French neocolonial uranium war in Niger

This Greenpeace video is called Left in the Dust – Areva’s uranium mining in Niger.

Remember Niger? A former French colony in Western Africa. Treated by the Sarkozy regime in Paris as if it still were a colony. Like in other (ex?) French colonies, where French soldiers run around waging war.

Remember Niger? Where the small “pro-Western” ruling elite is rich and corrupt. And where most people are again and again in danger of starvation.

Remember Niger? A country with natural riches, including uranium. Uranium, craved by warmongers for nuclear weapons and energy sector capitalists for nuclear reactors.

The United States Bush administration lied that uranium supposedly from Niger would provide Iraq with weapons of mass destruction. This lie was their main justification for the bloody Iraq war, along with at least 934 other lies.

This is called the Plamegate scandal. The Plamegate scandal, which saw Dick Cheney‘s assistant “Scooter” Libby sentenced to jail, but which saw Dick Cheney himself and George W Bush go scot-free. See also: Fair Game: Hollywood liberals treat the drive to war in Iraq: here.

Remembering all this about Niger, here is a Radio France International report on that country. It shows that Sarkozy is not just waging war on Roma, Muslims and African immigrants in France, but is waging a neocolonial war for uranium money from Niger as well (maybe Mr Sarkozy thinks that all that money from his Karachigate and Ms Bettencourt–L’Oreal scandals is still not enough?)

The Radio France International report also shows that there are not just French neocolonial nuclear interests and French neocolonial wars, but also French neocolonial media reports, as we shall note.

Here comes the RFI report:

Radio France Internationale (Paris)

Niger: France Deploys 80 Troops in Niamey

20 September 2010

France has dispatched 80 troops to the Niger capital Niamey following the abduction of seven people including five French nationals, diplomatic and security sources said Monday.

How would Sarkozy react if some Paris gangsters would abduct citizens of Niger or of another African country staying in France, and if that African country would react by sending soldiers to France? Sarkozy would have some hissy fit about “the sovereignty of France” and not one African soldier would be allowed to cross the French border.

… They have French Breguet-Atlantique reconnaissance planes at their disposal.

“They have already carried out 21 hours of reconnaissance flights in the area in an effort to locate the hostages,” a source said. The seven were kidnapped on Thursday from their homes in Arlit in northern Niger by suspected Al Qaeda-linked gunmen,

Every dictatorship which gets Western military aid, but which thinks it should get even more, whether it is the regime in Uzbekistan which boils dissidents alive, or some African NATO friendly potentate, is sure to define its opponents as “Al Qaeda”. Whether those opponents are really pro Al Qaeda, very devout but not pro Al Qaeda Muslims, Muslims who go to a mosque just once every twenty years, or non-Muslims. Of course, all Somali, Iraqi and Afghan civilians killed by United States or US allied armed forces are “Al Qaeda” as well. The only proof needed for that is that NATO soldiers killed them.[sarcasm off]

or Tuareg bandits

The Tuareg are the people of the sparsely populated north of Niger (with very different ideas about Islam and the position of women in society, than the real Al Qaeda). Though they are the inhabitants of the uranium rich part of the country, they are very poor. The ruling clique in Niamey treats them with ethnic discrimination and violence. As a consequence of that, some Tuareg wage armed opposition against the Niamey rulers. Does that make them “bandits”, as RFI says? Very probably, if the Tuareg rebels would be pro Sarkozy and the Niamey government would be anti-Sarkozy, not the reverse as things stand now, then RFI would call the Tuareg “heroes” and “freedom fighters”. And the Niamey regime (shock horror) “a dictatorship“. Africa-based journalist Tristan McConnell reported already three years ago:

In Niger’s desert north almost fifty soldiers have been killed since February 2007 yet, according to President Mamadou Tandja’s twitchy government, there is no rebellion. It blames bandits and drug-smugglers for the attacks and has responded by declaring a “state of alert” and deploying thousands of troops to the region.

Apparently, since 2007 the Niamey rulers have come to the conclusion that just appealing to rich countries with “war on drugs” references does not bring in enough military aid euros or dollars, and that they may get a better chance by screaming loudly Al Qaeda. Back to the RFI report:

who may have planned to sell them on to the Islamists.

They are five French nationals, including a married couple, one Togolese and one Madagascan. All worked for French companies involved in uranium mining in the Arlit region.