It is official: France does not act like a colonial power

"France’s defense minister, Gérard Longuet, insistedn Tuesday that no French or United Nations troops had entered the presidential residence where Mr. Gbagbo was seized. In a radio interview, he dismissed as “totally absurd” suggestions that France had intervened in a “colonial” manner. France’s military forces in Ivory Coast, which currently number 1,700, will soon be reduced to “a few hundred,” he added."