Black&Red
28th September 2009, 19:54
Here's a text I've translated from this site (http://www.stop-fran%C3%83%C2%A7afrique.com) , I hope you will learn things from it, and would be glad to receive any complementary information as regarding the role of France in Africa.
The desire of emancipation of the old colonies emerges strongly at the very end of WWII, reinforced by the USA and the USSR. The political pressure is strong for the Général De Gaulle. But he does not wish the independence of the old empire for at least 5 reasons.
-Two political reasons: to keep a group of allied states(vote reserve) enabling France to keep an important position in international institutions(like the UN for example); and until 1990, to keep Frances assigned place in the "cold war", by avoiding the propagation of communism to the old colonies.
-Two economical reasons: the access to strategic raw material such as uranium and oil; to keep on with the money brought by old colonial companies(bananas, cocoa, wood, coffee, etc...).
-One shameful reason: the misappropriation of Africa's money to finance the gaullist movement(through circuits that will irrigated afterwords the others parties in government).
Politically driven back, De Gaulles started the process of decolonization in the 60's. But, will proclaiming this new state of international political relations, he charges his most devoted follower Jacques Foccart to maintain the French speaking countries in Africa under French tutelage by a series of illegal means. Jacques Foccart is an extremely powerful person: he practically controlled the French secret services(the SDECE, that will become the DGSE in the 80's), he supervises the nominations to the main functions of the gaullist party as well to the government, and finally is in charge of the finances of the party. He will brilliantly manoeuvre the "confiscation of independences".
His main strategy will be the installation of head of states that are favourable to the to France, by physically executing the independent leaders and fraudulent elections. A certain amount of head of states chosen by Foccart were formed in French officers and sub-officers schools. Many of them belong to the French secret services. Secret deals are made with the leaders of these countries officially independent. For more than 40 years, the French speaking countries at the south of Sahara live with cooperation deals, notably monetary and military, conceived as if they were never to be independent. Jacques Foccart with these ways puts into place a "network" controlled and perpetrated by a series of correspondents: secret service agents, business man, functionaries and all sorts of counsellors. For example, each counsellors of the Ivorian "president" Houphouët-Boigny were French.
As the well as the US have their backyard in south America, France needs to have her backyard in Africa.
Encouraged by the impulsion of the US, the notion of "development" emerges with the decolonization movement: the industrialized western countries must help the "under-developed" countries. Like most countries in the OECD, France puts in charge a range of instutions in charge of cooperation and development. The expenses affected to this effect are gathered under the name of "Public Aid to the Development"(APD). The French government dedicates 30 to 40 billions francs each year. Far from working for development, this APD has in reality many functions:
-To maintain the "friendly" regimes and if possible extend France influence in Africa.
-To favour the misappropriation of African resources. Each lucrative explotation of raw material(oil, uranium, manganese, exotic woods, gold, cobalt, diamonds, cocoa, coffee, bananas, cotton, etc...) is helped by a mechanism of "aids" that enables to ease the private income towards the French "pockets"(investments to ameliorate production, corruption of the local elites, jobs to facilitate the access to these resources, etc...).
-Help to sell some a certain number of French productions with comfortable margins, sometimes unbelievable and a redistribution to French political parties.
The rest of the APD is used for commercial promotion, to the defence of the francophonie (french speaking countries and peoples), to France prestige, even for scholar funds to the children of the deported! The association SURVIE estimates that half of the total of the APD is misappropriated and that less than 2% is used to reduce the extreme misery of 1 billion people.
Foccart out, the system is breaking up in appearance.
When the president Giscard fires Foccart, his pyramidal network, without its head, seams dedicated to collapse(we shall see further that a Chirac-Pasqua tandem has in reality taken over, but in a less "official" way). The Collapse of the Soviet Union and of apartheid are also going to break up the African political and geopolitical stakes. Foccarts initial network, and his strategy were directly controlled by the Elysée(French white house) and its famous "African cell", is going to dissolve itself apparently in fifteen or so networks, each one of them having it's own strategy. The African politic of France doesn't seem then to be centralized anymore but more to be a random darts game that evolves around "mouth-watering" stakes: misappropriation of the APD or of the private income from raw material, parallel financing of the political life, "game yard" of bonuses and promotions for the military, money laundering, weapon and drug traffics, etc...
This very tempting "honey jar" attracts all kind of actors. We will name:
-The French political networks. Jacques Chiracs one will prove to be the most efficient one by far. It realizes first on the networks of Charles Pasqua, who came in in 1970 in dissidence of foccartism. Then Chirac will recover the heritage and advices of Foccart in the 80's...before experiencing some arguments with the Pasqua Clan. Valérie Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterand also developed their own networks structured on the old ones. Other French political personalities have tried to create their own African networks, but of less significant importance.
-The secret services. the DGSE is extremely influent, but also the DRM(Direction of Military Information), DST(Direction of the Territory's Security), the SCTIP (police cooperation and information at the service of the minister of interior), the DPSD(Direction of the protection of defense security).
-The military lobby. The high staff in France is mainly formed of officers who did an accelerated career in Africa. For these peoples, it's out of question that France takes her troupes out of an Africa that is some what of a link to their identity, and the source of many privileges.
-Multinational French Corporations. TotalFinaElf, Bouygues and Suez(building, water), Bolloré(transports), Pinault(distribution), etc...*
-The extreme right. there is many bridges between mercenary companies and the famous "Protection Security Department" of the FN(French NF). We can notice the more and more frequent call to mercenary companies, equipped with heavy armament, in the worlds "grey zones"(lasting crises, forgotten conflicts)-many of them in Africa. The British are way more "advanced" in this field.
-Lets not forget also fake NGOs, traffickers of all kind and of course transnational mafia.
All of these networks are helped by, the political class, high finance, medias, the justice, the services, military hierarchy, and administrations. They are a guarantee of mutual help and participate in keeping the silence at a national scale.
The desire of emancipation of the old colonies emerges strongly at the very end of WWII, reinforced by the USA and the USSR. The political pressure is strong for the Général De Gaulle. But he does not wish the independence of the old empire for at least 5 reasons.
-Two political reasons: to keep a group of allied states(vote reserve) enabling France to keep an important position in international institutions(like the UN for example); and until 1990, to keep Frances assigned place in the "cold war", by avoiding the propagation of communism to the old colonies.
-Two economical reasons: the access to strategic raw material such as uranium and oil; to keep on with the money brought by old colonial companies(bananas, cocoa, wood, coffee, etc...).
-One shameful reason: the misappropriation of Africa's money to finance the gaullist movement(through circuits that will irrigated afterwords the others parties in government).
Politically driven back, De Gaulles started the process of decolonization in the 60's. But, will proclaiming this new state of international political relations, he charges his most devoted follower Jacques Foccart to maintain the French speaking countries in Africa under French tutelage by a series of illegal means. Jacques Foccart is an extremely powerful person: he practically controlled the French secret services(the SDECE, that will become the DGSE in the 80's), he supervises the nominations to the main functions of the gaullist party as well to the government, and finally is in charge of the finances of the party. He will brilliantly manoeuvre the "confiscation of independences".
His main strategy will be the installation of head of states that are favourable to the to France, by physically executing the independent leaders and fraudulent elections. A certain amount of head of states chosen by Foccart were formed in French officers and sub-officers schools. Many of them belong to the French secret services. Secret deals are made with the leaders of these countries officially independent. For more than 40 years, the French speaking countries at the south of Sahara live with cooperation deals, notably monetary and military, conceived as if they were never to be independent. Jacques Foccart with these ways puts into place a "network" controlled and perpetrated by a series of correspondents: secret service agents, business man, functionaries and all sorts of counsellors. For example, each counsellors of the Ivorian "president" Houphouët-Boigny were French.
As the well as the US have their backyard in south America, France needs to have her backyard in Africa.
Encouraged by the impulsion of the US, the notion of "development" emerges with the decolonization movement: the industrialized western countries must help the "under-developed" countries. Like most countries in the OECD, France puts in charge a range of instutions in charge of cooperation and development. The expenses affected to this effect are gathered under the name of "Public Aid to the Development"(APD). The French government dedicates 30 to 40 billions francs each year. Far from working for development, this APD has in reality many functions:
-To maintain the "friendly" regimes and if possible extend France influence in Africa.
-To favour the misappropriation of African resources. Each lucrative explotation of raw material(oil, uranium, manganese, exotic woods, gold, cobalt, diamonds, cocoa, coffee, bananas, cotton, etc...) is helped by a mechanism of "aids" that enables to ease the private income towards the French "pockets"(investments to ameliorate production, corruption of the local elites, jobs to facilitate the access to these resources, etc...).
-Help to sell some a certain number of French productions with comfortable margins, sometimes unbelievable and a redistribution to French political parties.
The rest of the APD is used for commercial promotion, to the defence of the francophonie (french speaking countries and peoples), to France prestige, even for scholar funds to the children of the deported! The association SURVIE estimates that half of the total of the APD is misappropriated and that less than 2% is used to reduce the extreme misery of 1 billion people.
Foccart out, the system is breaking up in appearance.
When the president Giscard fires Foccart, his pyramidal network, without its head, seams dedicated to collapse(we shall see further that a Chirac-Pasqua tandem has in reality taken over, but in a less "official" way). The Collapse of the Soviet Union and of apartheid are also going to break up the African political and geopolitical stakes. Foccarts initial network, and his strategy were directly controlled by the Elysée(French white house) and its famous "African cell", is going to dissolve itself apparently in fifteen or so networks, each one of them having it's own strategy. The African politic of France doesn't seem then to be centralized anymore but more to be a random darts game that evolves around "mouth-watering" stakes: misappropriation of the APD or of the private income from raw material, parallel financing of the political life, "game yard" of bonuses and promotions for the military, money laundering, weapon and drug traffics, etc...
This very tempting "honey jar" attracts all kind of actors. We will name:
-The French political networks. Jacques Chiracs one will prove to be the most efficient one by far. It realizes first on the networks of Charles Pasqua, who came in in 1970 in dissidence of foccartism. Then Chirac will recover the heritage and advices of Foccart in the 80's...before experiencing some arguments with the Pasqua Clan. Valérie Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterand also developed their own networks structured on the old ones. Other French political personalities have tried to create their own African networks, but of less significant importance.
-The secret services. the DGSE is extremely influent, but also the DRM(Direction of Military Information), DST(Direction of the Territory's Security), the SCTIP (police cooperation and information at the service of the minister of interior), the DPSD(Direction of the protection of defense security).
-The military lobby. The high staff in France is mainly formed of officers who did an accelerated career in Africa. For these peoples, it's out of question that France takes her troupes out of an Africa that is some what of a link to their identity, and the source of many privileges.
-Multinational French Corporations. TotalFinaElf, Bouygues and Suez(building, water), Bolloré(transports), Pinault(distribution), etc...*
-The extreme right. there is many bridges between mercenary companies and the famous "Protection Security Department" of the FN(French NF). We can notice the more and more frequent call to mercenary companies, equipped with heavy armament, in the worlds "grey zones"(lasting crises, forgotten conflicts)-many of them in Africa. The British are way more "advanced" in this field.
-Lets not forget also fake NGOs, traffickers of all kind and of course transnational mafia.
All of these networks are helped by, the political class, high finance, medias, the justice, the services, military hierarchy, and administrations. They are a guarantee of mutual help and participate in keeping the silence at a national scale.