US Bush receives African democracy activists

June 27, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — US President George W. Bush honored four National Endowment for Democracy award recipients from Africa, saying their efforts proved that “freedom belongs to everybody.”

Bush met in the Oval Office with Immaculee Birhaheka from Democratic Republic of the Congo; Zainab Hawa Bangura of Sierra Leone; Alfred Taban of Sudan; and Dr Reginald Matchaba-Hove of Zimbabwe.

“My spirits are enriched by talking to freedom lovers and freedom fighters,” said the president.

Bush said Taban is an eloquent advocate for a free press; while Matchaba-Hove pushed him “on the need for the United States to make sure we stay engaged with the democracy movements and help people who are hungry.”

Bihaheka “is very concerned about free elections, and she wants to make sure people in the rural part of her country are represented in free elections,” said the US president.

Bush said that Bangura told him of an escape from Liberia in the mid-1990s, when she “had to get on a fishing boat to escape the authorities who wanted to do her harm because she expressed her desire for people to be free.”

“I’m proud to have you here in the Oval Office. I thank you for being witness to this universal fact that liberty is universal in its application, that people everywhere desire to be free,” said Bush.

(ST)