By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, May 7 2007 (IPS)

Despite Angola’s poor human rights record, a widening gap between rich and poor, and a reputation for world-class corruption, an elite U.S. group is calling for Washington to strengthen ties – including military ties – with Luanda, Africa’s second-biggest oil exporter.

The group, a 23-member “independent commission” sponsored New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), urged the U.S. to press the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to hold free and fair elections and implement anti-corruption measures and to support individuals committed to democratic reform and good governance.

But, the commission stressed in its 80-page report, “Toward an Angola Strategy: Prioritising U.S.-Angola Relations”, “Real reform and equitable development, of course, cannot be imposed from outside.” It argued that those objectives were most likely to be furthered through U.S. and western-led multilateral engagement.

“This commission believes that U.S. strategic interests in energy and security in the Gulf of Guinea would be served by strengthening the ties between the United States and Angola as part of a broad energy policy and a strategic approach toward Africa,” the report concluded.

“Angola’s progress (in implementing reforms) goes hand in hand with building a stronger bilateral relationship between the United States and Angola as recommended by the commission,” it added.

The commission was co-chaired by ret. Amb. Frank Wisner, currently vice chairman of external affairs at American International Group, Inc. (AIG), and Vincent Mai, chairman of AEA Investors, a global equity firm, and of CFR’s Africa Policy Studies Advisory Board.

It was convened amid growing concern about U.S. energy supplies, for which West Africa – and specifically the countries that line the Gulf of Guinea – has become an increasingly important source.

In 2005, African oil exports – virtually all from West Africa – accounted for 18 percent of U.S. oil consumption, a percentage that is expected to rise to 20 percent by 2010 and 25 percent as early as 2015, according to government figures. Last year, U.S. oil imports from Africa surpassed supplies from the increasingly tumultuous Middle East.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, currently stands as the U.S.’ fifth largest supplier, while Angola is close behind. Last December, it exported 513,000 barrels a day to the U.S., 40 percent more than the year before.

In recent years, Angola has become a focus of increasingly intense competition over oil resources between the U.S. and China. Last year, Angola surpassed Saudi Arabia to become China’s biggest foreign supplier of oil.

Not only has China provided several billion dollars in economic aid and investment credits, concentrated primarily in infrastructure projects, but trade ties – based largely on Angola’s exports of oil and diamonds – have also skyrocketed. Last year, bilateral trade reached five billion dollars, making Angola China’s second biggest African trading partner.

Beijing’s aid and investment, as well as the high price of oil and increased exports, have contributed to an unprecedented economic boom in Angola, whose economy grew 14.3 percent last year and is expected to grow by a whopping 31.4 percent in 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Despite those figures, little of the wealth has trickled down to the great majority of the country’s 13 million people. Angola ranked 161 of 177 countries in the U.N. Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2006 Human Development Index.

The country’s poverty is explained in large part by the legacy of a brutal, 27-year civil war that pitted the MPLA government against a rebel movement, Unita, that was backed covertly by South Africa, the U.S. and China, until 1992. It was not until after the death of Unita leader Jonas Savimbi 10 years later that Angola experienced peace for a sustained period for the first time since its independence from Portugal in 1975.

In addition to the destruction wrought by the war – as many as 1.5 milliion people are believed to have died – persistent corruption has contributed to the widespread poverty. The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International ranked Angola 142 out of 163 countries. Such a reputation “frighten(s) away all but the most courageous investors,” according to the report.

Indeed, the combination of widespread poverty and corruption, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the rising expectations created by galloping economic growth, in the eyes of some analysts, poses a serious challenge to the country’s stability.

“Angola has reached a crossroad,” the report asserted, noting that “Few countries are more important to U.S. interests than Angola… (Its) success or failure in transitioning from nearly 30 years of war toward peace and democracy has implications for the stability of the U.S. oil supply as well as the stability of central and southern Africa.”

To enhance the prospects of such a transition – as well as to promote U.S. interests in Angola – Washington, according to the report, should elevate the importance it attaches to its relations to Luanda to a higher level, “on a par with (Africa’s) leading states,” presumably including South Africa, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.

Optimally, Washington should establish a high-level bilateral commission that would ensure regular talks, at least at the undersecretary of state level, to press Washington’s interests in reform, particularly in holding democratic elections beginning next year, in gaining Angola’s full participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and simplifying the approval process for foreign investment.

It should also encourage more exchanges between the two countries and provide greater assistance, particularly in training and education, one of the few areas in which Washington holds a “comparative advantage” over China.

On security assistance, Washington is urged to expand military and police training programmes and to increase its engagement with the Angolan Armed Forces, in part through the Pentagon’s new Africa Command for which the Gulf of Guinea is considered a top priority.

The commission’s report stressed that China’s presence in Angola should not be seen as a zero-sum game; indeed, it calls on Washington to “communicate with China on mutual interests in Africa” and notes that it is “making significant contributions to Angola’s development by building and rebuilding roads, hospitals, schools, and sanitation systems.”

“China may not be a strong supporter of democracy in Africa,” according to the report, “but good governance, stability, and equitable growth on the continent are as much in China’s interests as they are in the United States’s interests.” At the same time, Washington should press for greater transparency in China’s dealings in Angola, particularly in the oil sector, according to the report.

The report was released Monday, two days before “Angola Day”, a major conference here to mark “Five Years of Peace”, co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Angolan Embassy, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S.-Angola Chamber of Commerce. Angolan Deputy Prime Minister Aguinaldo Jaime will take part.

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