US promises Senegal support over Casamance debacle  

             
         

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged United States support for efforts to end three decades of separatist conflict in the southern Senegalese province of Casamance.

Mrs Clinton, who was in Senegal at the start of her whistle-stop tour of seven African countries on Tuesday, told an audience at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar on Wednesday that it was time peace returned to the province if its people are to benefit from the development drive by the new government of President Macky Sall.

Mrs Clinton described President Sall’s reforms in the name of transparency, accountability, and an independent judiciary as unprecedented and pledged US commitment to helping the new regime fulfil its pledge to improving the lives of people caught up in the decades-long crisis in Casamance.

Referring to the recent peaceful transfer of power in Senegal after sitting President Abdoulaye Wade lost in the presidential runoff in March, Mrs Clinton said she was confident that the country’s youths would continue to serve as a beacon of hope to the rest of the continent about improving democracy and the culture of human rights.

The Secretary of State also commended the fact that the Senegalese elected 65 women into the National Assembly for the first time in history.

She hailed US relations with Senegal and said the strength of democratic institutions in the West African country was a testimony to the maturity of the Senegalese people.

Clinton also praised regional efforts to coordinate joint responses to piracy, small arms circulation, cross-border crimes, extremism. She extolled a joint US and Senegal campaign against terrorism and other regional threats to peace and security throughout the region.

On the stalemate over the trial of former Chadian President Hissene Habre, the US official said her country was committed “in every way to help with the prosecution of the former leader”.

On the African Union, Clinton welcomed the leadership by the continental body in the promotion of peace and security. She said the AU had sent an unequivocal message after its suspension of Madagascar, Mali, and Guinea Bissau following coups in those countries.

She joined calls for the restoration of constitutional order in those countries and commended the West Africa regional grouping ECOWAS for assuming a leadership role in responding to crises, ranging from the Ivorian crisis to more recent ones in Mali and Guinea Bissau.

Clinton commended democracy restoration in Guinea, Niger, but also good governance in Tanzania and Cape Verde among others.

On Ghana, Clinton said while the world was mourning the loss of President John Evans Atta-Mills she also commended the maturity of Ghanaians for the smooth transfer of power to the Vice President John Mahama.

After Senegal, Clinton is scheduled to visit South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa and Ghana between 31 July and 10 August, sources told APA.

First published on 1August2012 on apanews.net