MASLAND: Peace was the main theme at the OAU summit in Algiers last month, and there seems to have been major progress. Why? DIOUF: Today peace is the most important thing for African countries. And yes, there have been breakthroughs in bringing peace to two of the afflicted African countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone. One can expect some resistance to this peace drive. But I believe these peace agreements will hold, because we African leaders as well as the protagonists are committed to ensuring their success.
Are South Africa and Nigeria leading the way? These are powerful countries. They have good leaders in Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo, and I know how committed they are to an African renewal.
With 44 heads of state attending, this year’s summit broke a record. And the OAU is holding another special summit in Libya in September to review its charter. Does this signify a revival of the organization? We definitely need to strengthen our cooperation. Of course we cannot reach our main goal–a United States of Africa–overnight. But we have taken important steps in that direction. For example, at the Abuja summit in 1991 we established the African Economic Community. Its mission is African unification.
The United States routinely holds joint military exercises with the Senegalese Army, and President Clinton came here last year. Does this signal that Senegal is turning toward Washington and away from Paris? You can’t put it that way. This is a poor country, and we need help from all our partners–the United States, France, Germany, the Arab countries. We welcome investors, but I must point out that there have been some weaknesses in our experience with the U.S. For example, we gave a contract to a subsidiary of General Electric to upgrade our power-generating capacity. The work was supposed to be completed in February. Now it’s the hot season, and people are suffering from power cuts.
Privatization has become a buzzword in Africa. Are you fully on board? Yes, we have privatized several of our most important companies–our power company, the phone company. There’s now competition in the cellular-telephone business. We strongly believe that development should be done through private enterprise.
Some say it’s the recolonization of Africa. No, it’s inescapable as part of the ongoing globalization process.
Senegal’s efforts to combat AIDS have been the most successful in Africa. What are the lessons for the rest of the continent? We’ve been open about the problem and have used the media to sensitize the public. We have top-level researchers; one of them discovered a new form of the virus. But it’s important that the international community help African countries lower the price of AIDS-treatment drugs.
What is your main economic concern at the moment? The debt issue. The G7 meeting in Cologne in June made an excellent start by reducing the burden. But any country that receives debt relief should invest the money in development projects, not waste it on the bureaucracy.
There have been several high-level defections from your party in the run-up to the February 2000 elections. Are you confident of victory? I’m a democrat. I respect everybody’s choice. What is important is to allow the Senegalese to select their leader transparently, democratically, and in peace. Without peace, no democracy can stand.
If you win re-election, some Senegalese observers speculate that you may hand over power before the end of your term, as Senghor did. [Laughs] I’ve heard that too. If the Senegalese reaffirm their confidence in me, I will serve the full mandate, God willing. This is not the same situation as when my predecessor passed the baton to me. When President Senghor stepped down, he was 74 years old, but still strong. At the end of another full term, I will be 71 1/2. God willing.
