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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Ivory Coast rebels seek backing for war threat |
| 2003-02-17 |
| Rebels controlling the north of Ivory Coast yesterday shuttled between West African capitals to rally support for their midnight ultimatum to launch all-out war today unless they are given seats in the government. After they get the seats, they'll launch an all-out war and use the inside position to make it easier to win. An offensive by the rebels to capture the government-held south of the country would place France, the former colonial power, in an untenable position. France has deployed 3,000 troops to Ivory Coast and their role so far has been to push back the rebels threatening the government of President Laurent Gbagbo. But France has grown impatient with the Ivorian leader since he signed a French-brokered plan for peace, which envisages power-sharing, last month, then blatantly ignored it. Probably because he woke up the next morning and realized what he had done. A spokesman for the main rebel group, the Patriotic Movement of the Ivory Coast (MPCI), said its leader, Guillaume Soro, would visit the capitals of Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Faso, with the message that unless the MPCI is invited to join the government by today it will – with the support of two other rebel groups – launch an offensive on the biggest city, government-held Abidjan. We all know how important it is to have Burkina Faso on your side. Ivory Coast is the world's leading cocoa producer and because of its position and infrastructure it acts as a trading centre for the West African region. The rebellion that started on 19 September has cut the country in two and damaged the economies of landlocked neighbours such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. So far the mission of the French deployment – based on a years-old bilateral agreement – has been to protect the elected government. But since signing the Marcoussis plan for peace on 24 January, President Gbagbo has proved himself to be an ungrateful protégé. The French certainly would recognize ingratitude when they see it. Under the Marcoussis plan, the rebels were given the Interior and Defence portfolios. But since signing the plan and travelling home, Mr Gbagbo has claimed such a power-sharing formula would be unconstitutional. He now refers to the Marcoussis agreement as a "working framework'' and it took him until last Monday to install Seydou Diarra, a northerner chosen under the plan, as Prime Minister. The MPCI's ultimatum and hasty round of shuttle diplomacy comes before a two-day Franco-African summit in Paris on Wednesday, which Mr Gbagbo says he will attend. The rebels have tried to gain an invitation but have been turned down, prompting elements of the MPCI to fear that France will use the summit to bolster support for President Gbagbo. You mean the French are playing both sides? Until the first coup in Ivory Coast in 1999, France nursed and spoiled the country's leaders to maintain economic stability in the country. It tolerated a north-south divide which was economic as well as tribal and religious. President Gbagbo himself came to power after a coup but he was condoned by the then French government because of his years as a socialist activist while living in France. You always have to look after your ward heelers when they step out to make it big on their own. It's a political formula we know well here in Chicago. He was elected after drawing on southern Ivorian resentment against the north and by barring his challenger, the northern Muslim Alassane Ouattara. The latter strategy being the more important one. Mr Gbagbo said Mr Ouattara was not a legitimate Ivorian because he was born in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). It has become widely accepted that the well-equipped MPCI – and to a lesser extent the two other rebel groups – are financed by Burkina Faso. As I said earlier about Burkina Faso ... |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 Joe: Yes, Muslims are aggressing everywhere. Knowledge of the Islamic concept of "gharabaa" is essential to an understanding of this "final jihad." (see: www.as-sahwah.com) Good sources on the aggression in Africa: www.algeriadaily.com www.vanguardngr.com www.aipj.net (French) www.odili.net/nigeria.html (the writers - including Nobel laureate Woye Soyinka - welcome e-mail) |
| Posted by: Anon 2003-02-17 13:19:54 |
| #1 It's simply astonishing that in almost all coverage of the civil war in the Ivory Coast, reporters and editors seem to omit from the lead that the northern rebels are radical Islamists (Islamo-Fascists who want to impose and Islamic state based Sharia law), and that the southern government represents the Christian and animists of the south (the vast majority). The Islamic population in the north has mushroomed over the last 15 years by the migration of Muslim refugees from the civil war in Burkina Faso, artificially inflating the Muslim percentage in the Ivorian population. But they are foreigners, from another country (hence the resentment against Ouattara). France, in all its nuttiness, brokered a "peace deal" to give the army and the police to the radical Islamists! That is, the real apparatuses of state power. This is France actively HELPING allies of al Qaeda win state power. |
| Posted by: joeh 2003-02-17 10:33:47 |