Allegations that French peacekeeping soldiers raped children in the Central African Republic (CAR) are potentially devastating for the French army and the president François Hollande.
The Socialist head of state has staked his foreign policy and presidential image on military intervention in Africa, from the anti-terrorist operation in Mali and the Sahel to safeguarding civilians in CAR. As one observer put it, Hollande has always “glorified” his peacekeepers’ role in Africa.
The serious abuse allegations hit even harder because of the baggage that France carries in Africa. Since the end of colonial rule, Paris has been accused of engaging in crooked powerplay, sweetened with briefcases of petrodollars in a shady system known as “Françafrique”. Hollande had sought to escape that, portraying his troops as a force for good in Africa, not for reasons of French influence but strictly as part of the UN and wider international operations.
The Guardian
The French army bears the weight of its history in Africa, including its failure to halt the 1994 Rwandan genocide and accusations of torture during the Algerian war of independence.
“The French defence ministry is an institution that is very sensitive about its image, particularly about anything to do with intervention in Africa,” said Thomas Hofnung, a French journalist and Africa specialist. “For years, France was accused of running the Françafrique system and there is the legacy of Rwanda and of accusations of torture in Algeria, which traumatised and damaged the army’s image. It is sensitive because every time France intervenes in Africa, it’s accused of neocolonialism.”
The French defence ministry insisted there would be “zero tolerance” for any perpetrators of abuse. Informed of the CAR allegations last July, the ministry immediately told prosecutors who launched a criminal investigation. But some have questioned why the French army did not make that fact public last year.
The French public has traditionally had a good image of their vast army. But the details of the allegations against about 14 soldiers have sparked revulsion. The scandal comes at a time when soldiers have never been so present on the streets of France in peacetime – up to 10,000 stand guard outside certain schools, museums, synagogues and other public buildings across the country in the wake of the January terrorist attacks in Paris. Children on their way to school in certain Paris neighbourhoods now regularly pass soldiers in combat gear, patrolling with guns.
When the abuse allegations emerged, Hollande had just increased the military budget by €3.8bn (£2.8bn) and said he would permanently have 7,000 French soldiers patrolling airports, stations and sensitive sites across France.
“It couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” said Antoine Glaser, a French writer and specialist in African affairs. He said France had been trying to drum up involvement from other EU states and swiftly wrap up its CAR operations. “This makes that harder.” He said it also sparked echoes of “France à l’ancienne” — the old style image of a France all powerful in Africa.
A specialist investigation unit was set up last year as part of a government crackdown on sexual harassment and abuse inside the French army. Last month, the unit said it had dealt with 27 cases of sexual assault, 24 cases of sexual harassment and three cases of “violence and physical threats towards a woman”, as well as 41 cases of sexist bullying including discrimination, all within the army. Female soldiers under 30 were the typical victims, the unit said, and 90% of the victims were women.
French prosecutors have previously been quick to pursue people accused of child abuse abroad. In 2008, a 44-year-old French civilian UN mechanic accused of raping young girls while working for UN peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2001 and 2004 and the Central African Republic between 1998 and 2001 was sentenced in France to nine years in prison for two charges of rape of a minor.
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