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France getting mired in war?

By Vaiju Naravane

Paris Dec. 17. Is France slowly getting sucked into a reluctant war in the Ivory Coast? France has sent over 2000 soldiers to its former colony in a bid to shore up the Government of the besieged President, Laurent Gbagbo, ever since a civil war began in parts of this West African state almost three months ago. This is the most important direct French involvement on the African continent since the operation in Rwanda in 1994 and in Chad in the early `80s and there are fears that France might get mired in a long and sticky conflict.

The Ivory Coast, which dominates Africa's cocoa coast is of tremendous strategic interest to France. French officials indicate Paris is involved because there is a "risk of the conflict spreading to other African nations, ravaging western Africa.''

French soldiers have been given orders to "shoot at sight'' anyone attempting to "impede their mission'' which ostensibly is to protect the 20,000 French nationals who live in this troubled former French colony. The French soldiers however have become the de facto frontline separating government-held territory from rebel strongholds. French units operating in Ivory Coast are using combat helicopters, armoured vehicles and planes for support to ground forces.

Rebel leaders warned the French that any more moves to prop up the President will make French soldiers their targets. France says its soldiers are there as part of a defence pact signed with the Ivorian authorities and to protect its nationals in its former colony. France has attempted to start up a multilateral dialogue in the Togolese capital Lome for the resolution of the conflict that includes several African leaders. But negotiations are at a standstill. There has been a furious anti-French campaign in the Ivorian press as well as several demonstrations against the French presence on Ivorian soil. The situation on the ground is confused with three principal rebel factions formed on ethnic lines, coming together and splitting apart, sometimes approving the French presence, at others violently reacting to it.

France however is worried about the situation getting out of hand. When the rebellion first broke out the government of Mr. Gbagbo declared that neighbouring Burkina Faso and Liberia had armed and aided the rebels. A large Bourkinabe population lives and works in the relatively better off Ivory Coast. However, it has now become clear that there is more to this conflict than simply "foreign hands'' at work. With the deployment of 500 extra troops over the week-end, Paris has entered a new phase of "activism'', no longer content to be a neutral observer or peacekeeper.

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