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August 7th, 2013 
“The objective is the total re-conquest of Mali”
Malian soldiers patrol on July 29, 2013 in Kidal in northern Mali, one day after the vote for the presidential election (AFP Photo / Kenzo Triboullard)
By Nile Bowie
Russia Today
August 06, 2013
There is no doubt that many Malians support France’s move to militarily intervene and in doing so, they were able to push the hardliners out of the cities, but make no mistake – Paris is in this for its own economic interests. According to reports, few civilian casualties have directly resulted from French intervention and the military’s conduct has been relatively clean – the same cannot be said for their counterparts in the Malian army, who have purportedly killed and tortured dozens of civilians over suspicion of aiding the rebels. The French in all likeness turned a blind eye to these abuses since they worked closely with Malian forces. French President François Hollande was greeted with enormous praise and jubilance during his one-day visit to Bamako, so much so that he described the visit as the “the most important day in [his] political life”. Unfortunately for Papa Hollande, one could not imagine him getting such a warm reception on the streets of Paris.
In France’s current climate of staggering unemployment and austerity, Hollande saw the Islamist advance in Mali as a threat to the French economy, because two-thirds of France’s electricity comes from nuclear power, which is reliant on steady flows of uranium, mostly from Mali and neighboring Niger. Paris is also one of the leading exploiters of Malian gold, of which Bamako pockets only a meager 20 percent profit. Hollande made the final decision to intervene after a personal appeal from interim President Dioncounda Traoré, but the murky motives were no different from the colonialist days of “Françafrique” – a modern ode to the policy of a “hegemonic France”. Take it from French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, who claimed “French companies must go on the offensive and fight the growing influence of rival China for a stake in Africa’s increasingly competitive markets”. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spells it out a little clearer when he was quoted saying that objective of intervention was “the total re-conquest of Mali”.
Read more : http://rt.com/op-edge/presidential-elections-mali-france-104/
Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InfowarsIreland/~3/lNAWzP4j_Tg/
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