France finds itself bogged down in Ivory Coast conflict

PARIS -- Only Sunday, French President Jacques Chirac sat at an elegant conference center off the Champs Elysees, basking in praise for a newly cobbled peace agreement between rebels and government leaders of Ivory Coast.

Flanked by African heads of state and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Chirac listened appreciatively as Gabonese President Omar Bongo dubbed him "Mr. Africa" and thanked France for "saving" the continent.

Today, the peace accord appears in tatters, and France and its president are being described in far less complimentary terms. Thousands of pro-government demonstrators have attacked businesses and other interests in the Ivorian commercial capital, Abidjan, denouncing the agreement as a sellout to rebels who control about half the country.

As the West African powerhouse teeters on the brink of chaos, France's Africa policy too is at a crossroads. Gone is the suffocatingly close "France-Afrique" relationship of postcolonial days. But gone, too, since last fall, is a more hands-off African strategy, crafted by leftist and conservative French governments during the 1990s.

The 2,500 French peacekeeping forces in the Ivory Coast amount to the largest French military presence in Africa in two decades. And, some analysts say, there is no exit plan in sight.

"If France had done nothing, we'd have seen the Ivory Coast go up in flames," said Richard Banegas, editor of the Paris-based Africa Policy magazine. "If France retreats now, the situation may collapse rapidly. If France gets more involved there will also be a fallout. It's a situation that appears completely inextricable."

Thursday, the first wave of 264 French evacuees arrived outside Paris. More French nationals prepared to leave Abidjan as a tense calm returned after four days of rioting.

In recent days, top Ivorian officials and opposition parties have backtracked on a critical part of the Paris peace pact: to hand key defense and interior ministries to northern rebels as part of a new unity government. Indeed, the country's interior minister has declared the entire Marcoussis peace accord "null and void."

For his part, President Laurent Gbagbo has postponed a national address to explain the peace agreement, after minimizing it as a series of "proposals."

"Does this mean France was duped? Or that France was naive or badly inspired?" French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin asked Wednesday. "It simply means the situation is difficult. . . . We have avoided the worst, until now, in the Ivory Coast. And we are fighting to ensure the path to peace and reconciliation is truly realized."

The easy explanation for French intervention in the Ivorian turmoil lies in more than $1-billion in French business investments in the West African country, home to 25,000 French nationals.

Critics like French Sen. Pierre Biarnes see no reason for France to waste its efforts on a continent with little strategic value.

"It's idiotic for us to intervene in Ivory Coast or elsewhere in Africa," said Biarnes, a former West African correspondent for Le Monde newspaper. "Do you think for one second this Marcoussis agreement will succeed? And if so, how will it help us?"

But France also remains haunted by the repercussions of doing nothing. Human rights activists accused French troops of failing to prevent a massacre of Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

"Rwanda taught us that abstaining can be even more criminal than intervening," said Jean-Francois Medard, an analyst at the Center for African Studies in Bordeaux. "But the international community should be much more involved in Ivory Coast. France finds itself very much alone there."

"Events have forced France to reinsert itself in Africa," Medard added. "But that doesn't amount to a strategic vision. We're in a situation of fluidity, and we don't know where we're going."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright