AS THE armies of the Rwandan Patriotic Front moved to take control of their country in the wake of the genocide in spring last year, France rushed troops to the region.
Their aim was to protect French interests in Central Africa, interests which involved a long-standing alliance with the forces in Rwanda responsible for the genocide.
The emergency deployment of French troops - covered by the usual made-to-measure United Nations mandate - gave the lie to some common misconceptions about today's world.
Firstly, the myth that the rich nations are not interested in Africa and secondly, the notion that modern imperialism can live without its historic roots in crude colonialism.
The former French empire, apart from distant Indochina, was concentrated in a continuous swathe of territory stretching from North to Central Africa. In the 1950s and 60s, France ceded direct colonial control of this region to formally independent regimes over which it has striven to maintain a decisive influence ever since.
There is a junior minister for "Francophonia", as the alliance of French-speaking countries is called, in the government in Paris. Francophonia's African members have been economically tied to France through the Communité financière africaine (CFA - African Financial Community). At regular intervals, these countries' leaders assemble for mutual back-scratching summits.
Francophone Africa is a land of one-party states and sometimes of notorious tyrannies, such as that of Bokassa in the Central African Republic or Mobutu's in Zaire. This is an inevitable part of neo-colonialism; if the regimes were democratic and popular, they would no longer be reliant on France for their survival. Despite occasional French critiJust like the Americans in Latin America, France wants to be in charge in Africa cisms of their protégés and to resume nuclear tests in the some dabbling with opposi- Pacific. Maintaining military tion groups, France's troops bases in reliable African have intervened many times countries is an important asto prop up friendly dictators. pect of French global strategy, Apart from direct eco- as is access to secure sources nomic links, Francophonia is of strategic raw materials. an essential pillar of French Francophone countries form a great power pretentions. useful pro-French voting bloc Unlike Britain, France has in the United Nations. done its utmost to develop a Just like the Americans in military capability, including Latin America and the Caribnuclear weapons, not directly bean, French imperialism reliant on NATO and the needs to be in charge in its United States. African backyard.
At the formal transfer of Efforts by "the Anglo-Saxthe presidency last month, the ons" to muscle in on Africa outgoing Mitterrand passed are no more welcome to the secret nuclear codes on to France than European efforts incomer Chirac. France is set to "interfere" in Central America or the Caribbean are to the US.
However, France is in all material respects a far weaker country than the United States.
Since the Cold War it has only been able to pursue its "independent" policy thanks to US tolerance and with many concessions to the latter's global strategic framework.
Now, with rivalries between North America and Europe intensifying, the French ruling class knows that it has reached a strategic crossroads.
This is where European Union and Maastricht come Refugees flee the Burundi army: its pose as an "impartial" force is not convincing would resign if foreign troops arrived.
This is different from the situation in Rwanda, where I supported an intervention. There, the army and militia were massacring the unarmed population. In Burundi, the army says it wants to maintain calm. It must be forced to do so. Observers must be sent.
That said, the UN force did nothing. It was withdrawn when it should have intervened. Today it is still there, at a cost of a million dollars a day, but it is useless. The governmental agreement was reached after the coup d'état. Some say it is simply the follow-up to this coup.
It's clear that the agreement does not correspond to the results of the elections, which gave an absolute majority to Frodebu. But the agreement reassures the Tutsi minority.
It is also the result of the balance of forces, because the in. Only through a common European defence and foreign policy can France find the resources necessary to sustain her world role. But creating the institutions for a common policy requires haggling with the European partners.
Notably, Germany tends to be in favour of a stronger European Commission and Parliament in which national differences are blurred, while French President Chirac is in favour of a reassertion of the role of the national governments. Europe is all very well, but there must still be a French army, and a French bomb under French control!
Meanwhile, Africa suffers a multitude of plagues. Among them that of being cast in a supporting role in the psychodramas of imperialist megalomania.
The task of full decolonisation, essential for development meeting the needs of the people, remains incomplete and a challenge for the forces of progress in Africa and in Europe. Tutsis, although a minority, have a strong presence in the bureaucracy, industry and trade.
Hutus have been recruited into the army over the past few years, but the military hierarchy is 100% Tutsi. Have the fall in the price of coffee and the impact of structural adjustment programmes had the same destabilising impact in Burundi as in Rwanda?
Yes. Another destabilising factor has been the creation of a free-trade zone around Bujumbura. It is aimed at attracting foreign businesses.
They employ a small local labour force, but do not pay Burundian taxes. This zone was created with the support of the IMF and it plays a key role in the trade in gold and precious stones coming especially from Zaire. Trade in gold is close to gold-smuggling. The zone attracts smugglers.