National conferences in several francophone West African nations, including Chad, Togo, and Niger, have produced active pro-democracy movements. France will no longer prop up dictatorial regimes, but it also seems unwilling to support nascent democracies. GONE are the days when La Grande Armee was every French-African dictator's best friend. Since june 1990, when President Francois Mitterrand told his African allies that France would cease to provide automatic military support for the representatives of stability" among them, democratic oppositions have popped up in every French West African ...
