Here are [1] the very recent comments of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, and [2] an excerpt from the Associated Press wire report (October 29, 2003) noting the results of a House-Senate conferencing on the Bush administration’s $87 billion request for aid to post-war Iraq and Afghanistan.
—Eric Reeves
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[1] U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE (Office of the Spokesman)
For Immediate Release
October 28, 2003
Washington, D.C.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR AFRICAN AFFAIRS WALTER KANSTEINER
QUESTION: So the U.S. budgetary commitment is what toward [transitional aid and peacekeeping in Sudan]?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Well, we have some placeholder numbers and we have some commitments both on the, kind of, reconstruction and redevelopment, the DDRR, you know, the demobilization. And I don’t, off the top of my head know the exact placeholder numbers, but it’s, you know, it’s significant dollars that we are hoping to be able to use in ’04 and ’05.
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[2] “Conferees also agreed to provide $60 million for programs to strengthen women’s rights in Afghanistan and provided $200 million for Liberia, $100 million for Jordan ***and $20 million for Sudan***.” (emphasis added)
(Associated Press, October 29, 2003—reporting results of the House-Senate conferencing on the Bush administration’s $87 billion request for aid to post-war Iraq and Afghanistan)