France considering renewal of cooperation

France announced on Friday that it planned to renew “real cooperation” with the DRC, which had been “subject to a de facto embargo for almost 10 years”. Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin, quoted by AFP news agency, said that while appropriate conditions were “not yet completely in place, the time has come - in order to avoid irremediably sacrificing a whole generation which would pay the price of things it has not done - to once again find the road for real cooperation with the DRC”. France, in common with most other donors to the DRC, cut back support in the early 1990s in an attempt to force democracy on the dictatorial president of what was then Zaire, Mobutu Sese-Seko. The minister also announced that France had contributed FF 4 million (about US $666,000) to the establishment of the Joint Military Commission (JMC), which he described as “one of the key elements stipulated in the Lusaka Agreement to enable military observation in the conflict zones”. Josselin said France’s contribution, the largest so far to the JMC, reflected its belief that if there was a chance of attaining peace, it was by implementing the Lusaka agreement.