Pro-French Central African Republic coup leaders scrap Chinese oil deals By
Thomas Gaist
1 April 2013

Over 500 French troops are deployed in Bangui, Central African Republic,
supporting the new regime headed by Michel Djotodia, heading the Seleka
rebel coalition that recently ousted CAR President François Bozizé

Djotodia has announced that he is dissolving parliament and suspending the
2004 constitution. “To this effect, we have decided to guide the destiny of
the people of the Central African Republic during this transitional period
of three years... During this transition period which will lead us to free,
credible and transparent elections, I will legislate by decree,” he said.

Djotodia has already announced that he will review the CAR’s mining and oil
contracts with China, signed by the Bozizé government, “to see whether
things were badly done, to try and sort them out.” Further, Djotodia
declared that he would invite the former colonial power 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 per cent 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.”

Effectively, Djotodia is preparing to hand over the key resources of the
CAR’s economy to European imperialism.

The situation facing the CAR population remains disastrous. Most of Bangui
lacks running water and electricity, and the single functioning hospital is
still taking in 30 wounded per day. The United Nations reports that food
shortages affecting tens of thousands are gripping the country, and prices
of staple goods such as cassava and rice have tripled.

Already, life expectancy in CAR is barely over 40 years, with only 40
percent literacy and skyrocketing HIV rates.

The takeover of Bangui by the Seleka rebels with French and US support
represents the most recent stage in the unfolding recolonization of Africa
by the imperialist powers that came to the fore with the 2011 NATO war in
Libya. It testifies to the reactionary character of the ethnic-based
politics of various bourgeois and petty-bourgeois factions in Africa, which
are constantly manipulated by the imperialist powers amid the growing
impoverishment of the workers and rural masses.

Seleka (meaning “union”) is a coalition of dissident factions that formed
initially in September of 2012. Their decision to seize Bangui came in
violation of the Libreville Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which they had
signed with the government in 2008.

The coup by Seleka forces has placed the CAR at the center of a struggle
for influence between the United States, France, South Africa and China.

As they advanced on Bangui, then held by forces loyal to Bozizé, Seleka
fighters encountered a South African National Defense Force (SANDF)
detachment and attacked the outnumbered South Africans, killing 13 and
wounding 28.

The future course of South African military policy in CAR remains unclear.
An anonymous senior Ugandan officer said, “The intention of the South
Africans is to reorganize themselves and then redeploy massively in CAR and
topple these rebels. They were humiliated and they want to avenge.”

South African media are reporting that SANDF troops are staging in Uganda
for a “new mission” in CAR. A South African representative, Col. Selby
Moto, cautioned against such a view, however, claiming that South African
troops are merely waiting in Uganda “until the decision to reinforce or
withdraw” is made by the South African government in Pretoria.

“This is complete disaster for South Africa,” Thierry Vircoulon, Central
African specialist at the International Crisis Group, told Reuters. “They
did not at all understand they were backing the wrong horse.”

The defeat of the South African forces and the theft of Chinese oil
purchases were particularly provocative and humiliating, coming in the
midst of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) conference
in Durban. Chinese president Xi Jinping said China would “intensify, not
weaken” its commitment to Africa, including the extension of $20 billion in
credit over the next two years.

The imperialist backing for Seleka is merely one component of a grand
strategy aiming to contain China’s growing influence throughout the African
continent. By 2011, the volume of Sino-African trade reached $166 billion,
with African exports to China topping $90 billion. At the time of the
Seleka takeover, Xi was touring the African continent, where he signed
agreements with many resource-rich African countries.

The United States has reacted by issuing mild criticisms of the Seleka
takeover. On Saturday, Washington released a statement asserting that the
national unity government led by Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye is the
“only legitimate government” of CAR. It did not, however, call for Bozizé’s
reinstatement or criticize the theft of oil resources purchased by Chinese
firms.

Tiangaye is a lawyer and a member of the Human Rights League (HRL), a
global network of human rights operatives headquartered in Paris and run
with financial support from European governments and Washington. Political
operatives from the HRL have played a crucial role in helping organize and
promote the imperialist agenda in Libya, Syria and elsewhere.

Tiangaye is apparently a trusted instrument of French imperialism, having
participated in sensitive trials of African officials who enjoyed French
backing but whom Paris subsequently discarded. Selected by CAR dictator
Emperor Jean-Bedél Bokassa to defend him at Bokassa’s trial in 1986, he
also defended Rwandan officials accused of perpetrating the 1994 Rwanda
genocide


 <http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2011/01/mehr-j10.html>


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