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Fellow countrymen,
I am forwarding this to you, through the print and eletronic media to help bring everyone of us on one sheet as to what the current developments of the Africom project in Ghana is "for the moment." Apparently the "very learned" article by our brother Asare Ochere Darko has effectively provoked responses right up to the spokesman of AFRICOM.

I have a few comments to make on these latest developments and I am sure many other Ghanaians would appreciate the clarificatition of the situation as the President Obama's trip is just in the corner. I shall be waiting to give my own comments on this matter as I still see many problems of budget increases and the militarisation of diplomacy on the African continent. I was in the process of writing the second part of

US MILITARY BASE IN GHANA: From "Baloney!" To "What's In It For Us"? Part One, Saturday, May 30, 2009.

Owing to the time sensitive nature of this information, I suspended the original article in order to alert you to this for further scrutiny for what it is worth. It is in our own interest and the interest of the new heights of Ghana-US relations that this matter is properly ironed out.

Analysis, BBC World Service
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Transcript by Nana Akyea Mensah, the Odikro...
Analysis now, and in a few weeks, President Obama will be off to Ghana - on his first visit to Africa since taking office. Our Africa editor Martin Plaut looks at Washington's little discussed military relationship with the African continent.

Martin Plaut: There is much excitement in Ghana and speculation in the Ghanaian media that there is more to this visit than meets the eye. Some suggest President Obama might be looking for a base for military operations on the continent for the United States' Africa Command or AFRICOM.

It's a suggestion categorically rejected by its spokesman Vince Crawley:

Vince Crawley: "We absolutely are not seeking bases in Africa right now. We have one base in Djibouti which the United States has had for a number of years. And I have seen the same press reports coming out of Ghana. And the purpose of the Obama trip is to engage with sub-Saharan Africa with a very reliable partner nation, but ... Africa Command has no interest in seeking bases in that region at this time."

Martin Plaut: Announced by President Bush in February 2007, Africom was the result of ten tears of planning to bring together all of America's military assets relating to the continent.

At first there was a suggestion that AFRICOM would have a headquarters in Africa, an idea South Africa vigorously resisted. Henri Boshoff is a military specialist of South Africa's Institute of Strategic Studies in Pretoria:

Henri Boshoff: "South Africa, especially the Defence Minister, Mr. Lekota was very much against it. I think it's the way that it was packaged and announced by AFRICOM. It came as a quite a surprise to the Africans. I think that position is now slightly changing. And I think there is a better understanding but still there is an unease about it"

Martin Plaut: The US was forced to retreat sending its generals on missions to Africa to explain what their plans really were. Daniel Volmann of the School of International Service at the American University in Washington believes President Obama sees a clear role for AFRICOM:

Daniel Volmann: "He sees its primary role as a major instrument for America's prosecution of the global war on terrorism on the African battlefield. But I also think he sees it been useful for a number of other tasks including peace-keeping operations, humanitarian relief, building up the military capabilities of friendly African regimes to act as surrogates or proxies for the United States, as well as to protect US access to oil and other natural resources from Africa."

Martin Plaut: And these aims have been reinforced with cash. President Obama sought substantial increases in military spending on Africa in the budget he submitted to Congress in May this year. And despite Washington denying they have a current interest in obtaining a base in Africa, there are mixed feelings on the continent about the entire project. Knox Chitiyo is the head of the Africa Programme at the Royal United Services Institute here in London:

Knox Chitiyo: We have various thinkings on it. I think civil society is perhaps worried about AFRICOM propping up authoritarian regimes. That's a governance issue and a number of civil society groups are very anti-AFRICOM because of this perception. But I think overall, in terms of purely the security aspect, the militaries in Africa would like to see AFRICOM really participate in the African stand-by brigades which are supposed to be set up by next year" Continued    Source: Nana Akyea Mensah

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