Ivory Coast: aid workers find 1,000 bodies in Duekoue

[Pete]

Ivory Coast: aid workers find 1,000 bodies in Duekoue

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...n-Duekoue.html

Any place other than Africa and this would be big news....

"........Charity workers who reached Duekoue said it appeared the killings had taken place in a single day, shortly after the town fell to troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the man internationally-recognised as having won last year’s presidential election.

The apparent massacre came despite the presence of United Nations troops and - if confirmed - will cast a shadow over Mr Outtara’s assumption of the Ivory Coast’s presidency after a four-month battle to oust Lawrence Gbagbo, the former president who lost the November election but refused to step down. ............"

And REing the Logan thread I'm sure there are male and female reporters in the area getting the story - it's what they do.

[Pete]

Peacekeepers control Abidjan airport, French military says

http://www.france24.com/en/20110403-...ekeepers-unoci

"AFP - Peacekeepers have taken control of the airport in Abidjan as forces loyal to the country's rival presidents struggle for control of Ivory Coast's main city, the French military said Sunday.

France has also boosted its Licorne (Unicorn) peacekeeping mission in the cocoa-rich nation by 300 to around 1,400 troops, where part of their mission is to protect foreigners from attacks and looting amid rising insecurity.............."

[Pete]

Ivory Coast: Ouattara forces 'storm Gbagbo residence'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12985638

Forces opposed to Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo have launched a final assault on the presidential residence where he is holed up, reports say.

Mr Gbagbo has been in negotiations with the UN over the terms of his departure, after being surrounded by troops loyal to his rival Alassane Ouattara.

A French government source said weapons fire had erupted at Mr Gbagbo's residence in Abidjan.

Mr Gbagbo insists he won last November's election.

But the Ivorian election commission found that Mr Ouattara was the winner, and the result was certified by the UN.

Looks like stage one is almost over.

[Pete]

The next Rwanda? ‘In all districts of Abidjan there is gunfire’

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/w...fire-1.1094251

".......The cocoa economy around the city has collapsed as a result of an embargo imposed by the European Union following Gbagbo’s refusal to accept the presidential election result. According to official figures, Ouattara won with 54% of nearly five million votes cast nationally. But the head of the Constitutional Council alleged vote-rigging in the Ouattara-controlled north and declared Gbagbo the victor with 51% of the votes cast. The country then returned to civil war after enjoying a tenuous peace since 2005.

The inter-ethnic violence around Duekoue that has driven the Gueré tribal people into the mission station mirrors the kind of ethnic tensions that prevail throughout most of Ivory Coast. The Gueré ancestors had possessed the land for centuries before people from the arid north and from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali began settling there 40 years ago, seeking work as cocoa prices boomed on world markets. Ivory Coast historically has produced more than 40% of the world’s supply of beans for production of the developed world’s chocolate products.

Ethnic tensions and xenophobic killings began when the world price of cocoa nosedived in the 1990s and some five million immigrant workers were suddenly perceived as a burden. The southern-dominated Government introduced a new xenophobic concept of “Ivorité”, or Ivorianess. Vigilantes began killing “foreigners” – the majority of them Muslims and many of them third-generation immigrants – on plantations and in shanties on the edges of the towns as the country, once the richest in West Africa, descended into civil war................."

[Ret10Echo]

Always interesting to see what happens next. Ivory Coast is in the skip-zone it would seem...


"To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and — more profoundly — our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action."


Hmmmmm

[RTK]

Gbagbo is Captured

By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS
Forces loyal to Ivory Coast's elected president Alassane Ouattara have seized strongman Laurent Gbagbo from his residence, bringing to a head a protracted conflict between two presidential rivals that had tilted the world's largest cocoa producer toward civil war.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Ouattara said Monday that Mr. Gbagbo was captured during a flurry of fighting earlier in the day. "There [was] heavy fighting involving French soldiers, the United Nations and our forces against Mr. Gbagbo's forces," spokeswoman Sogona Bamba-Arnault said from Paris. "Once all heavy weapons were destroyed, Mr. Gbagbo was there and we arrested him."

An aide to Mr. Gbagbo said the incumbent ruler was first arrested by French special forces, and only later handed to forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara.

In Paris, French officials had no immediate comment.

Ms. Bamba-Arnault, the president-elect's spokeswoman, said Mr. Gbagbo was taken to the Golf Hotel, where Mr. Ouattara has set up his office.

Mr. Gbagbo lost a November presidential runoff certified by the U.N. but refused to recognize the result, citing voting irregularities.

When attempts by African leaders to mediate the conflict failed, Mr. Ouattara's rebel forces launched an offensive, sweeping south and capturing key towns and ports that Mr. Gbagbo's army once held.

That advance stalled outside the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan, a stronghold for Mr. Gbagbo's supporters. It was only when the U.N. and Licorne, or Unicorn—the French battalion stationed in Abidjan—launched a series of aerial attacks that the rebels were able to encircle the former Ivory Coast president in his residence.

The U.N. and the French said the air assaults were intended to protect civilians by destroying Mr. Gbagbo's artillery and weapons stockpiles. Mr. Gbagbo's supporters said the military intervention was the work of a former colonial power pushing a political rival into the presidency.

Mr. Gbagbo resisted surrender, and a core of a couple of hundred supporters rebuffed initial efforts to capture his residence. Mr. Gbagbo's supporters continued to attack French and U.N. targets, prompting a retaliation that appeared to pave the way for the former president's capture on Monday.

Recent controversies associated with his rebel forces have complicated Mr. Ouattara's struggle to oust the Ivory Coast strongman from his residence, and also point to the challenges of reconciliation after the conflict. The Ivory Coast fought a two-year civil war after Mr. Gbagbo came to power, and although the conflict officially ended in 2002, the country has remained sharply divided.

In a report released by New York-based Human Rights Watch over the weekend, Mr. Ouattara's forces were said to have "killed hundreds of civilians, raped more than 20 alleged supporters of his rival, Laurent Gbagbo, and burned at least 10 villages" in the country's western region during their advance south. The report said Mr. Gbagbo's backers also killed supporters of the president-elect, but it called on Mr. Ouattara to investigate abuses on both sides.

That report followed a separate account from the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimating that 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the town of Duekoue, after troops loyal to Mr. Ouattara moved through the area.

The International Criminal Court also has said it was considering opening an investigation into reports of atrocities during the conflict.

Mr. Ouattara has pledged to launch an investigation into the allegations, and vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice in domestic or international courts.

[Guy]

Originally Posted by RTK

Gbagbo is Captured

Now we'll spend the next "god-only-knows" years trying too put him on trial...

"Some folks need kill'n"

Stay safe.

[RTK]

Originally Posted by Guy

Now we'll spend the next "god-only-knows" years trying too put him on trial...

"Some folks need kill'n"

Stay safe.

And roger...

Of course, handing him to Ouattara will probably put him on a fast rail to a death sentence.

[incarcerated]

What about the new guy that the U.N. is backing? Shouldn’t there be an investigation?
Doesn’t this qualify as a humanitarian disaster?
Where’s Samantha Power?

Originally Posted by Pete

Ivory Coast: aid workers find 1,000 bodies in Duekoue

"........Charity workers who reached Duekoue said it appeared the killings had taken place in a single day, shortly after the town fell to troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the man internationally-recognised as having won last year’s presidential election.

The apparent massacre came despite the presence of United Nations troops....