KENYA: ACRI MILITARY EXERCISES WITH US TROOPS

Описание: (4 Oct 2000) English/Nat

Aubrey Hooks, Special Coordinator of the U-S-sponsored African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), was in Kenya on Wednesday for the launch of the East African nation's first ACRI exercise with U-S troops.

Hooks visited a military base in Nakuru, 140 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Nairobi, where he addressed Kenyan officers.

ACRI was set up in July 1997 with the aim of training 12-thousand African soldiers to carry out peacekeeping and humanitarian missions on the continent.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Training is an exciting prospect, because we train for the future. We train today to shape a more stable future for ourselves and for the generations to follow us."
SUPER CAPTION: Aubrey Hooks, Special Coordinator, African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI)

Hooks, himself a former U-S ambassador to the Republic of Congo, used the occasion to counter criticism in recent years that the U-S has refused to intervene in African crises.

He said that ACRI represented a broadening and deepening of U-S engagement in Africa, and said that the U-S peacekeeping role in Africa was misunderstood.

The United States will spend around 5 (m) million U-S dollars on two exercises during the next 12 months, and provide non-lethal equipment to Kenyan forces for future peacekeeping missions.

The first exercise, which includes 12 U-S special operations soldiers, training staff from the State Department and six Belgium soldiers, began on Tuesday and ends on December 2.

Kenya was initially unwilling to join ACRI, but signed up last October following a visit by U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

But the Kenyan Army Commander is keen to point out that his troops will not be under foreign command.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The Kenyan government expressed reservations to sending its own troops under command of other nations. The Kenyan government made it quite clear that Kenya will participate with the international community in peacekeeping operations anywhere in the world, but it will not surrender command of its troops. That's the only area there was reservation."
SUPER CAPTION: General Adan Abdallah, Kenyan Army Commander

Other countries which have signed up to ACRI are Uganda, Senegal, Malawi, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Benin.

In 1998, Uganda was suspended from the programme because of its involvement in Congo's civil war, and the Ivory Coast was suspended at the beginning of this year following a military coup.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"What we do is temporarily suspend our training activities in Uganda until that issue has been resolved. (Question off camera: What about the Ivory Coast?) Ivory Coast is a similar situation in the sense that we started training there and in the wake of the coup d'etat that occurred we have temporarily suspended our training activities."
SUPER CAPTION: Aubrey Hooks, Special Coordinator, African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI)

Both Hook and Abdallah said ACRI could lead to the formation of a peacekeeping force within the East African Community - a trade bloc formed by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Hooks said ACRI was in talks with Tanzania and he expected the country to join the initiative shortly.

The U-S has to date spent 77 (m) million dollars on the ACRI programme, and committed 20 (m) million dollars for the 2001 financial year.

No U-S troops have been deployed to Africa as part of an intervention force or peacekeeping mission since leaving Somalia in 1994, following the deaths of 18 American troops in 1993.

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