Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Friday December 8, 2000
Ravi Nessman, Associated Press Writer
Albright arrived in South Africa on Thursday, the beginning of a visit to three African countries meant to highlight some of the democracies and economies flourishing on the world's poorest continent.
On Friday, she applauded the high proportion of women in leadership roles in the government here. South Africa and the United States are two of only 14 countries with female foreign ministers, Albright said.
However, more work is needed to protect women's rights, she said.
"Like so many other parts of the world, women remain disproportionately poor, undereducated and underemployed, while suffering too much hardship, too much violence and now the agony of HIV/AIDS ," she told a breakfast meeting of South African female business and political leaders.
Later Friday, Albright planned to meet with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria. They were expected to discuss the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa and what can be done to combat it.
Mbeki has suffered withering international condemnation for entertaining the views of fringe theorists who doubt the link between HIV and AIDS and, in some cases, doubt the existence of the disease at all.
South Africa, with an estimated 4.2 million HIV-positive people, has the highest population of infected people in the world.
National leaders hope Albright will give Mbeki assurances that a change in the White House will not mean a weakening in the strong relationship between the two allies, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said Thursday. Before meeting Mbeki, Albright was to hold a private meeting with Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town. The meeting is a chance for Albright "to recognize his substantial contribution to progress in South Africa and also reconciliation," state department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Albright also planned to visit the prenatal and the HIV/AIDS research units at Soweto's Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, which receives U.S. money for AIDS research.
On Saturday, Albright will fly to Mauritius, the island nation that she helped to win Africa's seat on the U.N. Security Council. She will complete the Africa leg of the trip with a stop in Botswana.
The trip could be the last overseas venture for Albright, who is due to step down in less than seven weeks.
After Africa, she will visit Hungary and then Brussels, where she will attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels next Thursday and Friday.
At the NATO foreign ministers meeting, she plans to take up slumping U.S.-Russian relations with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who will be in Brussels for conferences related to the NATO meeting.
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