By General William E. Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command
U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs  Print     Share  

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 

Nov 21, 2008 — Following is the transcript of a press conference with General William E. Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command, during his visit to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 21, 2008:

COLONEL FRANKLIN CHILDRESS: (In progress) and thank you for participating in this press conference. I want to introduce you to General Kip Ward. He is the U.S. Africa Command's commander. We recently had two big events that occurred in our command. First, on the first of October I'll let you do that (pause) on the 1st of October, we had a ceremony at the Pentagon officially marking the stand-up or the inception of U.S. Africa Command, and then the second one was on the 17th of October we had a ceremony in Stuttgart for all the people. And at that ceremony, we had representatives from the Department of State as well as the African Union. So, without any further ado, I'd like to introduce you to General Kip Ward.

GENERAL WILLIAM WARD: Well, good afternoon everyone. You all look so like I'm a bad person or something. (Chuckles.) I am very happy to be here and thank you all for spending some time to come out and see me. I'm very much appreciative of this opportunity that I have to address you and to give you an update on where we are, what we're doing, and my purpose for being here in your beautiful city. Let me start off by saying that the things that we look to do are things that have been consistent with our ability to work with our friends here in Africa our partners here and so, with the creation of the command, as it reached unified command status this past October, the nations of Africa, its regional organizations, its continental organization, now has a partner that is spending all of its time, devoted to trying our very best to assure our African friends and partners that the work that we do that we jointly arrive is work that helps you meet your goals and objectives, just as it does ours, in the name of bringing peace and stability to the peoples of the continent of Africa, as well as to the greater global community, because we all know how important Africa is.

Africa is clearly a continent and its island nations of great strategic importance has been for many, many years, and finally, with the creation of United States Africa Command, that strategic importance has materialized into a single command, who is now available to partner with you in a very coherent and cohesive way, unlike before, when we were doing it in a disjointed way, where our military-to-military activities were spread across three separate commands, as opposed to being conducted by a single command. I think this way will be better suited to working with our African partners; it will be less confusing to our African partners. Our African partners will be more assured of where their point of contact is and where those activities align with the policies that the nations of Africa have determined are important for themselves, where those policies are aligned with the foreign policies of the United States of America, it is now the United States Africa Command in the position to try our very best to bring about the sorts of military-to-military programs that, indeed, add value to the work that you want to do. So with that, I'll stop and take some questions, and I look forward to a period of exchange with you.

CHILDRESS: Yeah, I'll point you out; does anybody have a question to start off with? Sir, please.

Q: My name is Kirin Inwow (ph) and I am from the Pan-African News Agency. My question is, you mentioned this command is I'm sorry, that U.S. assistance, military assistance to Africa I just would like to know what's your view of the kind of noise that came from civil society across Africa as to, you know, you tried getting this base within Africa but you had a lot of opposition. I just would like to know how you feel you would do it better with the setting up of this command outside an African base.

WARD: Well, the command's location was never determined in advance. From the very beginning, we knew that the command would be headquartered where it currently is, in Germany, because that's where the facilities existed, and the German government had granted approval for us to set up and begin to form the command there. You'll recall, on my last visit here about a year ago, when I said then that it was not my intent then, nor is it now, to focus our attention on a location, but to focus our attention on being able to provide more effective programs that we have jointly arrived at in partnering with our friends here on the African continent.

The work of where the headquarters may be, eventually, is work that has yet to be determined, and so I think we are at a point now where we are beyond that discussion. There was not a request made to put the headquarters in any location other than where it currently is existing during these interim times, and that's where it will be for the time being. So it is designed to consolidate the efforts, and that consolidation of our efforts is suited, now, in ways that we see occurring in our various programs, our military-to-military activities and that's where our focus is.

Q: My name's Hakim Alam (ph). I work for Channel Africa. What is American interest here in Africa?

WARD: American interest here in Africa are for a stable continent, where people can prosper, where the governments can care for their people, where transitions of authority can occur in an orderly fashion, because that, in today's global society, helps assure global stability. That is in America's interest.

Q: (Inaudible) service. How does AFRICOM intend to cooperate on issues current issues like the crisis in Togo, in Kivu, for instance, or in Somalia? And are you going to cooperate in a bilateral way, or is it multilateral with the African Union? How is that going to work?

WARD: Well, as you know, first and foremost, AFRICOM the command, the United States Africa Command works as a result of our established U.S. foreign policy. We do not establish those things that will be done as a military headquarters; that is a responsibility of our elected policy-makers, and then, where, within those policies, there are military aspects, then it is the command U.S. Africa Command that will take care of doing our part of those military activities. To this point, we have been cooperating, because we have a policy that says where the African nations have determined that they will do things through the regional organizations the African Union or the other organizations, and there are requirements that exist that we can help fulfill logistical requirements, training requirements, transportation requirements we would be involved in those and we have done so in the past.

Q: Are you doing so at the moment, for instance, especially with the crisis in Kivu or the crisis in Somalia?

WARD: Not in any direct way.

Q: Thank you very much. My name is (inaudible) from the Russian News station. I believe maritime security ensuring maritime security is one of the purviews of the new command. Is there any activity that you are doing to control the piracy along the coast of Somalia?

WARD: Again, helping to enhance maritime safety and security is one of the activities that we would look to partner with African nations about. We are doing some of that work on the continent, in its waters West Africa. As we look to work with the African nations, as well as other organizations as an example, right now, there is a the U.S. is participating in the standing NATO maritime group that is conducting operations off the coast, in the Gulf of Aden but that work is being done, now, through a series of programs; it involves other nations as well. And the United States, as a part of that group, does in fact provide some vessels as a part of that NATO mission in support of anti-piracy operations.

Q: (Inaudible) newspaper. Your Public Affairs office seems to have done a good job of dismantling some of the questions prior to coming by saying the myths a few myths about AFRICOM, like you're here for China and the oil interests but this myth, as you call, are not fabrications; they come from elected political leaders' admission like Congressman John Tierney, who said, we are there to protect oil and fight terrorists in the same misguided way that we fought terrorists in other places. It seems that these myths are shared by some of your elected officials as well policymakers; how do you see it?

WARD: Well, I can't speak for policymakers, they do that for themselves, but what I can tell you is that as we have come to realize the fact that in today's global environment, those things that challenge all of us from matters of piracy to matters of illegal trafficking, of drugs, weapons, terrorist activities, those activities impact each of us where the nations of Africa and where its organizations, both at the continental level and the regional level have said, 'we would like to take action to address these negative consequences that are affecting our society. Can you help us increase our capacity to do so?' And the United States has said yes because maintaining stability, helping to create conditions that will foster increased development, those are also in our national interests, and we have established a foreign policy decision that then goes forward to say we will cooperate as a partner, and then where there are military implications of that partnership, then the creation of this command is designed to be the single dedicated command working with the Africans, the nations of Africa, in helping achieve those common objectives.

MR: How can it improve, these objectives you say, if you have -inaudible- the fact that it's in one common -inaudible-rather than two, how can it further? Because some of the things that existed prior to AFRICOM will continue to exist.

WARD: Well, and that's precisely the point. We are at the beginning stages, it won't happen overnight. But what this dedication, what this ability to look down through a single command, as opposed to three commands in the past, whose priorities were not always to do the work with our African nations, as we would have liked we have now corrected that situation by the creation of this command, who will now prioritize its work, fully aligned with the priorities of the nations of Africa at echelon bilaterally, regional organizations as well as the sub-regional organizations.

MR.: Does somebody else want to ask a question? Okay maaam, you're getting-

Q: Thanks very much. I was just wondering you mentioned that training, for instance, would be provided if needed be. Are you currently providing training, for instance, or would you provide the training, for instance, to let's say the Kenyan battalion that is going to join the (inaudible) in Somalia, or have you been required by the DRC government, for instance, to train the national army to fight the rebelling (inaudible). Would that be, again, on the bilateral phase or is it going to be, again, through the African Union?

WARD: Well, we have provided training assistance to nations who have volunteered to enter the peacekeeping operations. We have the ACOTA program the Africa Contingency and Operations Training Assistance program. It is a program that our Department of State has responsibility for, but we in fact come into that program with military trainers to augment the work being done by the other trainers. We have bilateral military-to-military training relationships with other nations of the continent. IIll leave those nations to tell you who they are, but we have worked with many nations of the continent for peacekeeping missions: Liberia, Burundi, other places around the continent where nations of Africa have said we want to do our part to maybe helping to maintain peace; we have a training deficiency, can you help us as an example.

Q: Is Ethiopia one of them? Ethiopia, is it one of the countries that

WARD: We have a very good relationship with the Ethiopians that IIm very, very thankful for. But, again, where those relationships exist and where nations have a training requirement, if we can meet it we would certainly do our part in meeting that training requirement. IIll give you an example. We have a nation that wants to contribute to a peacekeeping mission but, you know, there are great distances in Africa. You know, it takes some extraordinary transportation means. Well, deploying to a peacekeeping operation requires packing materials, packing equipment, packing various supplies that are required to either take it there by air or by rail, by train. Packing that material to get it configured in a very effective way doesn't just happen, so we have sent trainers to instruct others on how to properly pack materials, so that if you put it aboard an aircraft it doesn't become a problem because you have loads that are not compatible, loads that are not properly packed.

So we do that type of training professionalization of militaries helping to bring forward a professional noncommissioned officer corps or a more professional officer corps, where there are requirements in that. Where we can help provide some training and assistance that will increase the capacity of those nations to be better capable of conducting better security-related activities, we clearly want to be a partner in those activities.

Q: Can I I push further. Can I ask you: Are you preparing to be on the look out, for instance, the Ethiopian peacekeeping troops that are likely to go to Sudan and Darfur?

WARD: No.

MR.: Does somebody else have a question? Anybody back here that hasn't asked a question? No? Okay, are you good

Q: Thank you. I just would like to know, how much of when you said your assistance is aligned to foreign policy I mean, do you use or do you like to use this command, for example, to push further U.S. policies like

WARD: No, no, no. I guess the point that I was making there is, we don't do anything unless it is aligned with our foreign policy. It goes back to a question someone asked me earlier about it may have been your question with respect to the creation of the command and whether or not we would be doing those activities that would be outside of the scope of the military department. You know, we don't create nor do we make foreign policy. My only point is that those activities that we do are in line with are supportive of our stated foreign policy objectives, as opposed to not. So I think that was the point that I was trying to make before.

Q: Okay, in the application of the African Standby Force, forcing governments, I mean, are you practically involved in such multinational reshaping?

WARD: The African Standby Force is something that we support and to the degree that the various standby forces are in their formation, we have been involved. It varies because each of them are in different stages, as you are well aware, but yes, we do support the creation of the African standby forces and we would look to provide assistance to those African standby forces as may be determined appropriate for us to do.

MR.: Yes, sir.

Q: How much support that the United States is giving to the military in Africa?

WARD: How much support?

Q: How much your budget?

WARD: That's very complex. Therees no one single point of reference, if you will. We have programs that are foreign military sales programs, we have programs like international military education programs, where we students are exchanged between our schools to receive education, we have programs whereby we bring military trainers to Africa to conduct joint training and combined exercise programs, we have programs where we involve medical personnel conducting medical civil action programs, veterinarian civil action programs, where we work with the local militaries as well as the local communities for bringing a health benefit.

We have a program that supplements our HIV/AIDS program that the president has instituted for the countries on the continent of Africa. Therees a military component as we work with militaries on the continent of Africa there to help with their HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, as well as some testing. So there are a wide variety of programs that exist where we come in and provide assistance. Therees no one single source, but they are done in a coordinated way, and hopefully with the creation of the U.S. Africa Command, that coordination can be more coherent, so that the results can even be a bit more effective in achieving the benefit of having applied those resources.

But what I will tell you is that and this also gets to the notion of the continent and how we are only a small portion of the totality of the U.S. aid thatts provided to the continent, probably something on the order of I don't know the exact figure and number, but itts something less than $300 million, when you have a total program thatts probably in excess of $9 billion of program that exist, but thatts how we look to continue and enhance that effort as we move ahead.

I guess one other point that I make here to the question that was asked about our involvement and role in training particular forces, you know, nations don't give us the detail of all of their plans, so with respect to whether or not a nation is planning to do something or not I wouldn't know that, so my answer to your question is, I know that we have not involved them because therees nothing that we are aware of thatts being considered, so.

MR.: Any other questions? Okay, sir, would you like to make a closing statement?

WARD: Well, let me say that, first, having come to Addis Ababa, having had the opportunity to meet some of the leaders of the African Union, having had the opportunity to interact with the leadership of Ethiopia, I am confident that we as partners, working together, will be able to do the type of thing that will help bring stability to the continent of Africa. Will that happen overnight? You know better than I. This is your home. But we come here to listen to you, we come here to listen to the leaders so that we have a better understanding, a better appreciation, so that those activities that we do conduct are activities that have the best chance of producing a positive effect that will better serve the peoples of the continent of Africa, as opposed to not.

So we come here to listen, to learn, to gain your perspectives, your understanding, so that as we conduct those military-to-military activities that we conduct, working with the nations as well as with the organizations that we are as productive as we can be, adding value to those programs and causing the outcomes to be the outcome that hopefully leads to greater stability on the continent. And thatts our intent, thatts our purpose not to takeover, not to militarize the continent, not to militarize our foreign policy, not to take over the work of any others, but to support and compliment that work by having a better understanding of how our efforts can support our greater collective efforts. And, again, a stable Africa is indeed in our national interests, in your national interests and, indeed, in the interests of our global community and the society in which we live today.

So thanks for spending some time to listen to me, and I appreciate all that you do to helping this be understood by your audiences. Thanks very much.

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