Chad: key piece in black African jigsaw

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VITIZ French military prosence Central African Republic: 1,400 men Please send me more details about the Wor Send to: WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIN "Libyan society will "Libyan society will evolve during the next five years from a consumer society to a productive society in order to achieve full socialism ... The call for the militarization of schools and factories is a revolutionary decision and a fundamental question ... As well as abolishing government and official instituSuch wishful thinking expressed by Colonel Gaddafi in a speech launching the five-year plan stands in stark contrast to the vital role and importance of a powerful regular army -a necessary component of Libyan foreign policy.

After two weeks of bitter fighting, five thousand Libyan soldiers supported by scores of T-54 tanks and heavy artillery finally tilted the balance in favour of the governmental coalition in Chad.

Decisive

Their superior sophisticated armament was a decisive factor in the battle for N'Djamena, capital of Chad; and on the night of December 14, the rival army of Hissene Habre was definitively routed and partly destroyed.

A month later, the two countries announced an imminent "fusion" , throwing the bordering countries into a state of total confusion.

Since the revolution of September 1969, Libya has unexpectedly proposed instant merger to nearly half a dozen countries with no common denominator but a border.

After unsuccessful attempts to fuse on its Eastern border with Egypt, then with Tunisia and even with Maita, Libya has turned its attention to countries south of the Sahara, with certain specific objectives: principally to destabilise puppet regimes where the military oligarchy and the ruling elite act as open agents of imperialism.

Tyrants

But Libya's approach has never been consistent nor principled. Its first military expeditions ended in disaster and Gaddafi even backed some of the most hated tyrants of the continent: Idi Amin and Emperor Bokassa.

So the military success in Chad has finally crowned several years of efforts to pose as a credible threat to imperialist interests in Africa.

Libya's involvement in Chad is nothing new. Gaddafi recognised long ago the unstabie nature of this regime, riddled with rivalries between different ruling cliques and different tribal factions, where French imperialism masterminded every twist and turn of the intricate Chadian imbroglio.

Early in 1973, Libya annexed the Aozou strip in Northern Chad, challenging the legitimacy of the frontiers erected by imperialism; and it has since played an active part in the troubled history of Chad.

Civil war

Since its independence in 1960, Chad has endured fifteen years of civil war:

*Jánuary 1965: The French army gradually handed over Northern Chad to the control of central government. This triggered a bloody rebellion in Ouaddai, an eastern province bordering Sudan.

*June 1966: Formation of the National Front for the Independence of Chad (FROLINAT).

*August 1968: President MOROCCO / MAURITANIA LASENEGAL GAMBIA SIERRA LEONE COAST LIBERIA Tombalbaye called for French troops to put an end to the Toubou rebellion in the north of the country.

*1969-72 Renewed intervention of French troops.

*August 1971: Unsuccessful putsch; Tombalbaye broke off all diplomatic relations with Libya.

*1973: Libyan troops occupied the Aozou strip.

*April 1974: Three French citizens were taken hostage by the "rebels" in • Tibesti. The anthropologist Francoise Claustre was eventually released after nearly 1,000 days of negotiations in which Libya played a decisive role.

*April 1975: General Felix Malloum succeeded the assassinated President Tombalbaye.

*June 1977: General offensive by the FROLINAT in the north. France intervened again giving powerful logistic Trial sub (UK).

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TUNISIA GERIA MALI NIGER ER LTA BENIN GHAN NIGERIA TORO support to Malloum.

*August 1978: A "charter" was adopted naming missene Iliannon Habre prime minister to General Malloum.

*February 1979: Clash between troops loyal to Malloum and those loyal to Habre.

*March 1979: Kano agreement installed a "provisional council of state" headed by Goukouni Oueddei.

*November 1979: The Lagos agreements grouped in the GUNT (Transitional Government of National Union) the eleven main political tendencies, to be presided over by Goukouni Oueddei. Hissene Habre is appointed defence minister.

*March 1980: Start of the civil war between FAN (Armed Forces of the North) loyal to Habre and a coalition of three heterogeneous groups: FAP SOCIALIST REINSTATE PRESS CONWAY XAVIER!

WON'T REINSTATE

ATTE THE EIGHT!

12000-; Strike now to stop Edwardes!

LİBYÁ CHAD CAR.

Bow CAMEROON Baneu ZAIRE BON, (Goukouni Oueddei's Popular Armed Forces); FAT, (Colonel Kamongue's Chadian Armed Forces) and FAC, (the Common Action Front of Ahmet Acyl).

*April 1980: Hissene Habre is stripped of his post.

*May 1980: The last of the French troops left Chad.

*June 1980: Defence agreement signed between Libya and President Goukoumi Oueddei.

*November 1980: The OAU stitches up a cease-fire agreement-signed by Oueddei, but ignored by Habre.

*December 1980: The coalition forces, supported by Libyan troops start a general offensive against FAN.

For the past twenty years, French imperialism has maintained and fuelled constant tensions and created endless divisions to justify its involvement in the affairs of Chad.

There are no less than eleven major political tendencies plus a myriad of minor ones built around personalities or groups of interest.

Chad is a key piece in the Name ..

Address. friendly regime is a necessity to defend French economic interests.

It would be impossible in such a short article to list and analyse French interventions in Black Africa. However, the latest French escapade in the Central African Republic is a prime example of the French government's boldness and confidence in taking over with impunity a sovereign country.

Fifteen months after overthrowing Emperro Bokassa, the "Barracudas"' (nickname given by the locals to French paratroopers) have consolidated their grip on the country.

A "mission" of 500 French "cooperants" has taken posts at all levels of the civil service, education and health service and even control of some of the highest governmental posts such as general secretary to the Presidency, Deputy Director to the Treasury and Deputy Director to the Customs and Excise.

age , coupled with the military presence, has provided enough assurances for foreign investments and French aid to start flowing into the country.

It is not surprising that the Giscard-Barre government sees the increased Libyan involvement in Black Africa as a direct threat to the freedom that France has enjoyed for decades to build or dissolve entire governments, sometimes through direct military action.

Chad, situated in the heart of ex-French Equatorial Africa, is of vital logistic importance.

France has so far attempted a two-pronged approach.

First a significant military reinforcement of its troops in the area and a sabre-rattling exercise, mobilising its Mediterranean naval forces to try and apply some direct pressure on Libya; then secondly, diplomatic manoeuvres drumming up support for an African conference which took place in Togo, and where 12 African heads of state condemned the "fusion"

But such condemnation was not unanimous. Some countries like Gabon declared their open hostility to the "Libyan ideology" and campaigned for a direct French military intervention in Chad.

Others viewed the Libyan intervention favourably as a healthy counterweight to French policy in black Africa.

The final communique reiterated the validity of the Lagos agreements, denounced the fusion, declaring it null and void, and asked Libya to withdraw its troops.

It also called on the United Nations to give its blessing to the sending of an African Task Force and supervise free elections before April 1981.

Hissene Habre The demands of the conference provoked Gaddafi to a violent diatribe in which he threatened France with an economic boycott.

This constitutes a significant turn in Franco-Libyan relations which have developed steadily since Pompidou's initial overtures to the Arab world.

Such an altercation raises fundamental questions which neither party can resolve overnight.

Firstly France imports a substantial proportion of its oil from Libya, participates in the development of the country (several thousand French technicians are currently helping Libya to develop technological know-how in all domains) and as a very solid trading partner hopes to snatch significant contracts to be dished out during the implementation of the new five-year plan 1981-85.

Further France has continually supplied Libya with defence equipment including aircraft.

Tensions

It is onic that while tensions between the two sides have reached unprecedented levels, a new missile-carrier, destined for the Libyan Navy has been launched at Cherbourg shipyard during the last week.

The "fusion" has even provoked tensions between Libya and Algeria which has given a cool reception to Gaddafi's African ambitions.

Such tensions foreshadow an imminent crisis inside the so-called "Steadfastness Front" which, so far, has not resolved its internal contradictions and seems little prepared to offer an effective opposition to forthcoming imperialist initiatives in the Middle East. • Socialist League.

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