ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - The United Nations is warning supporters of incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo that an attack on the hotel where the internationally recognized winner of last monthÂ’s election is based could re-ignite civil war.
| A U.N. warning? I'm sure Gbagbo is laughing his hind end off. |
A pro-Gbagbo youth leader has said that Alassane Ouattara and his supporters have until Saturday to “pack up their bags” and leave the hotel where they are being guarded by some 800 U.N. peacekeepers and hundreds of rebels loyal to Ouattara.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is “deeply alarmed” by the youth leader’s comments. Ban said Thursday that an attack on the hotel could provoke widespread violence, which could re-ignite civil war in the West African country divided in two by the 2002-2003 civil war. Ban called on Gbagbo supporters to “refrain from such dangerous irresponsible action,” Nesirky said.
| That should do it. No one in Africa would dare defy the U.N. |
The youth leader, Charles Ble Goude, is known as the “street general” for organizing a violent anti-French and anti-U.N. gang that terrorized the foreign population in Ivory Coast in 2004-2005.
Under a peace deal after the war, the U.N. was tasked with certifying the results of the Nov. 28 presidential runoff vote. The U.N. declared Ouattara the winner, echoing the countryÂ’s own electoral commission chief. Gbagbo insists he won, pointing out that the Ivory Coast constitutional council declared him the winner. The council, which is led by a Gbagbo ally, did so after invalidating half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north.
Chaos in Ivory Coast already has kept Gbagbo in power five years beyond his mandate in Ivory Coast, the worldÂ’s top cocoa producer that was once a West African economic powerhouse. The countryÂ’s long-delayed presidential election was finally held in October was intended to help reunify the country, which had been split into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south.
| That worked well, didn't it. |
Instead, the vote and a runoff held last month have renewed divisions that threaten to plunge the country back into civil war.
| Who would have seen that coming? |
While Ivory Coast was officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara still draws his support from the northern half of the country, where residents feel they are often treated as foreigners within their own country by southerners.
| So more violence, more blood spilled, and a bigger mess for the U.N., though since it will be French troops bleeding, the MFM won't dare call it a 'quagmire'. We'll see more refugees headed for Liberia, which itself isn't exactly a garden-spot on the west coast of Africa. There will be more appeals for the developed world to give money to the U.N. refugee office, though of course no money will be diverted from the Paleostainian camps. |
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