Maravi

(UHURUNEWS) Why are French troops occupying the streets of Bangui?
Luwezi Kinshasa, Secretary General of the African Socialist International
Published Jan 9, 2014

This time the international press apparatus of white imperialist powers are telling us that the French army has invaded Central Africa Republic (CAR) in order to stop the violence between the African Christian and Muslim community in the country! What childish gibberish!

Imperialist press may be running short of cash, but not short in printing and broadcasting straight lies!

Why have the French invaders and their accomplices of the Chad army decided to overthrow General Francois Bozize who they helped put in power in a 2003 coup against Ange Patasse?

It is clear that Francois Bozize has been ousted from power because he opened up Central Africa Republic resources such as oil and uranium to Chinese and South African companies, which in the long term will inevitably undermine French economic interest and control of CAR.

The presence of the South African army in CAR and around the presidential security cordon of Bozize was a direct curbing of the Chadian army's influence, which used to provide personal security for General Francois Bozize.

Thus, France and the neocolonial army of Chad found common interest in dislodging Francois Bozize from power.

Bozize, like many of the African petty bourgeois leaders on the African continent, attempted to play older imperialists against other emerging economic powers.

Bozize, in his own words explained his fall from power as reported on counterpunch.org on March 28, 2013: "Why did they start raping, killing and hurting the Central African population? We gave them everything. Before giving oil to the Chinese, I met Total [a French oil company] in Paris and told them to take the oil, nothing happened, I gave oil to the Chinese and it became a problem. I sent counselor Maidou in Paris for the Uranium dossier, they refused. I finally gave it to the South Africans..."

The French are busy developing work to mine uranium in Bakouma, some 900 km (560 miles) from Bangui. Some 75 percent of French electricity comes from uranium, and it is reported that at least 25 percent comes from African uranium in Niger alone.

How do you solve a religious conflict? What does religion have to do with mines? Because, one of the first things the rebel soldiers did was to secure the control of mines! It is not a religious question? It is an economic war.

Central African Republic is known to have oil, uranium, diamond, copper, timber etc... It has a wealthy geology. If you look at all the wars in Africa, they are all wars on countries with a lot of wealth underground.

It was reported on March 28, 2013 here on Uhurunews.com that, "It is difficult to believe that a country larger than France and as vast as Texas has less than 500km of paved roads... The Central African Republic is rich in gold, diamonds, wood, etc. The economy of the CAR is dominated by Air France, Bollore (logistic and river transport), Castel (drinks and sugar), Total (storage and distribution of the petroleum products), CFAO for the automobile distribution, etc."

Francois Hollande has sent his troops to maintain French ruling class control of the economy in CAR, which does not serve us but France and the rest of Europe.

Victorious Seleka rebels to end contracts with Chinese and prioritize relations with white imperialist rulers

Michael Djotodia, the leader of Seleka, the victorious alliance of the rebel forces backed by Chad's government has already announced that he will review the CAR's mining and oil contracts with China, signed by the ousted Bozize government, "to see whether things were badly done, to try and sort them out."

Further, Djotodia declared that he would invite the former colonial powers in CAR - France, along with the United States - to retrain the official military, which was defeated by Seleka last weekend.

"We will rely on the European Union to help us develop this country," Mr. Djotodia said, adding that about 80 percent of the country's foreign aid has come from the bloc. "When we have been sick, the European Union was at our bedside. It will not abandon us now."

This reminds us of Laurent Nkunda, one of the leading officers of the Rwanda army involved in proxy wars in Congo in 2008, who always claimed that he took arms to defend the interest of persecuted Tutsi population, but after he took control of parts of the Kivu, in Eastern Congo, he demanded that president Kabila cancel all agreements made with the Chinese, which was clearly in defense of the U.S./EU interests against the Chinese, at the expense of Africa.

As the Chinese companies who are resource hungry and looking for markets in neocolonial Africa in exchange for building infrastructure (which the Chinese call win-win), their European imperialist rivals' response is a military one. Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Libya, Mali, and now Sudan and Central Africa Republic - we are seeing the same response, a military aggression to prevent the ongoing shift in the global balance of power at the expense of Europe and U.S. and their allies.

It is imperative that we explain what is happening to us ourselves, with our own analysis and solutions. All imperialist solutions at best can only be reform of imperialism to maintain status quo; otherwise, they are imperialism business as usual.

It is insane to expect the same imperialist who oppressed us for over 500 years to give us the correct narrative of our miserable and painful existence under their inhumane parasitic capitalism.

It is more insane to try to intoxicate our brains with this nonsensical war of confessions in CAR. It is an imperialist war to loot and kill African people for the material development of Europe and North America. Period.
France lives off African nation's labor and resources. Time to put a final end to it

France cannot change its relationship with Africa by its own accord. Those Africans who voted for Francois Hollande to be president because they thought that Hollande the "socialist" was different from Sarkorzy were mistaken! France, a crisis ridden imperialist country, is aggressively fighting to hold on to its stolen loot.

The former French president Charles De Gaulle used to say that France does not have friends but only interests.

According to Paul Melly and Vincent Darracq in "A New Way to Engage? French Policy in Africa from Sarkozy to Hollande":

"France's engagement in Africa is deep. It intervened militarily in the continent 19 times between 1962 and 1995. But gradually, budgetary concerns and a changed strategic climate have encouraged France to adopt a new multilateral approach. Structural changes to the armed forces, including sharp reductions in the size of the military and base closures between 1997 and 2002 meant France could no longer maintain the dominance that it had in the 1960s and 1970s. Still, according to the French Ministry of Defence, in February 2013, of 10,025 military personnel deployed overseas, 4,610 were in West Africa, 2,180 in central Africa and 270 were involved in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden."

There are about 250,000 French people living in Africa, with at least 10,000 French living in Gabon, which has less than 2,000,000 people. They do not live in poverty like African people in Cape Town, Detroit or Israel. They live in luxury!

The French imperialism out of Mali article in January 2013 stated, “With France's social programs consuming 56 percent of its GDP, Hollande is looking to the neocolonies to solve its economic woes. Hollande is on the same path as his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkorzy, who led the invasion of Libya in conjunction with U.S. military forces from AFRICOM.

"Just before France conceded to African demands for independence in the 1960s, it carefully organized its former colonies (CFA countries) in a system of "compulsory solidarity" which consisted of obliging the 14 African states to put 65 percent of their foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury, plus another 20 percent for financial liabilities. This means these 14 African countries only ever have access to 15 percent of their own money! If they need more they have to borrow their own money from the French at commercial rates! And this has been the case since the 1960s."

We should also remind our people and friends, that if there is crisis in CAR, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal and the rest of the 14 African countries which use the CFA currency, it is because of the French government's devaluation of the CFA overnight by 100 percent in January 1994.

This calculated and cold crime by imperialist France to save itself from collapsing was like striking Africa with a nuclear bomb, as the price of every commodity doubled overnight because of the French engineered devaluation.

So we know why the French imperialist bloodsuckers are sending their troops in CAR. We also know what we must to do to defeat French imperialism.

This quote from the ASI Main Resolution that everyone must read and can be found at asiuhuru.org, calls on us to draw the line in the sand between the African petty bourgeoisie, the ally of white imperialism, and the African working class and its ally of the poor peasantry:

"We must be clear that the international organization necessary to liberate and unify Africa and our scattered nation is a political party in the form of the African Socialist International. With one party rooted in the African working class and allied with the poor peasantry we will have captured the best aspect of the Garvey Movement of the twentieth century... However, unlike Garvey's UNIA, we will have an organization conscious of itself as a revolutionary instrument in the hands of the African working class. This will also distinguish our organization from such formations as those that have been characterized as 'fronts,' 'people's organizations,' 'congresses,' 'unions,' 'conventions'..."

That is why the African Socialist International is calling on all African people everywhere to get on board by joining us, to complete the work of Kwame Nkrumah: the liberation and unification of the oppressed and dispersed African nation.

Stop parasitic capitalism in Africa!

Let's organize! Take the first step!

Join the African Liberation Committee in Europe today!!!

Labels: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, MICHAEL DJOTODIA, NEOCOLONIALISM, URANIUM

posted by MrK @ 4:20 PM