Mitterrand as defender of the empire THE SENDING of yet another French expeditionary force to Chad has become closely intertwined with the campaign for the March 16 parliamentary elections. On the one hand, it points up the fact that the "left" government has continued to pursue France's traditional imperialist policies. On the other, it has been interpreted as a show of force to reassure the right that the socialist government can be as "tough" as a right-wing one. The following articles indicate the response of the French section of the Fourth International to this new imperialist adventure and the way that it has linked the issue to its own campaign for the parliamentary elections on March 16. They are from the February 10 issue of Rouge, the paper of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR). CLAUDE GABRIEL
CHAD between the military blitzkriegs conducted by Mitterrand, as well as by Giscard and de Gaulle before him, France has never stopped being involved in Chad. From 1961 to 1965, the French army directly administered the northem provinces, while the southern ones were "governed" by the dictator Tombalbaye, who was kept in his presidential chair by Paris.
Ever since, France has never stopped playing a behind-the-scenes role in the various regimes. It remained enmeshed in the country's economic machinery, and it has kept on training the official Chadian army.
Thus, for 25 years, French imperialism has been holding up a semblance of a Chadian state apparatus. In its present juridical form, this state is an arbitrary construction. It provides a legal framework for controlling a vast buffer zone between Central Africa, West Africa, and North Africa. It is a totally different thing from a national state developing out of the history of the peoples living in the territory themselves.
Between the Northern and Southern regions, and in many cases within these regions themselves, the economic and cultural disparities are immense. The colonialists were never able to unify these lands.
If France persists in maintaining it centralizing state in this country, a centralizing state in this country, question the legality of the neocolonial institutions, as well as the borders established under colonial rule.
Recognizing the illegitimacy of the central government in Chad would imply recognizing the illegitimacy of all the other corrupt and repressive regimes that maintain themselves only by their capacity to centralize states by force. French imperialism cannot take such a risk. The contending factions
At the same time, this hope, which is as vain as it is reactionary, that a centralizing state can be established, has brought about the imbroglio in Chad and continues to aggravate it.
The successive regimes have all proved incapable of unifying the territory. The three major military expeditions carried out up until now have all left behind a still greater fragmentation of the contending factions. Far from sticking the pieces
1. Green is the color of Islam, of which Qadhafi claims to be a paladin. The "Green Book, " a list of quotations from Qadhafi, is the Tripoli regime's equivalent of Mao's "Little Red Book."
For the fourth time since 1968, the French army has intervened in a conflict that has been going on for 26 years, ever since Chad became independent. Over this period the configuration of forces locked in combat has shifted as factions broke up or made alliances according to the circumstances. France has also shifted its support around. It has allied itself with various forces. But one thing is certain: over a quarter of a century, the French have remained constantly involved in Chad.
In this respect, French president Francois Mitterrand's policy is similar in all points to those of his predecessors. It is all fancy footwork and interference in Chad. In 1981, the Socialists supported the Transitional Government of National Unity [GUNT] and Goukouni Oueddei. They went over to Hissene Habre when he overthrew Goukouni on June 7, 1982. Then in August 1983, in response to an appeal from Habre, the French army intervened against the GUNT, which was fighting in the northern part of the country.
This intervention, Operation Manta, led finally to the partition of the country. To the north of the famous red line, which roughly follows the 15th parallel, was desert, palm groves, and the domain of the GUNT and its Libyan allies. To the south lay the "useful part" of Chad, the cottongrowing area, which was occupied by the French army.
The year 1984 was marked by the Mitterrand-Qadhafi meeting. An
International Viewpoint 10 March 1986 agreement for withdrawal by both sides was concluded. The French expeditionary force retreated over the southern border of the country to the Bangui base in the Central African Republic. For a moment the guns were still.
The new French operation that has just been launched seems to be connected to renewed fighting initiated by the GUNT, aided by the Qadhafi regime.
Does this mean that it was "green imperialism" (1), the Libyan danger, that prompted this action by Paris? France certainly does not want to see "the Guide" [Qadhafi] operating in its former colonial possessions. Above all, the government has to reassure its allies, such as Zaire, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast. But that is not the fundamental reason for the French interventions.
First of all, it must be said that
Miles 200 LIBYA CHAD
Tibesti l
NIGER Chad Lake CHAD SUDAN
Massaguet Ndjamena
NIGERIA
Moundou • Sarh CAMEROON CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
LCR election appeal ALL THAT WAS needed to get the politicans to break off their squabbling, it seems, was the roar of French Jaguars in the sky over Chad. No one expected the Socialist Party to disavow the military intervention. Long ago, it traded in its principles for a servile adaption to the president's policy. Substantial criticisms could not have been expected from the right. Did it not, in its time, engage in the same interference in the affairs of the African peoples?
The most remarkable thing, no doubt, is that this climate of unity extended to the Communist Party, which has refused to condemn the bombing of Ouadi-Doum [Libyan-built airfield in northern Chad]. It is true that there was no way that it could decorously oppose a decision very similar to Operation Manta, which it approved in August 1983 when it was in the government.
What difference does it make to these actors in the parliamentary shadow play that this new colonial expedition is costing tens of millions of francs, while a lot of unemployed people are left without resources? What does it matter to them that the French paratroopers are going to the rescue of a regime infamous for its cruelty to civilian populations? For them, only one thing is important - to make sure that the world's third greatest military power is not given a comeuppance by the small Libyan state.
It is unacceptable for the right of the peoples to self-determination to be trampled under foot in this way. It is unacceptable for the army to get all the credits it demands while the workers are being hit by a brutal austerity.
The fight for justice and freedom is indivisible. A genuine left policy must oppose the imperialism that keeps in itsyokethe peoples of the Overseas Territories [the TOM-DOM] and maintains a private preserve on the African continent.
In this election campaign, the LCR [Ligue communiste revolutionnarie — French section of the Fourth International] candidates and the slates that it supports have been almost alone in proclaiming these principles. This is another elements of southern factions and even a number of cadres of the GUNT have gone over to the regime, probably helped along by the French secret services.
In fact, it may be to stop this internal crisis that the GUNT has resumed hostilities in the North. But it is still too early to accept such an explanation.
Throughout this entire affair, Libya's policy toward Chad has had little to do with the anti-imperialism proclaimed by Qadhafi. In this region, the colonel's regime has conducted a murky policy, marked by abrupt tums and provocations.
Tripoli's twists and turns correspond to the needs of the Libyan state, which, to achieve its aims, uses the same methods as those it claims to be fighting - manipulation, cynicism and violence against populations.
None of the existing camps cares about the masses. While it is true that a section of the population is living off this interminable crisis, lining up behind one group or another in the name of ethnic interests, the great majority are simply enduring the war.
The economic and social situation in Chad is catastrophic. Chronic underemployment, one of the highest rates of infant mortality, only two doctors per 100,000 inhabitants -these are only a few of a long list of symptoms of poverty. But, of course, no one has bothered to take these into account.
PY 203 МЕТЕЛЕ. International Viewpoint 10 March 1986 reason to vote for them on March 16. count. back together, French policy has always reinforced the centrifugal forces.
Up to 15 politico-military factions have clashed or regrouped at times in temporary alliances. Most of them have come out of the breakup of the old southern regime or the crisis of FROLINAT (Front de liberation nationale du Tehad - Chad National Liberation Front), which was built
That is one way to make your vote in the North between 1966 and 1972. Another example is that Goukouni and Habre found themselves side by side in government in 1979-1980, before going separate ways.
The fact that the Habre government, which has been in power now since 1982, has acquired a certain stability (to be sure, a very relative one) has been conducive to a series of realignments. Recently, several
French troops arriving in Massakory, north of N'djemena, 1983 (DR)
IRISENAT
10