CBC Newsworld, Sept. 3, 1999
MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK - Prime Minister Jean Chretien and some other francophone leaders are calling for more action on human rights in many French-speaking countries.
Chretien told delegates they should devote most of their energy to human rights issues at the summit in Moncton.
French President Jacques Chirac, and Boutros-Boutros Ghali, secretary-general of the la Francophonie, made similar pleas.
But some protesters at the summit say la Francophonie talks about taking action but never does. Boutros Ghali said the organization has helped many French-speaking countries become more democratic, but he also issued a challenge.
He says there is much more work to be done. "Public opinion won't understand," he says, if la Francophonie is not more determined to bring human rights and democracy to all of its members.
Several un-elected leaders, some accused of murder and torture, sat smiling in the audience.
Chretien says la Francophonie must be based on a fundamental respect of law. "That's not the case right now," Chretien said.
And Jacques Chirac the president of France seemed to change his position that only the UN could take action against certain African countries. "The time is right," said Chirac, "for la Francophonie to establish a core of democracy observers, like the UN has."
But all the talk inside was dismissed as irrelevant by about 50 protesters, most of them African Canadians. The protesters screamed, and some spit, when leaders from Burundi, Rwanda and Togo walk by with their bodyguards.
These demonstrators say the Moncton summit could have been historic had Canada banned some members from coming.
Instead, they say, this summit shows la Francophonie is an international weakling, and it will do nothing to end the brutality that forced them to leave Africa.
TALLY:
Should la Francophonie expel members accused of human rights abuses?
Yes: 90% No : 10%
Vietnam is among the 15 Francophonie members which violate human rights.