French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet arrived in Tripoli on Friday on a three-day visit designed to boost cooperation with Libya, an AFP reporter said.
The trip comes shortly after the North African nation celebrated the first anniversary of the start of a popular revolt that toppled the regime of Moamer Kadhafi.
Longuet is expected to meet senior officials including Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council, and Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib, on how to boost ties between the two countries.
Longuet is also scheduled to visit the war-ravaged coastal city of Misrata and Benghazi in the east, where the uprising started.
Libya and France agreed to increase cooperation in maritime security and controlling the North African country’s borders. Being strategically placed joining Africa and the Mediterranean makes it exposed. Neighboring states, especially those across the Mediterranean in Europe are worried about Libya’s capacity to secure its Mediterranean coast, which can be used as a gateway into Europe for arms traffickers, al-Qaeda insurgents and illegal migrants.
French and British operatives have been working with Libyan rebels on their eastern front, where the insurgents scored strategic blows against Moamer Kadhafi’s forces, an AFP journalist discovered on Thursday. The operatives are installed at the rebel command for the eastern front, at the dysfunctional oil refinery in Zuwaytina, about 150 kilometres (93 miles) southwest of the opposition capital Benghazi. They are equipped with telecommunications equipment and housed in two shipping containers, within walking distance of the headquarters of Fawzi Bukatif, commander of the eastern front. He has been working out of a large office with walls covered in maps and satellite photos. There are at least two Frenchmen, and several Britons in mismatched camouflage outfits. In late April, Britain, France, Italy, Egypt and the United States announced that they had sent military advisers to the National Transitional Council, the rebels’ de facto government. Britain’s Defence Minister Liam Fox said Thursday that NATO is contributing intelligence and reconnaissance equipment to the search for Kadhafi but he refused to confirm reports that Britain’s SAS special forces were working with the Libyan rebels to track down Kadhafi. “I can confirm that NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets to the NTC (National Transitional Council) to help them track down Colonel Kadhafi and other remnants of the regime,” who fled before advancing rebel forces on Tuesday, he told Sky News. The Ministry of Defence said Fox was referring to “various assets such as military planes.” The Daily Telegraph newspaper, quoting defence sources, said SAS members were sent to Libya several weeks ago and played a key role in coordinating the battle for Tripoli. With the majority of the capital now in rebel hands, the SAS had been ordered to switch their focus to hunting down Kadhafi, the Telegraph said. They were wearing civilian clothes and armed with the same type of weapons used by the rebel forces, the paper said. “We never comment about special forces,” Fox said in a separate interview with BBC radio. Asked what role Britain was playing on the ground in Libya, Fox told the BBC: “We have always had some advisors to the NTC (as) we have made clear from the outset, helping them with communications, helping them with logistics, the chain of command and so on.“And we would of course want to continue with those relationships.”
As previously reported before here, U.S., British, Egyptian, French and Italian special operatives have been on the ground in Libya helping the rebels fight against Gadaffi. None of what is reported is new, just a confirmation of actions that were logical from the start of the NATO enforcing the no-fly-zone over Libya.
Both France and the U.K will send attack helicopters to help fight off Qaddafi’s forces in support of the rebels cause in Libya.
Here is the British Army showing off its Apache helicopter force.
The helicopters, a weapon that has yet to be used by NATO in enforcing the no-fly-zone, will no doubt help strike Qaddafi’s military assets hidden in urban areas while avoiding civilian casualties. Given that the rebels were under armed, disorganized as a fighting force, and needed close air support when taking on Qaddafi’s forces, this is a welcome addition to their side. Although it would have made a big difference if they were deployed during the first days when the no-fly-zone was being enforced, it is better late than never.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy left and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi right
France and Italy will send small teams of military officers to advise Libyan rebels who are seeking to topple Col Muammar Gaddafi. French officials said fewer than 10 would be sent, while Italy’s defence minister announced that 10 would go.
The despatch of the military advisers underlines the growing concerns in a number of European capitals that the air campaign over Libya is not yielding the expected results. After more than four weeks of air strikes, Libyan government forces have not crumbled; the Libyan regime still seems firmly in control in Tripoli; and the rebels have shown very limited capabilities on the ground.
France for one wants to step up the air campaign, but it is clear that unless the rebels can be turned into a more effective fighting force, and without a genuine ceasefire, Nato air operations may have to continue for the foreseeable future.
The French, British and Italians are all stressing that their small deployments do not constitute “boots on the ground” – they have no intention of deploying combat troops. But some MPs in London fear that this is the thin end of the wedge and that the allies risk being drawn ever deeper into the Libyan conflict.
The officers are expected to advise rebel leaders on how to organize their ragtag forces, now struggling against Gaddafi’s better-armed and -trained army. They will also liaise with NATO on the location of rebels and Gaddafi’s troops. This comes after the U.K. decided to go ahead and send military adivisers to help coordinate the air strikes against Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.
The United Nations and French forces opened fire with attack helicopters Monday on the arsenal of Ivory Coast’s entrenched ruler, as columns of foot soldiers finally pierced the city limit. The fighters aiming to topple Laurent Gbagbo after a decade in power had succeeded in taking nearly the entire countryside in just three days last week, but they faltered once they reached the country’s largest city, where the presidential palace and residence are located. Monday’s offensive marked an unprecedented escalation in the international community’s efforts to oust Gbagbo, who lost the presidential election in November yet has refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara even as the world’s largest cocoa producer teetered on the brink of all-out civil war.
Ivorians in Abidjan ventured out of their homes on Wednesday, some to collect water, as the city remained tense with the country’s strongman Laurent Gbagbo holed up in a subterranean bunker and forces backing his rival Alassane Ouattara assaulting his residence to try to force him out. Some local residents cheered on the side of a road as French armoured personnel carriers drove by. United Nations attack helicopters helped by French troops bombarded the ruler’s arsenal late Monday, acting on a Security Council resolution
The French military has released a video it claims shows French fighter jets bombing a Libyan ammunitions depot south of Tripoli on March 28th. The 32 seconds black and white sequence appears to show five explosions as munitions hit their targets, which the French military said were in Gharyan, 100 kilometres south of Tripoli. Meanwhile the U.S. is reportedly sending CIA teams into Libya to gather intelligence and set up links with rebels. It comes as doubts grow about the exact makeup of the movement to oust Colonel Gadaffi. That’s prompted criticism of plans to arm them, with NATO officials themselves admitting they fear that Al-Qaeda fighters are among the rebels.
Taking the lead in the conflict in Libya has paid off politically for President Sarkozy. Many French now see him as a dashing champion of freedom.In France, it’s considered a question of honor to defend human rights and democracy — militarily, if need be. Even the opposition lends its support. NATO has meanwhile officially assumed command of the Libya mission, but Nicolas Sarkozy is skilled at playing that down and underlining his own role. He has also distanced himself from the Germans and pacifism. France is trying to reassert its historical influence in North Africa.
The recent events in Libya and Ivory coast have given France a chance to flex its influence in the region explicitly. The actions from the French point of view signify to the region and to the rest of the world for that matter; that France still does matters when it comes having a say in African affairs even though China’s influence has grown rapidly of the past few years.
French military forces have been stepping up their action in Ivory Coast where a conflict between two claimants to the Presidency is becoming increasingly bitter.
French helicopter gunships fired missiles on a military camp in Abidjan shortly after Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris gave the go-ahead for his troops to join a UN operation against forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo.
Gbagbo has been clinging onto power since a disputed election last November even though there is widespread international opinion that he lost.
More in depth reporting on France’s role in Africa can be found here.
A French Rafale fighter plane taking off from a military base in Saint-Dizier, France, March 19. The jets head for Libya to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians and embattled rebel troops. Eyewitnesses report that fighter jets had already entered Libyan airspace while a special summit on the topic was still in session in Paris. French presdident Sarkozy announced that attacks on the pro-Gaddafi forces have been launched after World leaders gathered in Paris on Saturday to discuss the course of action regarding Libya after the UN Security Council passed resolution 1973 that demands the immediate establishment of a cease-fire and a complete end to violence and all attacks against civilians.
France has taken a robust and assertive role in the action against Libya. The military action against Libya given approval by U.N. Security Council resolution 1973 began, allowed the coalition to what whatever possible in defense of the civilians in Libya. French President Sarkozy said, “If we intervene on the side of the Arab nations it is because of a universal conscience that cannot tolerate such crimes.” The one question that many raised was why the French government took the lead?
This is mainly due to a few factors with French domestic politics and France’s history, interests in Africa. First on the domestic front. With his popularity at a record low and facing a presidential election next year, Nicolas Sarkozy is in desperate need of a boost to his political stature both at home and abroad.
With polls showing that Sarkozy is the least popular president since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, he is betting that French voters will appreciate his efforts in Libya to place France at the center of the world stage and reinforce what Charles de Gaulle once famously called “a certain idea of France” as a nation of exceptional destiny.
In any case, Sarkozy’s main rival is not Gaddafi, but rather Marine Le Pen, the charismatic new leader of the far-right National Front party in France. A new opinion poll published by the Le Parisien newspaper on March 8 has Le Pen, who took over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in January, winning the first round of next year’s presidential election.
Le Pen, who appeals to middle class voters, is riding high on voter dissatisfaction over the failure of the mainstream parties to address the problem of Muslim immigration. Since taking her post three months ago, Le Pen has single-handedly catapulted the twin issues of Muslim immigration and French national identity to the top of the French political agenda, and in recent weeks, Le Pen has been a permanent fixture on French prime-time television to discuss the threat to France of a wave of immigrants from Libya.
The crisis in Libya provided that unique opportunity to get rid of the image of a sinking reactive presidency. On taking action in Libya, he said that France had “decided to assume its role before history” in stopping Gaddafi’s “killing spree” against people whose only crime was to seek to “liberate themselves from servitude”. ”Libyans wanting nothing else but the right to decide their own future find themselves in danger of death. We have a duty to respond to their anguished call,” he said.
When he summoned world leaders to an emergency war council at the Elysée Palace to agree on military action against Muammar Gaddafi last week, his 20 guests had barely come to an agreement when Sarkozy announced French planes were in the air – and had been for some hours – preparing to strike Libyan targets. President Sarkozy taking charge was also in sharp contrast to his predecessor Jacques Chirac who was in opposition to the UN resolution on military action in Iraq, and joining along with the United States in going to war, were as Sarkozy lead in the effort to military action against Libya through the United Nations.
Prior to sending in the French air force to enforce the no-fly-zone, France became the first and only nation to recognize the rebels as the “legitimate representatives” of the Libyan people. Critics and cynics rightly pointed out that Sarkozy was desperate to atone for France’s incompetent handling of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. This was in effort to erase in peoples minds the image of when he welcomed Gaddafi with open arms three years ago, with a red carpet and bringing half the capital to a standstill and allowing the Libyan leader to pitch his bedouin tent near the Elysée.
Across North and West Africa, France has long coveted its ties with its former colonies in Africa as its influence waned elsewhere, clinging to them as a sign of prestige and as part of the Gaullist doctrine that dominated French foreign policy for the latter half of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century, France is finding that its position as patron to Third World countries is becoming untenable due to the increasingly unacceptable political, economic and security-related situations in many of these countries. It is becoming clear day by day that France will need Africa more than Africa will need France in the future.
France’s consistent offers of military and economic support to the embattled leaders of these countries may now be withdrawn as Sarkozy tightens France’s sphere of influence. He is now focusing on the area around the Mediterranean where France’s core interests lie, including the former colonies of Lebanon and Algeria, where much of France’s non-European population hails from and where France’s colonial ties run deepest.
Gradually over the years, Paris has been reducing its presence in Africa in the political, military and humanitarian spheres. Defence contracts and their secret clauses have been progressively renegotiated. The African continent is also no longer dependent on French funding, once a main source of influence. It now receives significant sums from the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, while China has become Africa’s biggest trading partner.
For all of France’s recent attempts to disengage itself from its African past, the roots of its relationships still run deep. Franceafrique is changing – but that’s down to emerging domestic middle-classes and civil society demanding increasing openness from their leaders, certainly not because of France.
Video report sheds more light on French influence in Africa and what Africans think.
The French military prepares for and launches their first Libyan operation in which an an AWACS reconnaissance plane and four attack aircraft took off for Libya.
Threatened by Le Pen’s rising popularity, and in urgent need of a political boost, Sarkozy is now using the Libya intervention both to play the role of the respected statesman on the international stage and to address French concerns over mass immigration from North Africa.
