France-Afghanistan

Reinforcements for Afghanistan upset French parliament

Article published on the 2008-04-01 Latest update 2008-04-10 12:56 TU

French soldiers patrol near Kabul, Afghanistan in February 2008
(Photo : AFP)

The French parliament is debating whether to increase its troop deployment in Afghanistan. At issue is whether they and the other foreign troops in the international force, ISAF, are able to secure and maintain peace in the country. Another issue, particularly for the political opposition in France is that the debate will not conclude with a parliamentary vote.

France is set to send an additional 1,200 soldiers to Afghanistan. The French president Nicolas Sarkozy said last week that France would beef up its contingent in Afghanistan, which today stands at 1,600. The issue is to be debated in the French National Assembly later today, but it will not be put to a vote.

The opposition opposes

The parliamentary debate is likely to be stormy.
The president took the decision to send more troops without consulting lawmakers first, announcing it during his visit to Britain last week, and the controversy made Tuesday's front-pages in the French newspapers.
In its call for a vote, the main opposition Socialist party, as well as the Communist Party and the centrist, MoDem, have referred back to the French parliamentary vote on France taking part in the US-led Gulf War in 1991.
The governing UMP party, which has the majority in the French lower house, has deflected that criticism by saying that the parliamentarians then ratified going to war and that this is not war. For the UMP, the fresh French troops are being sent to Afghanistan to reinforce a stabilisation force.  Prime Minister François Fillon has warned that the Taliban militia could take Kabul and restore the rule of the fundamentalist Taliban, who were ousted in 2001 by US-backed Afghan warlords.

Military choices

The exact make-up of the French reinforcements is to be announced by Sarkozy at the NATO summit in Bucharest later this week. The extra troops would be likely to be posted closer to the front, in the east of Afghanistan. Today, the larger part of the French contingent is stationed in and around the capital Kabul. Kabul does not see the heavy combat which takes place in some other parts of the country. France also has six fighter jets and 200 soldiers in Kandahar in the south, a team of military instructors in Oruzgan in the centre, and another team of instructors in the East.
The French military has logisitic squads stationed to the north of Afghanistan in Tadjikistan and in Kirghiszstan.