VOA常速英语2007年-US Secretary of State to Talk With African Lead

By Peter Heinlein
Addis Ababa
04 December 2007

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set for talks Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, home of the African Union, to explore peace prospects¹ in conflict zones from Sudan and Somalia to the Great Lakes region. VOA's Peter Heinlein reports the secretary of state will discuss a host of difficult issues with heads of state or senior officials from seven African nations.

Rice's whirlwind stop in Addis is jam-packed with meetings. She has scheduled talks with Great Lakes leaders, including Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, and Democratic Republic of Congo Foreign Minister Antipas Mbusa Myamwisi.

Those talks will focus on existing security mechanisms²' to deal with what are called 'negative forces' in Africa's Great Lakes region. Those mechanisms include a comprehensive strategy to counter, and possibly disarm³, insurgents⁵ from Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC that operate in vast lawless stretches of the Congo.

Veteran Africa-watcher Gerard Prunier of France's National Council for Scientific Research calls the meeting a courageous⁶ attempt at finally picking up the pieces left over from extensive fighting in Central Africa from 1998 to 2002. But he says any attempt to tame insurgent⁴ groups is short-sighted.

"Nobody has the military capacity to do it unless there is a full-scale military offensive, and the only people who could do that would be not the Congolese army, which does not have the capacity, but the United Nations, and the United Nations is in a very delicate position undertaking⁷ a military offensive," said Prunier. "So I am afraid this will remain largely at the talking level."

Secretary of State Rice's schedule had included talks with the Somalia's president Abdullahi Yusuf and the country's newly-named Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. The meeting will go on without Mr. Yusuf. He canceled at the last minute, citing illness.

Later in the day, Rice meets Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, before attending a dinner hosted by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

In her talks with President Bashir, the secretary of state is expected to push for a renewed Sudanese commitment to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a 21-year war with southern rebels. Some view the CPA as a possible model for ending the conflict in Darfur.

But analyst⁸ Gerard Prunier questions President Bashir's commitment to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

"If the parties were loyal and in good faith in carrying out the provisions of the CPA, there would not be too much of a problems," said Prunier. "Problem is the Khartoum government is not serious in applying it. As the saying goes, 'You can take a horse to water, but you cannot force him to drink.' The horse has been taken to the water. The problem is, he does not want to drink."

State Department officials have been busy downplaying expectations for the visit.

And the cancellation⁹ of Somalia's President Yusuf makes it less likely there will be substantive¹⁰ talks on that country's shaky political reconciliation¹¹ process.

Secretary of State Rice's talks with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles are expected to touch on Somalia, where Ethiopian troops are bogged¹² down battling Islamic extremists trying to oust¹³ Somalia's transitional federal government.

Rice and the Ethiopian leader will also discuss renewed tensions with neighboring Eritrea, but there will be no Eritrean representative at the meetings. A commission charged with settling their bitter border dispute closed down last week, leaving unresolved the critical question of where boundary markers should be placed.

1 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

2 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 disarm   

v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和

参考例句：

• The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. 全世界等待伊拉克解除武装已有12年之久。
• He has rejected every peaceful opportunity offered to him to disarm.他已经拒绝了所有能和平缴械的机会。

4 insurgent   

adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子

参考例句：

• Faruk says they are threatened both by insurgent and government forces.法鲁克说，他们受到暴乱分子和政府军队的双重威胁。
• The insurgent mob assembled at the gate of the city park.叛变的暴徒聚在市立公园的门口。

5 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

6 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。

7 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

8 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

9 cancellation   

n.删除，取消

参考例句：

• Heavy seas can cause cancellation of ferry services.海上风浪太大，可能须要取消渡轮服务。
• Her cancellation of her trip to Paris upset our plan.她取消了巴黎之行打乱了我们的计划。

10 substantive   

adj.表示实在的；本质的、实质性的；独立的；n.实词，实名词；独立存在的实体

参考例句：

• They plan to meet again in Rome very soon to begin substantive negotiations.他们计划不久在罗马再次会晤以开始实质性的谈判。
• A president needs substantive advice,but he also requires emotional succor. 一个总统需要实质性的建议，但也需要感情上的支持。

11 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

12 bogged   

adj.陷于泥沼的v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的过去式和过去分词 )；妨碍，阻碍

参考例句：

• The professor bogged down in the middle of his speech. 教授的演讲只说了一半便讲不下去了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The tractor is bogged down in the mud. 拖拉机陷入了泥沼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 oust   

vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐

参考例句：

• The committee wanted to oust him from the union.委员会想把他从工会中驱逐出去。
• The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.这些领导人被民族主义者赶下了台。