Letter to the Editor, in response to Johann Hari’s article on French action in Africa

Sir,

In the 5 October edition of your newspaper you published in the Extra section an article entitled “Inside France’s Secret War, the content of which I categorically reject for several reasons.

Firstly, through a very aggressive introduction, Johann Hari attempts to convey a horror story which he totally fails to substantiate in the body of the article.

Secondly, the human rights situation in CAR is known and subject to a monthly review by the UN Peacebuilding Support Office in the Central African Republic (BONUCA).

The author accuses France of human rights violations in the CAR in order to protect her exploitation of the region’s wealth. He neglects to mention that the French armed forces are acting in CAR only at the request of the Central African Republic’s authorities and in support of the Multinational Force of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, financed by the European Union.

A glance at the figures would be enough to see that French economic interests in CAR are extremely limited: CAR is in 140th position on France’s list of customers and ranked 142nd on that of her suppliers. Such a conspiracy theory is just as unbelievable as purporting that the British military intervention in Sierra Leone was designed to monopolise that country’s diamond production. The Central African State’s weakness and absence of control over her territory increases her vulnerability to the spillover from the Darfur conflict which is impacting on the situation in north-west CAR. The UFDR (Union of Democratic Forces for Unity) rebels’ attack on Birao in March is public knowledge and Alpha Oumar Konaré, chairman of the African Union Commission, firmly condemned it in a communiqué on 5 March 2007.

In accordance with the rules of engagement, the use of force by French soldiers on 4 March 2007 was strictly confined to legitimate self-defence: the rebels had attacked the town, killed CAR soldiers, wounded many of them and attacked our forces.

It is precisely the seriousness of this situation which led the UN Security Council on 25 September this year unanimously to adopt Resolution 1778, presented by France, authorising deployment of an EU operation in eastern Chad and the north-eastern CAR.

Thirdly, the accusations levelled against France on her role in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994 are totally unacceptable. France played no role whatsoever in preparing or perpetuating the genocide. My country constantly strove to help bring about a negotiated solution between the parties to the conflict.

After the genocide began, and faced with the international community’s impotence, France supported at the UN the deployment of a humanitarian operation and, acting on a mandate from the Security Council set out in UNSCR 929, undertook the only large-scale operation to save the threatened population.

France has nothing to hide in Africa, as her full cooperation with the NGOs, International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda and the International Criminal Court, which is currently carrying out an investigation in CAR, demonstrates. Further evidence of her commitment to the continent has again been shown by the recent initiative on Darfur.

Gérard Errera