Posted on 02/27/2003 4:02:28 AM PST by Clive
PARIS -
The French are back.
If there was one clear message from the Franco-African summit in Paris last week, it was that France wants to renew ties with the world’s poorest continent and extend its influence beyond its old colonial backyard in west and central Africa.
After taking a back seat since a controversial intervention that failed to halt Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, and may have helped many of those responsible to escape, President Jacques Chirac said war-torn Africa is again at the heart of French policy.
"Some of you have had the impression that France was tending to distance itself from Africa," Chirac told the leaders last week. "The French government has taken steps to rectify this ... Africa lies at the heart of France’s priorities."
His re-election last year ended five years of paralysing power-sharing with a Socialist government that did not share his Gaullist view of France’s continuing role in its former empire.
As he seeks to carve out a new, post-Cold War, post-imperial role for France in a world dominated by the United States — an autonomy that has put him at odds with Washington over Iraq — Chirac’s ability to gather the leaders of all 52 recognised African governments around him was visually impressive.
Among the few concrete results of the 22nd such summit was a joint commitment to France’s stand against a US-led war on Iraq.
Yet France’s renewed assertiveness in Africa is already raising eyebrows among both advocates of greater Western involvement to foster democracy and development in Africa and critics of what is seen as pure neo-colonialism.
And while African leaders may hope Chirac will make their voices heard in the international arena, it is far from clear whether the "new partnership" preached by the French president will make any difference in a continent plagued by war, poverty, corruption and disease.
Out of 14 countries currently gripped by war or armed rebellions, all but four are in French-speaking Africa. And many of the African presidents wined and dined in Paris face accusations of serious human rights abuses, in some cases torture and genocide.
A messy civil war in Ivory Coast, once the placid jewel of France’s west African empire, and the row over Chirac’s decision to invite Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to the summit point to the traps lying ahead for Paris’s new African policy.
Stung by criticism over the Rwanda debacle and suggestions its past African policy was driven more by commercial interests than a genuine concern for democracy, France has based its new stance on a commitment to peace, democracy and development.
Its declared neutrality in Ivory Coast, where Chirac has deployed 3 000 troops to keep the rebels and government forces apart, reflects its wariness at being associated with any side that is accused of committing atrocities.
Yet a French-brokered peace deal intended to end the five-month conflict is stalled and Chirac’s arm-twisting diplomacy towards President Laurent Gbagbo has so far yielded little, but enough to outrage Gbagbo’s supporters.
With its troops looking increasingly sucked into the war, France may get more than it bargained for as it tries to prevent the conflict from spiralling out of control.
France’s new activism has also ruffled feathers among those advocating home- grown solutions for Africa’s problems.
Despite warm smiles and kisses on the cheeks at the Paris summit, some slammed France’s stance as patronising and said it smacked of foreign interference.
"The French are acting as if they were in another era," said a west African delegation member, angered by what he saw as Chirac’s lecturing of his African peers at the summit.
"They seem to forget that there is a new generation of Africans, many of them educated in Europe, who cherish their independence and don’t want to be told what to do," he said.
Even France’s traditional, long-serving allies can be touchy over the new hands-on African policy.
Togolese officials make clear that President Gnassingbe Eyadema, the top West African mediator in Ivory Coast’s crisis, resented Chirac’s decision to hold talks in Paris last month in the face of faltering regional efforts to end the conflict.
Critics also accuse France of double standards in Africa.
Paris increasingly questions Gbagbo’s democratic credentials — but it said notably little last year when a change in Togo’s constitution allowed Eyadema, who seized power 36 years ago and is Africa’s longest-serving leader, to stand for another term.
Mugabe’s trip to Paris sparked a diplomatic squabble with Britain and was slammed by rights activists as shameful, despite France’s insistence Chirac would talk tough with the Zimbabwean leader over the deepening political crisis in his country.
"It has yet to be proved that things will be said," wrote the left-leaning daily Liberation last Thursday, before Chirac held late-night talks with Mugabe at his Elysee Palace.
"One thing is certain — they won’t be l istened to." - Reuter
Just when you think things in Africa couldn't get any worse, the French decide to stick their oar in.
A one note symphony.
The legacy of France.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.