IVORY COAST: Things have sunk low for France when citizens of a former colony beg Bush to save them, writes Lara Marlowe
This is a difficult week for French diplomacy, with a French-brokered peace plan for the Ivory Coast in tatters, and Paris continuing a perilous balancing act in the Iraq crisis.
There was something surreal about French-speaking Ivorians appealing to President Bush to save them from France during a six-hour demonstration in front of the US embassy in Abidjan on Tuesday. "Help, America! France wants to destroy us," said a placard written in French. "French out; Americans in!" said another. "Jacques Chirac is bin Laden" and "Dear American friends, help us throw out the French terrorists and their hordes," were others.
The anti-French demonstrators call themselves "patriots" and support President Laurent Gbagbo, who last weekend accepted a peace deal concluded at Marcoussis, outside Paris, on January 24th.
The "patriots" accuse France of handing their country over to rebels from the north and west. But were it not for the presence of 2,500 French soldiers, the rebels would be in Abidjan by now.
The Marcoussis accords named Seydou Diarra (70), a Muslim from the north, as prime minister, and would have given the key ministries of the interior and defence to the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI), the largest of three rebel groups in the civil war that started on September 19th.
Mr Gbagbo's supporters, mostly Christians from the south, began rioting and looting at the weekend. "To each his little Frenchman" - an incitement to lynch mobs - is their favourite slogan.
The Ivory Coast's 16,000 French residents are hiding inside their homes, communicating with the French embassy by telephone and contemplating departure. That option became more difficult when Air France's office in Abidjan was sacked and the airline shut down.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has also stopped operations in Ivory Coast, and 10 people were reported killed in fighting between Christians and Muslims 80 km north of Abidjan on Tuesday.
After agreeing to the peace plan in Paris, Mr Gbagbo returned home to say it consisted only of "proposals". His interior minister declared the accords "null and void". Mr Gbagbo last night postponed a televised speech in which he was expected to explain his position.
In Paris, the French foreign ministry, which oversaw nine days of negotiations at Marcoussis, is warding off criticism. "We're not the colonial power any more. It was madness to think we could draw up an African government in Paris," is a remark heard often.
The Ivory Coast is probably the only place in the world where a US passport guarantees safe passage. According to Le Monde, US diplomats were waved through barricades during rioting in Abidjan because of the US flag on their car. French journalists were banned from Tuesday's demonstration in front of the US embassy, while CNN's cameraman was welcomed.
In the Iraq crisis too, French diplomacy is under attack. The Canard enchaîné reports that on January 13th, President Chirac's diplomatic adviser was summoned to the White House for a severe dressing down by Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz, who criticised the French President's "irresponsible, childish attitude" and accused Mr Chirac of encouraging Saddam Hussein.
The French President was enraged, and has since become more outspoken against possible unilateral US intervention. Though Mr Chirac's stand is popular at home, in the Arab world and in much of Europe, it is dangerous. If France ends up supporting intervention under a UN mandate, it could fulfil the prediction of an Arab journalist who claimed Paris "is like a prostitute, waiting for the price to go up". But if Mr Chirac opposes a war that takes place without French participation, Paris will be cut out of post-war oil deals. And the UN and the EU, organisations that France sees as counterweights to US domination, will be significantly weakened.