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Ivory Coast Mess : French troops accussed of killing demonstrators

post #1 of 3
11/20/04 at 4:20am
Thread Starter 
Sounds like a mess over there, there's a video of one of the clashes and it's very graphic ...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...t_041119125018

Quote:
ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivory Coast said 63 people were killed in a week of clashes with French troops as it prepared to pass control of the military to hawkish Major Colonel Philippe Mangou.

General Mathias Doue, considered a moderating force in the Ivorian military, was to step down Friday in place of Mangou, the former leader of the northern command deemed responsible for three days of air strikes on the rebel-held north this month that ruptured an 18-month-old ceasefire.

Mangou's appointment has been considered suspect by both France and the leadership of the rebels who have held the north of the former French colony in western Africa since a civil war erupted in September 2002.

The defense and security ministers told a cabinet meeting Thursday that official figures showed 63 people were killed and some 1,300 injured in anti-French mob riots that flared after France wiped out the country's modest air force.

They were killed or wounded "by shots fired by the (French Unicorn) force... as they brought their troops into Abidjan during the demonstrations," Employment Minister Hubert Oulaye said, reading a statement after the meeting.

No independent confirmation of the casualty toll was available.

France was retaliating for a November 6 air strike that hit its military barracks in the central town of Bouake, a rebel stronghold, leaving nine French troops and a US aid worker dead.

Rebel leader Guillaume Soro has said at least 85 civilians were killed in the three days of strikes launched, according to President Laurent Gbagbo, in a bid to "liberate and reunify" the divided country.

Once a beacon of stability for troubled west Africa, Ivory Coast has been mired in turmoil for two years, with the latest phase of unrest stoking regional fears that violence could bleed over its borders and destabilize the hard-won peace in neighbors such as Liberia (news - web sites), itself emerging from 14 years of war.

The African Union has dispatched South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate the crisis, and has lined up behind an arms embargo imposed on Monday by the UN Security Council that could be followed by a targeted travel ban and the freezing of assets on December 15 should there be no progress towards peace.

Soro was on his own diplomatic offensive Friday, having again been sacked by Gbagbo from his post as communications minister in the unity government for his boycott of Thursday's cabinet meeting.

Soro met Thursday with UN special envoy to Ivory Coast Albert Teovedjre before traveling to Lome for talks with Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema.

He was expected Friday in Ghana to meet with President John Kufuor, current head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), before heading to Johannesburg for talks with Mbeki.

Oulaye said Gbagbo decided to suspend Soro and the other eight ministers representing the rebel New Forces -- as well as five ministers from the main opposition Rally for Republicans -- so as not to "handicap" government function.

The ministers opted out of Thursday's meeting for "security reasons," despite an offer of armed escorts from the UN operation in Ivory Coast.

France, meanwhile, said though calm was returning to its former star colony in west Africa that it would maintain its enhanced military presence to guard against a return to crisis that has convulsed the one-time regional powerhouse.

"We are in a phase where calm is returning, but it is far from restored," Colonel Gerard Dubois of the French armed forces command said on Thursday.

"Therefore we have not planned any modifications of our (emergency) deployment."

France has dispatched three aerial surveillance planes to the area to ensure the military is complying with the UN embargo, amid reports Gbagbo's government has already purchased other military aircraft that are on the tarmac in a nearby country.
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post #2 of 3
11/20/04 at 4:24am
Thread Starter 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...19.html?sub=AR

Quote:
Ivorians Deliver a Wake-Up Call To White House

By DeNeen L. Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 20, 2004; Page C01

On the edge of the Ellipse, beyond the circular sidewalk that hugs the iron gate that hugs the trees that hug the South Lawn of the White House, 38 people stand single file, chanting for freedom. "We want French government to get out of Ivory Coast! Africa belongs to black people! We need French to get out! They killed too many Ivorians so far!"

They hold signs written in orange and green ink and wave tiny orange, green and white flags. They are Ivorians who live here and work here, still trying to maintain connection to a homeland. In calls and e-mails to friends, parents, brothers and sisters, they heard of the unrest there. How, they thought, could they do something about it while so far from home?

Patrick Naje, left, and Fernand Sagne prepare posters for their protest against the French military's intervention in Ivory Coast's civil unrest. (Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)

There are 4,000 or so Ivorians scattered across the Washington area, and through churches, their embassy and the grapevine, one told another about the demonstration and so they came yesterday -- lawyers, shuttle bus drivers, nurses, taking a day off to shout at the White House about a crisis back home, which has been on the brink of war since a cease-fire was broken earlier this month.

"We protest French holding my country," shouts Patrick Nangue on a megaphone. "My country was attacked by the French army. Rebels supported by the French have invaded our country. The rebels, armed by the French, took over our country. . . . The French government is killing people. We ask rebels to disarm. The French say Ivorians killed nine French army people. Now they gun down people of the Ivory Coast. They killed 63."

He points the megaphone toward the White House over the trees, leading a cheer: "What do we want?"

"Freedom!" the chorus shouts back.

It seems like a vain and faint complaint so far away from the recent unrest in the former French colony, but the protesters cling to hope that somebody powerful in the house behind the trees is listening.

"I think Bush is listening," says Josephine Seri, 59, a hair braider holding a sign that reads "Ivory Coast; French Troops Stop Shooting Unarmed Civilians."

Their chant is a complicated cry in a country where protests are common, but even more common is an ignorance of far-away tiny countries -- tiny countries that believe American power can help. Curious tourists walk by, point their cameras and click. Without apology, joggers run between the protesters and their leaders. A speed-walker with a Barbie Doll tan, white shorts and a cloud of sweet perfume passes without looking up. Workers in the distance climb cherry pickers to carefully place light bulbs on the National Christmas Tree.

Two women sitting on a park bench think the protesters must be angry at President Bush. Isn't that why most protesters gather? The women have no idea of where Ivory Coast is, what happened there recently, what its relationship to France is or why the protesters have gathered on this small patch out of earshot of the White House.

"They are from Africa?" asks Isabelina Perches, 18.

"They don't like Bush," offers Edith Lopez, 18.

"We don't like Bush," Perches says in sympathy.

The Ivorian civil war began in 2002 when rebels tried to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo, whose economic policies displease the French government. After Ivory Coast gained independence in 1960, France signed an agreement to maintain a military presence there to protect the country if it were attacked.
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post #3 of 3
11/20/04 at 4:25am
Thread Starter 
... continued

Quote:
Two weeks ago, Ivory Coast warplanes fatally shot nine of the French troops and an American aid worker. France retaliated, destroying the entire Ivorian air force. Rioting erupted, and France evacuated its citizens. Then some Ivorians claimed that French troops killed at least 63 unarmed people. The U.N. Security Council condemned what it called hate messages broadcast on television and radio, prompting Gbagbo to complain, according to news reports: "We are at war -- they want us to behave in the middle of a war as if we were on our way to the opera."

At the edge of the Ellipse, protest organizer Augustin Douoguih, who is a U.S. citizen, says he believes France is trying to overthrow Gbagbo and impose a president of France's choice. "Unarmed demonstrators were killed by the French army for an alleged killing of nine French soldiers by the Ivorian army," Douoguih says. He does not believe that French soldiers had actually been killed. "The French government never presented any proof of the killing to its Ivorian counterpart. . . . The French never produced any bodies."

Patrick Naje, left, and Fernand Sagne prepare posters for their protest against the French military's intervention in Ivory Coast's civil unrest. (Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)

Protester Andre Kipre says: "We cannot fight the French army. We know that. We are not stupid. There is no way any member of our army or president would order our military to bombard the French troops. If it did really happen, it was a mistake."

Nathalie Loiseau, a spokeswoman for the French Embassy in Washington, says it's unclear why the Ivorians here would claim that the French soldiers were not killed.

"The Ivorian president does not deny the soldiers were killed," Loiseau says. "Rockets were launched from Ivorian aircraft on the military camp. There were indeed casualties. These people, their bodies were sent back to France. Nobody is denying that."

The protesters pass around photos of Ivorians they say were maimed by French troops. Olivier Bollou, 41, a nurse who moved here 15 years ago, shouts: "I'm touched about the civilians getting killed. I'm very touched about the unarmed civilians killed by French troops. America is a strong country. I believe if the White House can hear us, it can influence the U.N., so truth can be known. We don't have any other way to make ourselves understandable."

He turned to the line of protesters, which, by now, was sagging.

"Are you guys tired?" Bollou shouts.

"No!"

"Some of our brothers and sisters have not eaten for the past week," Bollou continues. "We have a chance to be here eating, to be here drinking. You guys should be ready to fight for our country. You shouldn't be tired. We are free in this country. I believe you should go through hell for freedom in the Ivory Coast."

Across the street and the barriers, past the gates and the guards that surround the White House, the curtains are parted. On the green lawn, a fountain is flowing while, nearby, tourists press themselves against the iron gates to get closer. From here, they cannot hear the protesters who are still shouting.
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