Francoise Confines

Francoise Confines (February 8th 1937, Paris - September 3rd 2006, Montauriol (the Eastern Pyrenees), was a Ethnologue and French Archéologue . It had been removed with the Tibesti (northern of the Chad) and had been maintained in Otage by the Chadian rebels lasting more than thousand days. Highly skilled research director of CNRS, it is extinct, at it, on September 3rd, 2006 of the continuations of a long illness.

The taking of hostage

Francoise Confines, the French co-operator Marc Combe and Dr. Christophe Staewen, a German, is removed on April 21st, 1974 in the Tibesti (Chad) by rebels of the wandering tribes Toubous and Anakasas, carried out by Hissène Habré and Goukouni Oueddei, chief of the Armed forces of North (FAN), after a raid on the oasis of Bardaï (the woman of Staewenet, and two soldiers Chadian are killed in the shooting). The rebels, who control the north of Chad but do not manage to seize the capital Djamena, do not claim with Germany and France a ransom and the access to the media. Their ally, the Libya of the Colonel Kadhafi, moves away then from the rebels while approaching the dictatorial mode to François Tombalbaye. The rebels thus miss weapons and of international support. The taking of hostages brings back them to the foreground. Bonn yields quickly, and Dr. Christophe Staewenet is released.

But France, in full presidential campaign (the president of the Senate Alain Poher takes over temporarily the duties then), awaits the election of Valery Giscard d'Estaing to act truly. This one starts secret negotiations with the Chadian dictator François Tombalbaye. With the green light of Djamena, Giscard sends the commander Galopin to release the hostages. This one, a long time cooperating with the head of the Chadian National guard then within the intelligence services of the old French colony, is shown by the rebels of brutality and a mortal raid on close relations of Goukouni Oueddei. It is finally captured on August 4th: the Claustre business raises a veil on what one does not call yet the “Françafrique”. From now on, the rebels ask in addition to the weapons. In front of the refusal of Paris, they carry out Galopin in April 1975 after having judged it in front of a “revolutionary tribunal”, while Marc Combe manages to escape on May 23rd, 1975.

Pierre Confines, the husband of Francoise and director of the Mission of administrative reform in Chad, then tries to negotiate directly with the rebels, but it is removed in its turn on August 26th, 1975. This leads the rebels to ask for from now on a ransom of 10 franc million; Hissène Habré threatens to carry out the Claustre husbands if it does not receive the money before September 23rd. To defer Raymond Depardon and Marie-Laure de Decker, left to accompany Pierre Confines before his removal, film the rebels and their chiefs, of which Hissène Habré, before being authorized with interviewing Francoise Claustre. The diffusion of this maintenance moves the public opinion, and Paris yields, paying the ransom. But the rivals Hissène Habré and Goukouni Oueddei dispute then, involving a prolongation of the detention of the hostages.

The Prime Minister Jacques Chirac is then sent in Libya to negotiate with colonel Khadafi, who supports from now on Goukouni Oueddei against Hissène Habré. The Claustre husbands are released nine months later in Tripoli, on January 31st, 1977.

The history of Francoise Claustre will be used as a basis for the film the Prisoner of the desert of Raymond Depardon with Sandrine Bonnaire.

Francoise Claustre turns over then to her trade of ethnologist and archeologist in the south-west of France, working in particular in the Center of anthropology of Toulouse. A few years later, she declares with Paris-Match : “My only concern was to turn over in anonymity (...) to find my balance (...) I do not want any to express me, to tell me. I for of do not test any need. On the contrary, I do not hold at all so that one points out this difficult period to me…”. She dies on September 3rd, 2006, at her, of the continuations of a long illness.

References

Random links: