While the devastating rebel offensive marks time, the French government is showing its teeth. The sending a few days ago of several hundred soldiers to Chad to reinforce the thousand military already in place had been presented as intended to help expatriates (those local agents of imperialism which, it seems, still haven’t been bothered by anybody), the French military authorities said, without laughing, that they observed an attitude of neutrality vis-à-vis the internal affairs of the country. This so-called "neutrality" was reflected, however, by “logistical, medical and intelligence assistance" to the army of Chadian dictator Déby.

On Monday, Feb. 4, the French government dropped the mask: Sarkozy announced that he had decided “to send aircraft to overfly the French border with Sudan" (for Sarkozy Chad is thus a colony which has no say and which it is necessary to preserve against the covetousness of others!) and French foreign minister Kouchner sent a direct warning to the rebels, saying that he hoped that France would “not have to intervene further " militarily. In addition the French government works with the Security Council of the UNO in order to create the conditions of a military intervention which would be draped behind UN colors, as has already been the case on several occasions (in Ivory Coast, in the Congo, and so on), the sending of the European force under the fallacious pretext of assistance to the refugees of Darfur, being compromised.

Already in 2006 Déby had been saved by a "Military Support and Instruction Detachment" of the French Marine Infantry. Idriss Déby, former chief of Staff of the dictator Habré, had seized power with the assistance of the French special services when Habré became to close to the Americans. He established a bloody regime in perfect continuity with his former boss, even if with the assistance of the French, he crudely tried to camouflage it behind a vague democratic facade. More than 800 people were killed, and hundreds tortured by his henchmen in the Security Services in the last years, without the French authorities being moved by the crimes of their protégé.

But the authoritarianism and greed of Déby and his family have been such that they have alienated the support not only of the poor masses who were never asked their opinion, but even a majority of his clan, his family and most of the warlords who were their allies! Without the unwavering support of French imperialism so far, the criminal regime of Déby, so hated by the Chadian population would have collapsed long ago…

Since its independence, unfortunate Chad has never ceased to be seized in the pincers of French imperialism, one of the most rapacious and among the most deadly of the murderous imperialisms that have partitioned Africa, resulting in permanent wars and the persistent misery of the people. The recent coming into production of large oil deposits has benefited only the giant international companies (American, French etc.) and a thin layer of local bourgeois who put most of their income into the coffers of western banks, while the Chadian workers still suffer wages in arrears and soaring prices (see the general strike of last year, when the regime responded with a brutal repression).

No to Any Military Intervention in Chad!
No Support for the Bloody Regime in Chad!
Withdrawal of French Troops and an End to "Military Cooperation" in Africa!
Imperialism, Out of Africa! Down with Imperialism!
Long Live the International Unity of Workers!

International Communist Party, 2/4/2008
Correspondence: Editions Programme, 3 rue Basse Combalot, 69007 Lyon FRANCE