Reagan's Africa Policy: Chester Crocker with Elise Pachter

REAGAN'S AFRICA POLICY: CHESTER CROCKER WITH ELISE PACHTER Chester Crocker is assistant secretary for African affairs at the U.S. Department of State. From 1976 to 1981 Dr. Crocker served as director of African studies at Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies (csis). He has written extensively for numerous publications, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Africa Today, and is author, most recently, of South Africa's Defense Posture: Coping with Vulnerability (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1981). Dr. Crocker received his master's and doctoral degrees from SAIS. Elise Pachter is a Ph.D. candidate at SAIS and is writing her thesis on U.S. policy toward Zaire. She is author of a forthcoming study of civilian-military relations in Africa, which will appear in theJournal ofModern African Studies._____ Q: A Namibian settlement L· the centerpiece of current U.S. African policy, and yet it L· hard to d^ern real progress in the Reagan administration's first two years. Deadlines have come andgone and we seemfurtherfrom a U.N. presence and elections than we did in August 1980. Can you explain thL·? CROCKER: Well, I think there are all kinds of ways one can debate about how much progress has been achieved, but there is no doubt in our minds that we are closer to a Namibian settlement than we have ever been over the many years of this negotiation. There have been no deadlines that have come and gone. We have had targets that we have been shooting for, and still are, including the idea of getting implementation of the U.N. Resolution 435 started this year. But we don't believe that negotiating deadlines are very productive. What we have done is to define, address, and resolve virtually all Namibia-related issues concerning 435. The few that remain are not insurmountable. And everybody knows the way in which they can be resolved, and I think will be, assuming the other things fall into place, so I think we have made quite substantial progress in the past two years. Q: What remains to be resolved? CROCKER: The question of which of the two electoral systems will be used in the Assembly elections. It is agreed on all sides that South Africa's choice is between one of two systems—single-member districts, or proportional representation —but it is South Africa's choice, and that choice must be made at the appropriate time. It has yet to be agreed on all sides as to how that will be done. So that is not a major problem. There are some questions 83 84 SAIS REVIEW concerning the composition of the U.N. force that are not yet resolved, but they will be, and the U.N. Secretariat is working on that. Q: Are you saying that these are problemsfor South Africa, notfor the U.N., swapo [Southwest Africa People's Organization], or thefront-line states? CROCKER: No, for everybody. The U.N. is trying to negotiate a package deal that is acceptable to both sides. They have made a lot of headway, but there are a few unresolved contingencies that are not yet in place. Q: Can you be more explicit about the U.N. force make-up seeming to be a problem? CROCKER: There is the need to define seven infantry battalions plus a series of support units for the military component of the U.N. force, and I believe four of those battalions have been identified and agreed on, and there is the question of nationalities. Q: What about the linkage to the removal of Cuban troops from Angola? Can you explain how thatfits into the arrangement? CROCKER: Well, as I have said, we have resolved virtually all the Namibia issues. For us to be able to go forward, the reality is (and it is a political reality about which all the parties are clear even if some of them have some questions about it—have some problems with it) that we are going to need a commitment on the Cuban troop issue from the Angolan government that will enable us to make parallel progress while the U.N. plan for Namibia is...