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CNN Live Today
Bush in Africa
Aired July 08, 2003 - 10:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is on a five-day, five nation tour of Africa. He has visited Senegal. His next stop is South Africa. Our Chris Burns is traveling with President Bush, and he joins us from Dakar, Senegal with the latest on the president's visit.
Chris, hello.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Well, the president making a very strong and moving moral and historical case for him to be here at all. The president visiting the island of Goree, just off of the coast of Senegal. This island was where millions of Africans were sent off into slavery aboard ships to what is now the United States and the rest of the Americas.
President Bush visiting the slave house, looking at the very shackles that were used to hold down those slaves, and also giving a speech, talking about how this commerce of slavery over that period of time was one of the greatest crimes of history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For hundreds of years on this island, peoples of different continents met in fear and cruelty. Today, we gather in respect and friendship, mindful of past wrongs and dedicated to the advance of human liberty. At this place, liberty and life were stolen and sold, human beings were delivered, and sorted, and weighed and branded with the marks of commercial enterprises and loaded as cargo on a voyage without return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: it was those stolen sons and daughters, the president went on to say, that came to America to awaken the conscience there to bring about freedom, and now that there is a shared responsibility, a shared burden between the United States and Africa to pursue freedom, and that is why President Bush comes with a rescue package worth billions of dollars to help fight AIDS, to fight poverty, to fight famine.
The president also, however, coming to talk about how to stabilize the region. He spoke with eight African leaders today. They spoke mainly about Liberia, how to stabilize that country, how to prevent the country descending into another round of bloodshed. The president stopping short of committing troops, but saying he's going to work very closely with those West African countries to try to stabilize that country. This is part of his effort to not only bring a kind of moral cause here on his trip, but there's also the argument, a strategic argument, that in stabilizing these failing or failed states, that the United States can try to prevent breeding grounds for terrorism -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Chris Burns, joining us from Senegal, thank you for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 8, 2003 - 10:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is on a five-day, five nation tour of Africa. He has visited Senegal. His next stop is South Africa. Our Chris Burns is traveling with President Bush, and he joins us from Dakar, Senegal with the latest on the president's visit.
Chris, hello.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Well, the president making a very strong and moving moral and historical case for him to be here at all. The president visiting the island of Goree, just off of the coast of Senegal. This island was where millions of Africans were sent off into slavery aboard ships to what is now the United States and the rest of the Americas.
President Bush visiting the slave house, looking at the very shackles that were used to hold down those slaves, and also giving a speech, talking about how this commerce of slavery over that period of time was one of the greatest crimes of history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For hundreds of years on this island, peoples of different continents met in fear and cruelty. Today, we gather in respect and friendship, mindful of past wrongs and dedicated to the advance of human liberty. At this place, liberty and life were stolen and sold, human beings were delivered, and sorted, and weighed and branded with the marks of commercial enterprises and loaded as cargo on a voyage without return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: it was those stolen sons and daughters, the president went on to say, that came to America to awaken the conscience there to bring about freedom, and now that there is a shared responsibility, a shared burden between the United States and Africa to pursue freedom, and that is why President Bush comes with a rescue package worth billions of dollars to help fight AIDS, to fight poverty, to fight famine.
The president also, however, coming to talk about how to stabilize the region. He spoke with eight African leaders today. They spoke mainly about Liberia, how to stabilize that country, how to prevent the country descending into another round of bloodshed. The president stopping short of committing troops, but saying he's going to work very closely with those West African countries to try to stabilize that country. This is part of his effort to not only bring a kind of moral cause here on his trip, but there's also the argument, a strategic argument, that in stabilizing these failing or failed states, that the United States can try to prevent breeding grounds for terrorism -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Chris Burns, joining us from Senegal, thank you for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
