September 3, 2005

France accuses the rebels of rearming and recruiting new fighters for their militias. Both sides has agreed, last April, to disarm. But this process did not begin on schedule, or at all. The rebel warlords who run the north are apparently content to leave the nation partitioned. The government in the south is not strong enough to defeat the warlords, and the 6,000 UN peacekeepers, and 4,000 French troops are not willing to remove the rebel gunmen. The rebels are not willing to participate in elections, while the government is. This means that if the elections go forward, the current government will be re-elected and nothing will change.