[allAfrica.com] [celtel.com] France Backs Africa's Peace Initiatives BuaNews (Pretoria) NEWS June 23, 2004 Posted to the web June 23, 2004 By Matome Sebelebele And Joseph Mkhonto Pretoria France has sought to partner with the African Union (UN) and regional economic groups to render assistance such as military equipment, support and personnel to deal with conflicts in Africa. French Defence Chief of Staff, General Henri Bentegeat told about 30 security and defence experts in Pretoria today that his government's embryonic involvement in Africa was centered on peaceful conflict management and not regime changes. General Bentegeat is currently on a four-day "goodwill" visit to this country, during which he will meet President Thabo Mbeki as well as visit military installation in Cape Town today. He arrived in South Africa on Sunday. He met SANDF Chief Siphiwe Nyanda yesterday for talks on peace support operations and technical skills transfer between Pretoria and Paris. "Our involvement [peace missions] is based on three simple but essential principles," elaborated Gen Bentegeat. He said these were respect of the "legitimacy of the authority in place", respect for national sovereignty and integrity of national territories as well as systematic support to African mediation. "We do not envisage to intervene directly and impose a solution brought from the outside," the general assured conference delegates. "On the contrary, we want to support the efforts made by the concerned regional communities and the increasing will of the Africans to prevent, manage and find solution to their own conflicts," he asserted. Gen Bentegeat affirmed France's support to the AU's Peace and Security Council unveiled recently and Africa's economic blueprint Nepad, saying these demonstrated Africa's "true will" to assume responsibility over its destiny. However Paris' involvement in Africa's politics and military remained questionable with some blaming it for taking sides in many of the conflicts it sought to intervene in on the continent. A number of French companies have been fingered for looting the mineral riches of Francophone nations and are allegedly now reluctant to invest in its former colonies. Calls have also been made to Paris for it to withdraw from the Ivory Coast where it stands accused for failing to "crush" rebel groups while the latter charged that French troops were failing to "protect" locals there. General however says such charges came with the territory, adding that despite getting its own force attacked, it was "difficult" to strike a balance in such conflicts not only in Ivory Coast but worldwide. France has a significant pre-position force on Africa's west and east coasts with about 6 500 soldiers in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Chad, Gulf of Guinea and Djibouti costing roughly 70 million Euros daily to maintain them. Gen Bentegeat maintained that this force stood ready to cooperate, support and facilitate a "political reconciliation process" under the leadership of an affected country as well as carry out search and rescue missions. He called on African countries including South Africa to join its UN-AU endorsed Reinforcement of African Peace Keeping Capabilities (RECAMP). He however shied away from committing his country's troops to conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and said the conflict was more complex and demanded a coordinated international effort rather than intervention by a single country. In this regard, he praised Pretoria for its "strong commitment" on peaceful conflict resolution.   ===============================================================================  Copyright © 2004 BuaNews. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). ===============================================================================