For
Immediate Release!
Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform
P.O. Box 332 Stn. B.
Etobicoke, Ontario
M9W 5L3
INTERNET: nstn3125@fox.nstn.ca
November 13, 1996
C-FAR Slams Canadian Intervention
in Zaire as "Folly"
Canada's leading foreign aid critic, Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform
Inc. (C-FAR) has attacked plans to send 1,500 Canadian troops to Zaire
as a costly disaster in the making.
C-FAR Research Director Paul Fromm said in Toronto today: "The
announcement by Prime Minister Chretien that Canda is eager to head up
an international peacekeeping force to try to sort out the warring parties
in eastern Zaire and to deliver food and other supplies is dangerous folly.
Our pledge of 1,500 Canadian soldiers is expensive madness."
"Have we learned nothing from the Somalia debacle which cost us
our Airborne Regiment?" Fromm asked. "Despite these politically
correct times, I get the feeling that the old days of the White man's burden
are back. Africa is made up of sovereign and independent countries. The
Prime Minister and his advisors must resist the temptation to meddle. Let
Africans sort out the tribal hatreds and animosities. Many African lands
have respectablylarge armies and could assist with this task."
Fromm added: "There is no peace for our troops to keep. They enter
a snakepit of hatreds and conflicting interests. There is no reason for
debt-ridden Canada to commit blood or money to intervening in Zaire."
Fromm further argued: " Armed interference can only be justified
if Canadian lives or business interests or those of our allies were menaced.
That is not the case."
"The ingratitude and turmoil that resulted from our intervention
in Somalia should be a lesson," he added. " It would be far better
to keep Canadian forces at home and upgrade them and train them to interdict
the foreign marauders who have raped our fisheries on both coasts."
C-FAR, founded an a non-profit educational organization in 1979, publishes
a monthly critique of foreign aid spending The C-FAR Newsletter. ($16).
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