It looks like a new strategy is being deployed to justify intervention. The “color revolutions” promoted unrest in the aftermath of elections (Venezuela, Ukraine, Iran, etc.) to declare their candidate the winner, and then try to foist him on the country for regime change. Now it appears that elections are no longer needed. The “international community” simply stirs up some unrest (Syria, Libya), cites its humanitarian obligations to the aggrieved people, and then proceeds with regime change. Ivory Coast fits somewhere in the middle of these two scenarios.
Yes, I’m afraid that the US will foment unrest in Iran, declare an imminent humanitarian catastrophe, and let the bombs fly. Of course, Iran has ways of retaliating that can put the global supply of oil in jeopardy and drive oil tanker insurance rates sky high. If the crazies running the US government want another Great Depression, this is the opportunity they’ve been waiting for.

Posted by: JohnH | Apr 6 2011 0:48 utc | 3

And now Cote d’Ivoire is occupied by a French backed, mercenary force recruited from a variety of its neighbours. The new “President” a Sarkozy client and a graduate from the IMF Institute of Washington Consensus (oe else!)school of governmment, is also heavily in debt to one half of the population and regarded with enormous suspicion by the other.
Repression, then, is inevitable: first detentions, show trials, executions. Then the bills will have to be paid, neither mercenaries nor Imperialsts work for nothing. So load them onto the backs of the Ivorians, and to make sure they aren’t thrown off, take all necessary measures. This will probably include a base for France to be used by the US, which may just have a choice now of Africom HQs. The local army will need to be retrained, with a heavy emphasis on crowd control and Death Squads 101. More money will be needed to buy arms, and pay training costs, and furnish Gemnerals with the appropriate perks, from gold braid to Swiss Bank accounts.
Come back Joseph Conrad, there is a story here that needs to be told. And it began in the mid-fifteenth century when Portuguese began to buy prisoners in West Africa and sell them to planters for slaves.

Posted by: bevin | Apr 6 2011 2:36 utc | 5

According to Maurice Fahe

… the United States is constructing, not in Lagos or in Accra, but in Abidjan, a surveillance centre covering all of sub-Saharan Africa, along with the most significant diplomatic representation in Africa south of the Sahara after South Africa.

Pambazuka has a number of articles with really good analysis of the Ivory Coast situation.

Posted by: xcroc | Apr 6 2011 3:46 utc | 7

‘the United States is constructing, not in Lagos or in Accra, but in Abidjan, a surveillance centre covering all of sub-Saharan Africa, along with the most significant diplomatic representation in Africa south of the Sahara after South Africa’
when will an african or asian set up a surveillance centre in the US covering the continental Unite States? then theyd be more aware of debelopments that may affect Africa.
But would the americans be happy with this?

Posted by: brian | Apr 6 2011 4:08 utc | 9

Mr. Choi, the UN Representative, the man who declared de victory of Quattara is a Korean. the authentic war is betwin france and occident and CHINA. the same war than in Libia.
It is the same war in proxies countries.

Posted by: an idiot | Apr 6 2011 11:01 utc | 11

Another example of the US devaluing ‘democracy’:
HONDURAS:

Shamefully, as has been widely reported, the US State Department, through its Human Rights Labor Attaché in Tegucigalpa, came down solidly on the side of the oppressed military, threatened by the violence of protesters, writing

we cannot condone the violence currently being used by demonstrators … While we have consistently urged the police to use restraint, some demonstrators have engaged in a level of violence not seen in many years. …The demonstrations of the past week are truly frightening and a cause for concern. We ask that those in contact with teachers groups encourage them to stop the violence…

and concluding that “the majority of reported injuries are on the side of the security officials”. Thus the US slides from tacit permission for militarization of the response to civil disobedience, to active approval of police and military actions.

…and (worse yet!) cheering aggression and war crimes:
GAZA:

State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said that the Obama administration read the [Goldstone] op-ed “with great interest,” adding that the U.S. Government did not see any evidence that the Israeli Government committed any war crimes, nor did it intentionally target civilians.
Toner observed that in light of the op-ed, it appears that “Justice Goldstone has reached the same conclusion.” He commended Israel, saying that the U.S. administration believes that Israel “has undertaken credible internal processes to assess its own conduct of hostilities”.

Posted by: Maracatu | Apr 6 2011 13:28 utc | 13

Another attempt on Iran? Maybe I was dozing, but I kinda missed the last one.
Meh. There’s not going to be an attempt on Iran for a very large number of very simple reasons, foremost being Iran’s position as a systemically important economy/global energy supplier, as opposed to a marginal or marginalised “state” – such as Iraq or Libya or Cote d’Ivoire – that can be trifled with militarily without crossing an immediate “pain” threshhold to the trifler, and everyone else besides.

Posted by: dan | Apr 7 2011 15:53 utc | 15

France intervenes in Ivory Coast’s civil war
By Ann Talbot
7 April 2011

In the last 24 hours, France has directly intervened in the fighting in Ivory Coast as it seeks to reassert its control over its former colony.
French helicopters bombarded forces loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday afternoon, ground forces loyal to rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara were unleashed in an assault on the presidential residence. Nonetheless, as of late last night, Ouattara’s troops had retreated after a failed assault on the bunkers where Gbagbo is thought to be hiding.
Ivory Coast’s long-standing military standoff between Ouattara’s northern forces and Gbagbo loyalists has flared since the disputed November 28 presidential election. France and the NATO powers recognized Ouattara as the winner of the election.
French representatives negotiated with Gbagbo through Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The talks finally broke down in the afternoon and pro-Ouattara forces launched what they described as the “final assault” on the presidential residence. Their intention, they said, was to “fetch him out” of his bunker. The intensity of the fighting was shown by reports that windows had been blown out of the embassies in the diplomatic district.
A terrified resident speaking over the phone told Reuters, “The fighting is terrible here. The explosions are so heavy my building is shaking. We can hear automatic gunfire and also heavy weapons. There’s shooting all over the place. Cars are speeding in all directions and so are the fighters”.
A military spokesman denied that French armed forces were involved in the fighting. But residents reported seeing French tanks on the streets. UN helicopters were seen flying over the presidential residence as the fighting raged.
Video from several miles away shows huge explosions rocking the city of Abidjan, home to four million people. Missiles can be seeing flying past the camera suggesting that a munitions dump was hit. What the scale of damage was closer to the barracks is still unknown, but one resident reported that a rocket had gone through the roof of a house, killing three people.
The leader of the United Nations team in Ivory Coast (UNOCI), Hamadoun Toure, was already briefed to expect a rapid denouement when he spoke to the BBC’s Today programme on Wednesday morning.
“We hope to find a solution very, very soon, so that it will be the end of the game,” he said.
Edouard Guillaud of the French armed forces expressed a similar view later in the day. He told Europe 1 Radio that Gbagbo would go soon: “I believe it is a matter of hours, possibly during the day”.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé told Reuters, “The negotiations which were carried out for hours yesterday between the entourage of Laurent Gbagbo and Ivorian authorities have failed because of Gbagbo’s intransigence”.
Gbagbo had reportedly insisted that he should be allowed to remain in Ivory Coast and that he be given UN protection. Though Gbagbo won almost half the vote in November’s election, according to international observers, these demands were apparently unacceptable to France.
France’s intervention shatters all the French government’s claims that its role in Ivory Coast was that of a bystander seeking to protect the population from harm. Instead, it is acting with the support of the US government to violently assert Western imperialist interests—in Ivory Coast and internationally.
France’s role in Ivory Coast has been praised by Washington. President Barack Obama welcomed the role of the French and UN forces and called on Gbagbo to step down.
“To end this violence and prevent more bloodshed, former President Gbagbo must stand down immediately, and direct those who are fighting on his behalf to lay down their arms”, Obama said. “I strongly support the role that United Nations peacekeepers are playing as they enforce their mandate to protect civilians, and I welcome the efforts of French forces who are supporting that mission”.
Since the start of the conflict in Ivory Coast, Paris and Washington have turned a blind eye to more substantial massacres of civilians by supporters of Ouattara—including one of up to 1,000 people in a single village. (See, “Civilians massacred by Western-backed forces in Ivory Coast”)
This is part of a broader explosion of French militarism in Africa. President Nicolas Sarkozy also led the way in calling for a no-fly zone in Libya. France was the first to recognize the Transitional National Council based in Benghazi as the rightful government of Libya. This has set a pattern for France in relation to Ivory Coast. France and Nigeria drafted UN resolution 1975, which gives UNOCI a mandate to protect civilians. It was drawn up on the same lines as the resolution that allowed NATO jets to attack military Libyan military positions.
Within days of the Ivory Coast resolution being agreed, France and UNOCI went into action in Abidjan. They bombarded the palace and presidential residence as well as Akueodo and Agban barracks on Tuesday. They justified their action by claiming that pro-Gbagbo forces had used heavy artillery against civilians.
The UN resolution did not authorize the French to attack, but UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote to Sarkozy to request French help. “It is urgent to launch necessary military operations to put out of action the heavy arms which have been used against the civilian population and the peacekeepers”, Ban Ki-moon said.
Gbagbo has in the past worked closely with Paris. He has whipped up ethnic and communal hostilities in an attempt to remain in power, targeting immigrant labourers who came to Ivory Coast from neighbouring Burkina Faso in the 1960s and 1970s as scapegoats as the economy has declined. This lay the basis for a protracted conflict with Ouattara, a northerner whom he excluded from the 2000 presidential elections, claiming that Ouattara’s parents were not born in Ivory Coast.
Paris recognised Gbagbo’s election at the time, even though he had excluded Ouattara, because he had close connections with then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and France’s Socialist Party.
Gbagbo’s relations with France deteriorated, however, when he blocked French attempts to impose a power-sharing regime that would include northerners to end the civil war. Gbagbo broke a cease-fire in 2004 and launched a military assault on the north, during which a French base was hit. Paris responded by destroying the entire Ivorian air force.
When crowds came out onto the streets of Abidjan to protest this action, French helicopters dropped tear gas and concussion grenades on them, armoured cars took up positions on the bridges and gunboats patrolled the river underneath them.
The arrogant way in which France has asserted its authority in this situation underscores its continuing imperialist oppression of its former colony. Ivory Coast was granted formal independence along with the rest of French West Africa in 1960. However, France has always retained a troop presence in Ivory Coast under the terms of a military agreement signed in 1961.

Posted by: xcroc | Apr 7 2011 22:36 utc | 17

@Noirette, I had known about Ouattara working for the IMF and that he was a protege of H-B. I didn’t know anything about his wife. They sound like the kind of couple only a Sarkozy could love. I’ll have to take a look at that charity. Thanks for that piece of info and insight.
@b real, I never thought it would be possible for me to agree with Sen. Inhofe on anything, particularly regarding Africa where he is responsible for so much harm. Its the kind of thing that could shake my confidence in my opinions. However, I think some of his points are legitimate. I do think both sides did their best to rig the election. To regard one as the good guy or the winner is farce.
I ran across this at Jazzuloo:

The French and UN are laying the foundation to create another “Haiti-like” political and social situation for their advantage in Cote d’Ivoire. They will install their oligarchy, flood the country with NGO’s, have a permanent UN “peacekeeping” force (in reality AFRICOM forces), oppress the people while they plunder their resources. Nothing changes but the faces!

Posted by: xcroc | Apr 10 2011 23:45 utc | 19

France did a Haiti.

Posted by: ThePaper | Apr 11 2011 19:40 utc | 21

I suppose we should be cranked about this, on one level I’m really pissed, Gbagbo represents the unionised leftish forces in Cote d’Ivoire if he can be called less than democratic, he succeeded in chasing out the clique of the original tyrant and france puppet Félix Houphouët-Boigny who ran the joint from 1960 until he karked it in 1993 where upon another france lickspittle Bédié who scammed an election using much the same tricks as Ouattara has just pulled took over for the clique.
By 2000 everyone is pissed enough that election scams aren’t gonna work unless the population is frogmarched to the booth and told which box to tick so Gbagbo got up.
He has faced exactly the same problem that left leaning anti-imperialist leaders face everywhere from Castro to Ortega to Hugo Chávez. So much is at stake for the former empire and the quislings who supported it in the colony that the leader must walk a very fine line. If he institutes the freedoms he probably would prefer to, the wealthy exploiters will abuse those freedoms and steal the nation back, if he doesn’t and tries to keep a lid on political activities in the hope that the situation will stabilise, he will be called a tyrant by the forces who seek to exploit the freedoms for their own selfish ends. There is no correct answer, all an anti-imperialist can do is hope for the correct political climate in the home of the empire. See the nation hasn’t been freed yet. Enter the puppet of western oppression, the united nations and their ‘peace keeping’ forces.
Why should it matter what happens in the land of the former colonial master? That it matters heaps so long after these nations were ostensibly granted ‘independence’ (1960 for Cote d’Ivoire) tells us exactly how awful imperialism is.
Once Sarkozy got elected it was all over not only for Gbagbo but for a free Cote d’Ivoire (I have to say I’m not too keen on using the name given the area by its colonial masters – there must be a suitable name for the area that is African, not english or french).
Essentially the same thing has been in play for Zimbabwe since the closet tory bliar was elected PM. Cameron is too busy “feeding cold english steel to afghani fuzzy wuzzies” trying to win the war that england lost over a century ago, at the moment to deal to Zimbabwe, but the english desperately need to re-occupy it, they need the agricultural potential too much to not steal it back. So the sanctions will continue, pressure on South Africa, the fukUS chief ‘go-to’ in Africa, who have thus far refused to give in and give up their comrades in Zimbabwe, will continue until the english get their way. amerika needs france and england for africom to work. Resources and supply lines are too stretched now to hang on to the ME colonies, much less grab new ones. But england n france come with filing cabinets full of lists of quislings eager to do the whitefellas bidding in return for the crumbs off the table. It takes more than a handful of harvard graduates to purloin an entire nation and successfully (quickly and economically) divert that nation’s wealth to the other side of the earth. amerika can find some of the new leaders sure, but it is the old colonial masters and their exploitative capitalist corporations who in many cases never left after ‘de-colonisation’ who will provide the secret policemen, administrators and engineers of their homeland’s destruction.
As for what will happen when the inevitable falling out between thieves occurs, well we already know the answer to that, the europeans mercilessly killed each other for centuries, culminating in the so-called ‘world wars’ when the last mob to burgle Africa, fell out. That will be sooner rather than later too. Africa is very rich in commodities, but nowhere is rich enough to be able to keep the overcrowded, greedy and unrealistic parasites of the so-called first world sleek and content while still allowing sufficient crumbs to the locals to ensure orderly theft.
Just as Icelanders are going to have to keep fighting off the theft of their few assets by england and the dutch forever, so do colonies and the proletariat everywhere around this planet, they have to keep beating off the selfish assholes who have had their boots on the necks of europe for at least a thousand years. Those inhumane worthless creeps just keep on lying and twisting things every which way until their selfish needs are met. It’s probably a gene that demands the possessor treat other humans like so much dross to be used and abused.
I wish the assholes would wise up, but they won’t. Even though they are creating a situation that will make the post french revolution ‘reign of terror’ or the Bolshevik post revolutionary purges seem like tea parties.
The next time ordinary people get a hold on power, they are going to have to wipe every last vestige of these selfish greedy and unrepentant assholes from the face of the planet, including all their children, because in too many cases the children have grown up to be just as avaricious, criminal and murderous as their parents. Someone suggest another way – I just can’t see it any more. Especially when you consider the upside; that once these pricks were obliterated, the rest of us could live in complete freedom without having to fear the assholes making a comeback.
See I am cranked but on the other level its sorta “what else did you expect?” the re-colonisation of Africa is occurring because Africa was never properly decolonised. And now people in the colonising countries are openly going for what used have them hanging their heads in shame. This won’t stop until humans everywhere call it out for what it is. Unfortunately too many peeps have been drawn into the individualist cults and many won’t see the light for a long time, when they’ll realise that they never had a chance of becoming rich themselves & shit was the only thing which trickled down.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Apr 11 2011 22:10 utc | 23

I think it was irresponsible, criminal, and cynical, for French forces to just hand Gbagbo over to his enemies.

Posted by: Copeland | Apr 11 2011 23:54 utc | 25

Mexican public intellectual and writer, Javier Sicilia, has inspired thousands of people to mass protests in the street, to call for an end to the USA’s duplicitous War On Drugs, that is now responsible for violence that has also taken the life of his own young son, Juan Francisco. He’s written something that has changed the political landscape in his country; although there seems to be an almost complete media blackout, outside his country. He writes this:

We have had it up to here with you, politicians – and when I say politicians I do not refer to any in particular, but, rather, a good part of you, including those who make up the political parties – because in your fight for power you have shamed the fabric of the nation. Because in middle of this badly proposed, badly made, badly led war, of this war that has put the country in a state of emergency, you have been incapable – due to your cruelties, your fights, your miserable screaming, your struggle for power – of creating the consensus that the nation needs to find the unity without which this country will not be able to escape. We have had it up to here because the corruption of the judicial institutions generates the complicity with crime and the impunity to commit it, because in the middle of that corruption that demonstrates the failure of the State, each citizen of this country has been reduced to what the philosopher Giorgio Agamben called, using a Greek word, “zoe”: an unprotected life, the life of an animal, of a being that can be violated, kidnapped, molested and assassinated with impunity.
[…]

There is no life, Albert Camus wrote, without persuasion and without peace, and the history of Mexico today only knows intimidation, suffering, distrust and the fear that one day another son or daughter of another family will be debased and massacred. You only know what you are [asking] us, that death, as is already happening today, becomes an affair of statistics and administration and which we should all get used to it.

r’giap, you are right: that the people from necessity must pull down the institutions of fear. This happened in Egypt; and we are perhaps seeing this happen today in Mexico.

Posted by: Copeland | Apr 12 2011 0:58 utc | 27

Javier’s letter is amazing!
thanks

Posted by: DaveS | Apr 12 2011 3:13 utc | 29

yes, javier’s letter…thank you for posting.

Posted by: annie | Apr 12 2011 8:40 utc | 31

I should have realized Gbagbo was a Christianist. I know far less than I should about Ivory Coast. If Inhofe likes Gbagbo, G must have been in with The Family. It isn’t a question of law or the Ivoirian constitution Inhofe has in mind.
I do know that the people of Ivory Coast, especially in the south are mainly Akan, as in Ghana. Except for the border and the French/English language divide, the two are pretty much the same people same country. In both countries there are pre-colonial elites who are happy to exploit their fellow countrymen. In Ivory Coast I understand Gbagbo, although having some revolutionary credentials, comes from those pre-colonial elites. In Ghana the dominant group of these are Ashanti elites who followed Danquah and Busia, saying Ghana wasn’t ready for independence and helping the CIA undermine Nkrumah. The NPP, who governed Ghana prior to current President Mills are controlled by this pre-colonial reactionary elite Danquah-Busia portion of the Ashanti political structure. It is one reason they got on so well with President Bush. The NPP has a number of ties with these elites in Ivory Coast that go back a long way. I understand there is some support for Gbagbo as a result. There are also many people who detest Gbagbo but think he is probably the legitimate President of IC, if there is any legitimacy left now.
The BBC has a story at this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13039825
The title now is: Ivory Coast: Gbagbo held after assault on residence. But the same link earlier had this story, which is preserved at Modern Ghana: Breaking News: Ivory Coast: French soldiers ‘hand Gbagbo to rebels’.

French soldiers have seized Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo from his residence and handed him over to the opposition, a Gbagbo aide has said.
They reportedly went in after French tanks advanced on the compound in Ivory Coast’s main city, Abidjan, following French and UN helicopter attacks.
Mr Gbagbo is refusing to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, certified as the winner of the presidential election.
UN peacekeepers accuse Gbabgo forces of endangering the civilian population.
“Gbagbo has been arrested by French special forces in his residence and has been handed over to the rebel leaders,” presidential spokesman Toussaint Alain told Reuters news agency from Paris.
News of the arrest was later confirmed by the French ambassador for AFP news agency.

The original story has disappeared from the BBC.

Posted by: xcroc | Apr 12 2011 22:14 utc | 33

An interesting development and a strongly worded statement from the Gambia:
Gambia Government’s position on the tragedy in Cote D’Ivoire or Ivory Coast

The events in Ivory Coast have vindicated us on our earlier assertion that Western Neo colonialist sponsored agents in Africa that owe allegiance only to themselves and their Western Masters are ready to walk on thousands of dead bodies to the Presidency. This is what is happening in Ivory Coast.
Africans should not only wake up, but should stand up to the new attempts to re-colonise Africa through so called elections that are organized just to fool the people since the true verdict of the people would not be respected if it does not go in favour of the Western Backed Candidates as has happened in Cote D’Ivoire and elsewhere in Africa.
What is really sinister and dangerous about the neo colonialist threat is that they are ready to use brute force, or carry out outrageous massacres to neutralize any form of resistance to the Western selected President as has happened in Cote D’Ivoire
In Ivory Coast, we know the role played by the former Colonial power who, outside of the UN Mandate, first Bombarded the Presidential Palace for Days and eventually stormed it through a tunnel that links the Presidential Palace to one of the residences of their diplomatic representative.
The reasons for the bombardment of the Presidential Palace prior to the raid was according to them; to prevent Gbagbo using heavy weapons against civilians! But both the UN and France were aware of the outrageous massacres of civilians, entire villages that supported President Laurent Gbagbo were wiped out by the so called republican forces fighting for Ouatarra. Were Gbagbo supporters not supposed to be protected by both the UN and French Forces against Massacres?
These so called republican forces that were supposed to be fighting for Democracy, ended up killing thousands with impunity and are now engaged in massive looting!
Our position is very clear. The case of Laurent Gbagbo is a replica of the Case of Patrice Lumumba who; as a a Freedom Fighter for the dignity and Independence of not only Congolese people but the entire black race was overthrown by Western powers including the UN, and handed over to his sworn enemies to be murdered.
History is repeating itself as the same Neocolonial forces that overthrew Patrice Lumumba, captured him and handed him over to his enemies almost fifty years ago; are the same forces involved in the Ivory Coast with the only difference being that it is now a different former colonial power.
If justice is to be done, there should be an impartial and comprehensive investigation into all the atrocities carried out in Ivory Coast by a team of honest and decent Allah fearing people. Alassan Ouatarra and his forces cannot go scot free and blame everything on President Laurent Gbagbo who according to the Ivorian Constitution is the legitimate President of Ivory Coast. This team should be selected by the Non Align Movement.
One is tempted to ask this Question:
How is it possible that the verdict of the constitutional council that decided on who won the elections in some Francophone African Countries recently were accepted: that is after the election in Ivory Coast but that of The Ivorian Constitution Council was rejected by both the Western powers and the UN?
As far as we are concerned, the only solution to avert a long drawn-out civil War with all its attendant consequences in Ivory Coast is to reorganize Presidential elections in the shortest possible time. In the meantime an interim Government of National Unity should be formed without Alassan Ouatarra; as he also has a lot to answer for as well.
One thing is very clear to all Africans today – the plot to recolonise Africa is very real and we must stand up to it.
It is shameful that the most evil, dictatorial and repressive powers on earth today are calling African leaders Dictators. It is also very shocking and interesting as well that the same powers are not saying anything about the popular uprising that has been raging on Burkina Faso for the past three weeks resulting in the storming of the Presidential Palace in Ouagadougou, last night, with the whereabouts of Blaise Compaore unknown. This uprising has been going on for more than three weeks now and not a single international news media is reporting on it. Is it possible in today’s world that such an uprising can take place in a country like Burkina Faso; so close to the Ivory Coast; a dusk to dawn curfew imposed for two weeks; without the Western Media including those of the former colonial Master knowing about it?
We the new Generation of Africans cannot and will not be fooled. We know what Blaise Compaore stands for in Africa with regards to the West.
Captain Thomas Sankara was murdered for standing up to imperialism and neo colonialism in Burkina Faso in particular and Francophone Africa in general. He was killed for the same reasons that Patrice Lumumba and other African Freedom Fighters died for, their killers eventually becoming Presidents in those African countries and worked exclusively for Western interests in Africa.
Blaise Compaore, is one of them. He has a lot to answer for the civil wars that ravaged Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast then, and now.
That there is such a media blackout of the uprising in Burkina Faso, but an up-to-the-minute reporting of events in Yemen, Syria, Ivory Coast etc shows that the so called international news media are the mouth pieces of certain Satanic Powers with a sinister Mission for the rest of the world outside the West.
Why can’t the West respect Africa’s Independence and dignity?
In conclusion, we call on the UN to ensure the safety, protection, and well being of President Laurent Gbagbo; the constitutionally legal President of Ivory Coast and set him free. He cannot be tried whilst Alassan Ouatarra, the internationally selected President goes scot free after massacring thousands of civilians just to be President!
The Gambia Government would not recognize any President or Government in Africa that has been imposed by forces outside of the African Continent for whatever reason. We know what those governments and Presidents stand for in Africa. They loot African resources on behalf of the powers that brought them to power.
MAY THE ALMIGHTY ALLAH Guide, Guard and Protect Africans by giving us the courage to stand up in Defence of African Independence, Dignity and the protection of our natural Resources from those hungry locusts on the rampage in Africa. The road to total liberation may be tough, but we shall prevail very soon INSHA ALLAH.

Posted by: xcroc | Apr 18 2011 18:00 utc | 35

@ThePaper, too right, Thanks for those links. I was aware but haven’t payed enough attention to this, although it is important enough. There was also a piece at Pambazuka from the end of March: Popular protests in Burkina Faso.

Posted by: xcroc | Apr 18 2011 19:45 utc | 37