In the past, tribal warfare in Africa was always known for cruelty and blood shedding. Today, this makes Africans an easy prey for neo-colonizers. Côte d’Ivoire is but one example.
Most western reporters claim that President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire lost the run-off and therefore the presidential election in his republic in December 2010, but I beg to differ. I insist that he did not lose, nor did he refuse to hand over power to his rival Alassane Ouattara, as western reporters claim. In December last year the European Union monitors found the election to be free and fair, that is in line with democratic standards. The incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who relied heavily on support in the south of the country, and the opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, drawing support from northern Côte d’Ivoire, made it to the second round. On December 2nd 2010, the Independent Elections Commission made public preliminary returns, whereby Alassane Ouattara won the run-off with 54% of the votes to his credit, but the Chairman of the Côte d’Ivoire Constitutional Council declared the returns to be invalid and said the very next day that the winner was Laurent Gbagbo. This actually sparked off the current political crisis, which, strictly speaking, should have been settled in keeping with local law and the constitution.
But… the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, the United States and France “chose” Ouattara. And the decision, which is illegal by the Côte d’Ivoire law provisions, initiated a bloody conflict.
The UN decision was by no means spontaneous; rather, it was well thought-out behind the scenes. Those who are now involved in repressing Gbagbo can’t care less for the future of the “northerners” or the “southerners”. The latest developments in the countries of North Africa prove that time is obviously ripe for the arrival of new colonizers who are delivering “freedom and democracy” around the world, and trying to fasten to a common lead the collars of the countries that have failed to prove bright enough to do it on their own.
Côte d’Ivoireis a small Gulf of Guinea country that’s rich in oil, and also in natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxites, copper, gold, nickel, and tantalum. Just the other day Côte d’Ivoire was the world’s biggest supplier of cacao beans, -a true bar of chocolate for the French, who were the first Europeans to develop the area when disembarking in Côte d’Ivoire in 1637. True, the natives made short shrift of the first French settlement, but just half a century later the new French mission was already protected by French troops. The French brought all coastal tribes under protectorate and moved deep inside the country. They started draining Côte d’Ivoire of its palm oil, natural rubber, coffee, cacao, bananas, cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, coconuts and groundnuts in a process that lasted until August 7th 1960.
In August 1960, the Ivoirians proclaimed independence, a move that ensured economic growth of an annual 11%. Côte d’Ivoire became the world leader in cacao-bean production. Living standards shot up so much that residents of neighbouring African countries rushed to the south of Ivory Coast, where national agricultural production and trade centres were concentrated. Foreigners, mostly agricultural producers, made up almost half the population by the late 1990s.
The opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo was recognized as the winner of the 2000 presidential election. This was followed by mutinies and a civil war that broke the country in two, – the rebellious “north” and the presidential “south”. This made it impossible to hold presidential election until December last year. But the French who settled in Côte d’Ivoire were largely unaffected. Originally, there were some 15,000 French settlers. Today, the French embassy in Côte d’Ivoire says, there are 12,200 French nationals in the African country, including 11,800, in the economic capital of Ivory Coast, Abidjan. More than 7,000 of them boast dual citizenship. Fine wood, including ebony, continues to be felled in local forests, just as rubber juice still runs down rubber trees to be used for natural rubber production. Fish are caught on an industrial scale. Oil and gas are produced on the continental shelf, and deposits are developed of nickel, manganese and iron ores, as well as of bauxites, diamonds and gold. The main French players on the Ivory Coast market are the oil-producing company Total, the energy company Electricite de France, the famous automobile tyre-maker Michelin, the manufacturer of building materials Lafarge; Transdev, Setao and Buig specialize in construction; there are also France Telecom and the banks BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Credit Lyonnais and Societe Generale.
There are also American companies that have gained a foothold in Ivory Coast (Exxon Mobil, Citibank, J.P. Morgan), British companies (Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever and Barclays); Swiss companies (Nestle and Holcim); and Indian companies (the iron and steel company Tata Steel and oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Company).
Now the ongoing bloodshed in Côte d’Ivoire is being described as shocking. Meanwhile the units of Alassane Ouattara are preparing for “a final offensive against the enemy positions”, whereas the French military units that appeared in the former French colony together with the UN Blue Berets have offered protection to some 500 foreign nationals who found shelter in the barracks on the city outskirts. According to a spokesman for the French Command, Thierry Burkhard, the foreigners were threatened by marauders.
French peacekeepers now patrol the city quarters that are traditionally inhabited by Europeans and are the site of the best posh shops. The UN peacekeepers have assumed control of the Abidjan international airport.
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee says it is getting reports that units of the internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara are committing major human rights violations, such as people abductions, unauthorized arrests and cruel treatment of civilians. But Ouattara is aware that all bets are off, so he ordered that all of Ivorian land, air and sea borders be sealed. He also imposed a curfew on Abidjan.
According to the Reuters news agency, the game is up for Gbagbo. He is a dead man.
It’s above Gbagbo’s strength to counter foreign peacekeepers. The Foreign Ministers of the EU 27 countries have urged all Ivoirians to recognise the authority of the democratically elected President Alassane Ouattara. The EU Foreign Ministers have welcomed the UN Security Council decision to boost the strength of the 9,000-strong peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast by another 2,000.
Many observers agree that the current developments in Libya amount to a return to colonialism. Neo-colonialism operates under the shelter of the “world community”, – the term that implies NATO and the countries that cooperate with the alliance. Meanwhile Washington establishes its domination over the world under the guise of selective “humanitarian intervention” and of “bringing freedom and democracy to the oppressed”. It is Washington that determines the countries that should be invaded.
Counterpunch wrote that Gaddafi came under attack because he refused to join the US Africa Command. This is clearly something that one should give a thought. For even a fleeting glance at what is known as AFRICOM (The US Africa Command) makes one aware of a curious detail, – Libya was not one of the 49 African countries that agreed to defend the US interests in Africa, and everyone is only well aware of what is happening in Libya now. Nor was Sudan part of thegroup of49 countries, Sudan that’s packed with western-made weapons and that’s being torn apart. Nor was Ivory Coast there, a country that is now named in English as it is in French, – Côte d’Ivoire…
Can anyone doubt that the nationalization of cacao-bean exports by the Ivorian authorities in March 2011 is a typical case of “larceny”? President Laurent Gbagbo ordered that the state should be the only buyer of cacao beans from their producers and that it should assume full control of cacao bean exports. He thus takes the “chocolate bar” away from both Sarkozy and Obama. And it’s a damn shame, damn it!
That is why the “international community” delivered an ultimatum to Gbagbo: you’d better hand over power, or else… After all, western democracies cannot live with “a bone in their throat”…
