Clinton to visit Dar

US Foreign Secretary, Hilary Clinton is expected in Dar es Salaam this week according to well informed sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Her visit, which is being kept under wraps by the Tanzanian authorities, is coming barely two months after US Seals (commandoes) killed the Al Qaeda founder, Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

However, sources have it that during her visit in Dar es Salaam, the Foreign Secretary will also visit a US energy company that recently bought the controversial gas fired Dowans plant, Symbion Company, at Kibaha, 20 kilometers west of Tanzania’s commercial city.

Since President Jakaya Kikwete came to power six years ago, there have been considerable increase in US, Tanzania relations with the former taking keener interest in the mining sector.

The confirmation of vast uranium deposits in Tanzania is another factor that has increased US interest in the country, especially in an era where a number of third world countries have equally shown interest in acquiring the all-important mineral that can be used for developing energy and weapons of mass destruction.

One of the US’s interests in the uranium is certainly to ensure that the yellow cake does not land on the hands of what it considers as rogue states, the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea and far eastern dictatorships such as Burma.

And much as Tanzania enjoys relative peace and political stability, the US government is all the same fearful of the role played by one of the country’s sons, Mohamed Ghailani, a Zanzibari, who was last year handed a life sentence by a US court for his role in terrorism against the United States.

The argument appears to be ‘if Tanzania was able to produce Ghailani, there is no reason why it cannot produce another Ghailani,’ hence the need to keep a close watch on the East African state through its close association with those in power.

Besides, Tanzania was one of the two countries (the other is Kenya) Al Qaeda struck US embassies on August 7^th 1998 in which 12 people, mostly members of a local security company at the embassy were killed.

Before the bombing of the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, the US government had failed to get a foothold in Tanzania, especially in its security institutions, although the two countries enjoyed cordial relations.

However, after the bombing incident, the two countries came closer, sharing security information between them.

And a few weeks later, for the first time in their relations, Tanzania security officials were send to the US for further training in their respective fields.

It is indisputable that this development would later mark the establishment of a major link between the two countries’ security institutions.

Unlike members of the European Community, which have for a long time had contacts in defence and security, the US is a late comer as far as relations in the two areas is concerned.

Since then, there have been a number of visits by US military commanders and frigates in Tanzania although the relations were somewhat cautious.

In fact, nothing reflects past uneasy relations between the two countries than a visit to Dar es Salaam by a US frigate six years ago that was officially met on board by Tanzania’s naval commander (a Brigadier General) rather  than the minister for defence and national service or the chief of defence of forces.

Relations between the then Tanganyika and US were very cordial during the first years of President Julius Nyerere in the days of President John F. Kennedy who was Nyerere’s personal friend.

However, after the US president’s assassination and Nyerere’s decision to lead his country into a socialist path, the two countries’ diplomatic relations grew slowly, but steadily apart.

This was the time Tanzania moved away from the West, but settled on the laps of Scandivian countries, led by Sweden which would play a pivotal role in Nyerere’s fight against ignorance.

The only link that remained between the two countries was when Nyerere took Zanzibar on board, to the glee of the US government, which had feared the possibility of the Isles’ going the Cuban way.

Presently no Tanzanian president has visited the United States more frequently than the present head of state, President Kikwete, who was the first Third World president to meet the first American President, Barrack Obama, barely a few days after being sworn in as the President of the United States.

By Attilio Tagalile