• by IPS Correspondents (biarritz, france)
• Tuesday, November 08, 1994
• Inter Press Service

BIARRITZ, France, Nov 08 (IPS) - Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France and 30 counterparts from African states entered a second day of talks Tuesday with the focus on a peacekeeping force for the continent.

"We are going to speak of an inter-African force," Juppe told reporters attending this week's 18th French/African summit. "But we don't come to this with any fixed plans."

The summit opened Monday and continues through to Thursday with other security matters and a post-mortem on the French-led intervention in Rwanda also expected to be discussed.

The summit four years ago in La Baule, France, became a symbol of the democracy movements in Africa when French President Francois Mitterrand pledged to support efforts to transform African politics.

His critics however charge that he has not done enough to back democratic forces on the continent and has stood by old friends among African dictators far too long.

They also condemn the government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur for "rehabilitating" such African strongmen as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo.

Mitterrand's Socialist Party ceded control of the French government to Balladur's conservative coalition 18 months ago but has retained considerable influence over foreign policy.

The 35 African delegations represent the former French, Belgian and Portuguese colonies, plus Namibia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia and, for the first time, South Africa. Rwanda's new government will not be represented, although it often attended in the past.

However, Rwanda will be one of the major themes of an alternative NGO conference entitled "An Examination of France's African Policy" which opened Tuesday just blocks from where the heads of state are meeting in this seaside resort.

The alternative conference has set aside Thursday morning to focus on what organisers call "complicity in genocide."

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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