There is a permanent contradiction between human rights and the foreign policy of a state, even in France.
That’s French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, a co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, speaking to Le Parisien.
The man speaks the truth. But “even in France”? This is a nation with the sorriest record of post-colonial meddling and great power politics in Africa–and there are a great many sorry records out there.
Via Blake at FP.
5 Responses
As a French, I used to be ashamed of our meddling in Africa, one of the most shocking example being the support for Mobutu.
And then the Americans did the morally right thing to do, meddling in Congo to destitute the dictator.
But 10 years later, it would be very dishonest to not admit the end result of that morally right thing to do was despair, death and murder, mass rape brought to millions of Congolese people. And life conditions, poverty that can very certainly are worse than they were under the previous dictatorship for most of them.
So I am much more wary now of saying that supporting a dictator is really a shame, that it brings misery to people when it would be so easy to help them by making that dictator go away. It far from guaranteed you help people when you do something that will endanger the only positive asset they, political stability.
the fp blurb is a tad misleading. first off, rama yade just declined to lead the ump – sarozy’s political party – in the upcoming european elections. it is being said in circles in the know that sarkozy is furious. other ministers know about that of course, including kouchner who usually shoots from the hip and has had less than easy relations with rama yade since suggesting the junior ministry post which she was eventually picked to lead. journalists and pundits in france speculate that it is now “open season” on rama yade and what some used to say in private now say it out loud to try to undermine her as they think sarkozy would bless such comments. rama yade is a rising star in french politics, and i would not be surprised if she is picked as prime minister in the far future or even runs as president one day. she is young, very intelligent, super popular with strong views and ideals. some of her politician/peers do not like that, which opens her to criticism – welcome to the world of politics.
furthermore, what kouchner said, if one reads the le parisien article carefully, is that there is a inherent conflict, and that creating an official structure within the government reinforces this conflict. his view is that there is no need to exacerbate the conflict further and that the foreign ministry is more than capable of handling human rights without a junior ministry in tow. in other words, he does not need rama yade, he can do it himself, and he can do it better than yade.
as to your comment on france’s sorry post-colonial meddling. alas that is true.
@7:59 – Thanks
I guess it’s the same thing as Musharraf saying that Pakistan has the greatest army in the world, or Americans calling the best teams of the NBA or MLB the “world champions”. I’m not saying that makes it okay to say foolish things, but we shouldn’t assume Kouchner’s speech reflects what he really thinks.
It’s “Le Parisien,” not “La Parisien” (it would in this case be “La Parisienne). And the co-founder of MSF is Kouchner, not Le Parisien, as your post suggests.