personnel, in Operation Bright Star last year aroused a storm of protest in the Arab world. . For this reason Egypt’s role as a future R.D.F. transit point is also in some doubt. The situation is even less propitious for the United States at the'

moment in Somalia where guerrillas, trying to topple Siad Barre’s government in Mogadishu, have been making significant • inroads into Somalia spearheading an Ethiopianbacked invasion.

Even Kenya, the African state regarded by most Americans as a model of stability and free enterprise, has been shaken to its roots by the recent abortive airforce coup.

The United States apparently feels more confident of longterm use of facilities in those states forming the “southern arc” — Senegal, Liberia and Zaire. However, it seems that only tentative approaches have been made and America’s relations with Zaire are strained, due to a hefty cut made in United States aid because of uneasiness in Washington about Zaire’s non-payment of loans and human rights record.

Even Diego Garcia’s future hangs in the balance, with new moves tb create a nuclear-free zone of peace in the ocean. Calls are also being made for America to dismantle its military base there as,a possible preliminary to handing back the atoll to Mauritius if that country’s socialist Government is able to regain sovereignty, now held by Britain. — Copyright, ■ London Observer Service. “ ‘