READER ZACHARY BARBERA SUGGESTS IT MUST BE “CUDDLE DICTATORS MONTH” IN FRANCE. This story suggests that he’s right:

France has confirmed that it is inviting Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to take part in a summit of African Heads of State next month.

Mr Mugabe is currently banned from entering the European Union because of doubts about the legitimacy of his re-election last year.

But French President Jacques Chirac was convinced that the Zimbabwean leader’s presence at the summit would help promote justice, human rights and democracy in his country, foreign ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau told journalists.

Then there’s this explanation for France’s abstention when Qadafi was elected to the Human Rights Commission:

If France chose to abstain in the vote, which saw Libyan ambassador to Geneva Najat al-Hajjaji elected head of the UN commission on human rights, it was done in such a way that France could send two different messages to Libya, a French spokesman said.

He noted that if the vote had been taken a year or two ago, France would undoubtedly have joined the United States and Canada in voting against Libya _ to protest Libya’s alleged involvement in the bombing of a French aircraft over Niger in 1989.

However, Paris also wanted to respect the memory of a large number of Africans who died in the plane crash and so thought it best to neither support nor oppose Tripoli’s elevation at the world body, the spokesman said.

“Axis of Weasel,” indeed.

UPDATE: I just noted that Zach Barbera has already blogged this on his blog. Note to bloggers — when you send me links to stories, let me know if you’ve already blogged them. I’d rather send the traffic to you than to Reuters! But if you don’t mention it, I don’t always think to check.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tacitus is denouncing French unilateralism in abandoning E.U. sanctions.