Washington Post

Stage Slight

By Al Kamen

Wednesday, April 25, 2001; Page A29

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has turned down an invitation to attend a summit of African leaders this week, and U.S. and U.N. officials say one of the reasons is that he wanted to avoid sharing the stage with former president Bill Clinton.

The two-day Organization of African Unity summit in Abuja, Nigeria, which begins Thursday, is aimed at galvanizing support for reversing the spread of AIDS and other infectious diseases in Africa.

Clinton is planning to attend at the invitation of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, but sources say Powell confided to a colleague that he did not want to appear with Clinton at the event.

"The new administration doesn't want to be associated with an event in which Clinton will be a star," said one source, who requested anonymity. "And Powell doesn't want to be overshadowed by or competitive with Clinton. They don't want to have anything to do with him."

Powell's decision not to attend amounts to a setback for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who had asked Powell to use the summit as his first opportunity to pay a visit to Africa. [OG note--Annan, supposedly a long-time and experienced diplomat, should have known that trying to put the two on the same stage was a faux pas.]

State Department spokesman Phil Reeker said that although Powell was "certainly aware" that Clinton would attend the event, it was not one of the "primary factors" that influenced his decision not to go.

He said that Powell wanted to attend a congressional budget hearing on State Department funding on Thursday and that he had already promised the Rev. Leon Sullivan, the organizer of another conference in Nigeria on U.S.-African relations, that he would try to attend the May 21-25 conference. That meeting, however, has been canceled.

Next time maybe they'll build a bigger stage.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Answers

U.N. officials say that was the reason? How the hell do they know. I'm sure they didn't get it from Powell.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

I guess "they" wanted to humiliate him, like Laura was humiliated at the Met's Jackie O thing.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001