France. Central African Republic. Oil. Coups. Same sheet of music as *

[Tinoire]

The G5 is simply carving up, re-arranging the world.

Timeline: Central African Republic

A chronology of key events:
1880s - France annexes the area.

1894 - France sets up a dependency in the area called Ubangi-Chari and partitions it among commercial concessionaires.

1910 - Ubangi-Chari becomes part of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa.

1920-30 - Indigenous Africans stage violent protests against abuses by concessionaires.

1946 - The territory is given its own assembly and representation in the French parliament; Barthelemy Boganda, founder of the pro-independence Social Evolution Movement of Black Africa (MESAN), becomes the first Central African to be elected to the French parliament.

1957 - MESAN wins control of the territorial assembly; Boganda becomes president of the Grand Council of French Equatorial Africa.

Independence

1958 - The territory achieves self-government within French Equatorial Africa with Boganda as prime minister.

1959 - Boganda dies.

1960 - The Central African Republic becomes independent with David Dacko, nephew of Boganda, as president.

1962 - Dacko turns the Central African Republic into a one-party state with MESAN as the sole party.

1964 - Dacko confirmed as president in elections in which he is the sole candidate.

The Bokassa era

1965 - Dacko ousted by the army commander, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, as the country faces bankruptcy and a threatened nationwide strike.

1972 - Bokassa declares himself president for life.

1977 - Bokassa proclaims himself emperor and renames the country the "Central African Empire".

1979 - Bokassa ousted in a coup led by David Dacko and backed by French troops after widespread protests in which many school children were arrested and massacred while in detention.

1981 - Dacko deposed in a coup led by the army commander, Andre Kolingba.

1984 - Amnesty for all political party leaders declared.

1986 - Bokassa returns to the Central African Republic.

1988 - Bokassa sentenced to death for murder and embezzlement, but has his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

Ban on parties lifted

1991 - Political parties permitted to form.

1992 October - Multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections held in which Kolingba came in last place, but are annulled by the supreme court on the ground of widespread irregularities.

1993 - Ange-Felix Patasse beats Kolingba and Dacko in elections to become president, ending 12 years of military rule. Kolingba releases several thousand political prisoners, including Bokassa, before standing down as president.

Army mutinies

1996 May - Soldiers stage a mutiny in the capital, Bangui, over unpaid wages.

1997 November - Soldiers stage more mutinies.

1997 - France begins withdrawing its forces from the republic; African peacekeepers replace French troops.

1999 - Patasse re-elected; his nearest rival, former President Kolingba, wins 19% of the vote.

2000 December - Civil servants stage general strike over back-pay; rally organised by opposition groups who accuse President Patasse of mismanagement and corruption deteriorates into riots.

Coup bid

2001 May - At least 59 killed in an abortive coup attempt by former president Andre Kolingba. President Patasse suppresses the attempt with help of Libyan and Chadian troops and Congolese rebels.


Sacked army chief General Francois Bozize

2001 November - Clashes as troops try to arrest sacked army chief of staff General Francois Bozize, accused of involvment in May's coup attempt. Thousands flee fighting between government troops and Bozize's forces.

2002 February - Former Defence Minister Jean-Jacques Demafouth appears in a Bangui court to answer charges related to the coup attempt of May 2001.

2002 October - Libyan-backed forces help to subdue an attempt by forces loyal to dismissed army chief General Bozize to overthrow President Patasse.

2003 March - Rebel leader Francois Bozize seizes Bangui, declares himself president and dissolves parliament. President Ange-Felix Patasse is out of the country at the time. Within weeks a transitional government is set up.

2003 October - National reconciliation talks held in Bangui, organised by President Bozize in an effort to put an end to mutinies, rebellions.

2003 November - First post-independence president, David Dacko, dies in hospital in Cameroon.
=================

France Defends Its Latest Coup
By IRIN 16/1/04
Jan 16, 2004, 12:58

France donated on Thursday 46 military vehicles and equipment, worth US $3.2 million, for use by the army and the gendarmerie in the Central African Republic (CAR).

French Ambassador Jean Pierre Destouesse made the donation, on behalf of his government, to CAR leader Francois Bozize during a ceremony in the capital, Bangui. Bozize is also the defence minister.

The donation, part of France's effort to improve security in its former colony, included communication equipment for the vehicles.

<snip>

Destouesse said that the new CAR army would now be able to prevent the entry of foreign troops "who loot the country," or foreign rebels "who transform your territory into a lawless space". He was referring to former rebels from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who entered the CAR in 2001 and 2002 to help the then President Ange-Felix Patasse to fight rebels loyal to Bozize.

Giraud said on Wednesday that apart from the ongoing training programmes, France would also give attention to the training of young army officers.

<snip>

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:oREABMfey1wJ:www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_9779.shtml+france+coup+bozize&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

====

France gives asylum to CAR 'rebel'


France has given permanent sanctuary to a former Central African Republic (CAR) army chief accused of plotting a coup last year.
General Francois Bozize left for France a few weeks ago from Chad, where he had been living since his dismissal in October last year, the Chadian Government has said.

<snip>

General Bozize had been accused, together with 600 others, of plotting a coup attempt in May last year.

<snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2353945.stm

====

France dispatches troops to Central African Republic
By Chris Talbot
24 March 2003

France has stepped up its military presence in Africa by sending 300 troops to the Central African Republic (CAR) following a coup on Saturday March 15. The troops are officially there to secure the airport and help evacuate French citizens from the capital, Bangui.

Although France has formally condemned the coup, its leader, General Francois Bozize, was recently in exile in Paris and has asked for more French troops to be sent to help stabilise the country. Everything points to France working behind the scenes to further its imperialist ambitions in Africa.

<snip>

<snip>

Patasse had also been supported by the rebel group from the DRC—the Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC) led by Jean-Pierre Bemba. This outfit, based in the north of the DRC and backed by Uganda, was under pressure from a western imposed ceasefire that cut across its diamonds for armaments trade. Its forces moved into CAR where they were hated by the population, accused of mass rapes and human rights violations. Under pressure from the west, the MLC was forced to withdraw at the beginning of this year.

<snip>

Bozize suspended the constitution and dissolved government and parliament, but has declared his coup was only a “temporary break” with democracy—a reference to the fact that Patasse was supposedly elected to office in 1999. He has met with CAR’s army and police chiefs, who are apparently offering their support, and with opposition political leaders.

<snip>

As well as France, official condemnation of the coup has come from the UN, the African Union, and the US. However, there seems to be little real opposition to the military strongman Bozize establishing his control as a welcome alternative to the unstable regime of Patasse. France has called for “a real, all-inclusive dialogue” to establish government in CAR: a call that has been supported by the US. ((The Chimp's government))

<snip>

Chad obtained $3.7 billion backing from the World Bank to build an oil pipeline from Chad through Cameroon to the coast. Despite protests from human rights groups and environmentalists, the construction of the pipeline is ahead of schedule and the first oil will be pumped through later this year. Although only five percent of oil revenues go to the producing region, the oil production will considerably boost Chad’s role in central Africa.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/car-m24.shtml

=======


What the Wall Street Journal report ignored was France and TotalFinaElf's complicity in the country's poverty, the leadership's corruption and the stumbling blocks already encountered by Exxon in its drive to pipe oil from Chad.

There's not an regular Chadian citizen, in the bush where I lived, who will take tea with a Frenchman -- it was to my advantage to garble "la langue celeste," at times. It's because Chadian oil wells have long been drilled and capped and sat upon by France, while jerry-rigged president Deby sits in his mansion, purchased by our anti-nation-builders, of course. At least, this is what nearly any native on the street will tell you, and they believe it as firmly as they believe that their votes don't count, come election time.

French fighter jets routinely fly over remote parts of the Chadian bush, where my American parents still live. Ask any hut-dwelling native, and he'll explain: "l'huile!"


===


The World Bank conservatively estimated an average price of about $15 a barrel for the life of the project, which would give the field -- expected to reach about 225,000 barrels a day -- a value of about $15 billion. A World Bank official on the project says the revenue split between the oil companies and Chad will depend on many factors, including the price and quality of the oil. But in general terms, the agreement sets Chad's share of the royalties at 12.5%.
This share is low compared with other African oil deals, but the companies and the World Bank say it reflects the high political risk and greater development and transportation costs of the Chad project, and also the fact that the oil is expected to be of lower quality. Exxon and its partners in the consortium would divide the rest according to their interests in the project.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB105640140158920000-H9jeoNglaB2nJ2vaIGIbamBm4,00.html

==


The French state prosecutor on Thursday demanded a five-year prison term for the former president of the state-run oil giant Elf Aquitaine, Loik Le Floch-Prigent, saying he and two other former ranking officials were "at the heart" of a vast corruption network. The prosecutor, Catherine Pignon, sought eight-year prison terms for the former No. 2 man at Elf, Alfred Sirven, and for the company's former Africa chief, Andre Tarallo. . The prosecutor asked for a fine of E380,000 ($444,600) for Le Floch-Prigent and a E5 million fine each for Sirven and Tarallo. . Pignon justified the severe sentences she sought by the "importance of the personal enrichment" in question, the position held by each person in the company and the "recurring or occasional character in the participation" of the crimes.

<snip>

The trial culminated an eight-year investigation into a system by which Elf allegedly paid out and received enormous commissions, inflated bills and used other devices to personally enrich a chosen few, from African leaders to some of the defendants.

http://www.andresgentry.com/thoughts/2003/06/chad_oil_trust_.html

====

Fuck them all. France, Russia, Britain, Canada and the US are carving up the world based on oil, water and free labor. Brand new spanking uniforms. IMF. World Bank. So much evil. This all just goes on and on and on and it won't stop until people like us FORCE this exploitation to stop.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=france+oil+chad

Welcome to the New World Order.

[Darranar]

1. Very interesting, thanks...

and this is where Aristide has been taken...?

This stretches coincidence.

[kalian]

2. And all this is playing out.....because.....

of Peak Oil.
Doubters and skeptics should take note that during the past three
years, Russia, the US, France, Germany, China, et al have been
playing a serious game of international chess.

If Peak Oil was bs...how come all of a sudden we're seeing massive
movements to control known oil reserves? :shrug:
If Peak Oil was a joke...an "urban legend", how come the US is
so hell-bent in controlling the Middle East?

Peak Oil is happening, and all this is part of phase one...

Enjoy...

[Sliverofhope]

7. Peak oil, people. Peak oil peak oil peak oil

We needed a World War II scale mobilization about, say, 10 years ago. Asses. In gear. Now.

www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

Two things need to be done: harm reduction for the world's innocent;

And if you want to hold onto the fairytale belief that we can find a renewable source of energy, like I do, then we need to come up with that source of energy AND BE ABLE TO MASS PRODUCE it before we run out of oil.

You cannot mass produce anything without energy!

The potential consequences are so dire, there needs to be the equivalent reaction among us as if death camps were being constructed.

[youngred]

3. Extremely Interesting and Telling

But what did poor Canada do!?!

[Tinoire]

6. There were meetings about the "Haiti question" there last year.

Canada has quite a few seat-shops in Haiti. They also had the first "avowed" troops on the ground; their first mission was to secure the airport (lear jet anyone?).

If you need sources, let me know. I'll dig them up.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. And the Canadian government, I'm ashamed to say,

is in "Ready, Aye Ready!" mode under new PM Paul Martin. He aspires to replace John Howard as George Bush's favourite lickspittle. I'll be surprised if he finds an intervention he doesn't like.

Montreal has the world's second largest population of Haitian ex-pats, and Aristide lived there in exile in the early 1980s. Montreals Haitians, early this week, called Martin "an accomplice to Bush assassin." (The Montreal Gazette: http://tinyurl.com/yvd4h)

And from rabble.ca:

Did Canada support a coup in Haiti?
Canada has sided with two colonial powers
by Yves Engler
March 3, 2004

Does Prime Minister Paul Martin support democracy in the Americas or U.S.-orchestrated coups? In his first major foreign policy move, Paul Martin's government faithfully followed the U.S. and the French lead in removing the legally-elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from power.

Contrast this with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) whose chairperson, Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, said in a statement that CARICOM deplored “the removal of President Aristide” from office, as setting “a dangerous precedent for democratically-elected governments anywhere and everywhere.”

In other words, Canada has sided with the two colonial powers with a centuries-old tradition of meddling in Haitian affairs, instead of with the Caribbean nations which have endured a shared history of slavery and other forms of exploitation.

...

Unfortunately, the evidence suggests Paul Martin has turned his back on millions of Canadians who want this country to support and build real democracy around the world. Instead, he has joined with right-wing extremist elements in the U.S. who tell the world "it's our way or the highway."

http://tinyurl.com/2kedh

Thanks for the thread, Tinoire.

[Tinoire]

10. Thanks for that info. I forgot to add there are alot of Haitians in Canad

because of the French, and part of that diaspora is Duvalieriste. Boat people couldn't afford flights to Canada but many of the Duvalieristes who had looted the country could.

[madrchsod]

4. Chavez

is next,then what will the world do? probably nothing

[youngred]

5. he already survived one

lets hope he can do it again

[I AM SPARTACUS]

9. bump