Blood, tears and cocoa
Apr. 12th, 2011 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mahnmutExhausted, topless, and brushing his smelly sweat off with a towel, before putting on a green t-shirt in his hotel room. That's the humiliating picture of the yesterday-arrested former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, which marked the end of his 11 year long reign in the country. The footage may not be as shocking as that of Saddam Hussein while he was being dragged out of his den, with clotted, unshaven beard and a mug gaping for a tooth exam. But it's still nearly as spectacular and symbolic.
The capture of Gbagbo, who had been rotting in his bunker for weeks, was possible after UN and French tanks, helicopters and troops helped the opposition forces in Cote d'Ivoire to besiege his residence. That was the culmination of a half-year long political, diplomatic and recently military campaign for ousting the impostor. His refusal to relinquish power to the rightful and internationally recognized winner of the presidential election Alassane Ouattara threw the country into a bloody civil war, and the world in a cocoa crisis (because Cote d'Ivoire is the world's primary exporter of the main material for making chocolate).
Yes, where Nigeria's luring treasure is oil, the Ivorian one is... chocolate. You do like chocolate, don't you? Just imagine the world without chocolate for a week. Not nice, is it?
The outcome was welcomed by everybody. The UN general secretary Ban Ki Moon commented that Gbagbo's arrest puts an end to a sad chapter in Ivorian history. Hillary Clinton also said it "sends a strong signal to all dictators and tyrants in the region and around the world". Strong words, but also reflecting an important truth: it wasn't about the chocolate. It was about setting an example. The UN couldn't afford to fail on that one, a Libyan scenario wasn't an option.
Naturally, the Ouattara's representative at the UN, Yusufu Bamba said that "the nightmare for the people of Cote d'Ivoire is finally over". But let's look a bit beyond the triumphalist rhetoric and see things more realistically. His joy could turn out to be a little hasty. The new president still has some very tough tasks in front of him, and peace in the war-torn country is far from guaranteed.
The situation could be interpreted either as an end to something or a new beginning to another thing. On the one side, sure, it's a turning point in this prolonged and brutal struggle for power between Gbagbo and Ouattara, who had practically created to separate governments in the recent weeks. The conflict turned the main city Abijan into arena for horrific battles, the streets were covered with dead bodies, the civil war took the lives of 1500 people and drove off nearly a million refugees into neighboring countries.
The key question now is: what of Gbagbo's fate? The Human Rights Watch insists that he should be put to trial for crimes against humanity. Another important question is what will happen to his supporters who fought on his side. The support of EU, USA and the African countries for Ouattara is also further complicated by the fact that, according to a Human Rights Watch report, his forces have killed hundreds of civilians, and they committed mass rapes and burned at least ten villages.
But the situation could be a beginning of something else. Many analysts are warning that, despite Gbagbo's arrest, it'll be very difficult to put an end to the conflict, apart from everything else, also because of the French involvement, which could undermine the authority of the new president. Last year Ouattara won the elections by 54% of the vote. And now he'll have to find some way to convince the other 46% of the population that he's their president too, not some marionette of the former colonial power, France. There are warnings that this could only be the beginning of the real crisis.
Ouattara is going to inherit a practically paralyzed economy. EU already lifted the embargo for the Ivorian exports but restoring the cocoa trade will take some more time. The power struggle in Cote d'Ivoire may've ended, but the trench war could be just beginning.
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talk_politics
The capture of Gbagbo, who had been rotting in his bunker for weeks, was possible after UN and French tanks, helicopters and troops helped the opposition forces in Cote d'Ivoire to besiege his residence. That was the culmination of a half-year long political, diplomatic and recently military campaign for ousting the impostor. His refusal to relinquish power to the rightful and internationally recognized winner of the presidential election Alassane Ouattara threw the country into a bloody civil war, and the world in a cocoa crisis (because Cote d'Ivoire is the world's primary exporter of the main material for making chocolate).
Yes, where Nigeria's luring treasure is oil, the Ivorian one is... chocolate. You do like chocolate, don't you? Just imagine the world without chocolate for a week. Not nice, is it?
The outcome was welcomed by everybody. The UN general secretary Ban Ki Moon commented that Gbagbo's arrest puts an end to a sad chapter in Ivorian history. Hillary Clinton also said it "sends a strong signal to all dictators and tyrants in the region and around the world". Strong words, but also reflecting an important truth: it wasn't about the chocolate. It was about setting an example. The UN couldn't afford to fail on that one, a Libyan scenario wasn't an option.
Naturally, the Ouattara's representative at the UN, Yusufu Bamba said that "the nightmare for the people of Cote d'Ivoire is finally over". But let's look a bit beyond the triumphalist rhetoric and see things more realistically. His joy could turn out to be a little hasty. The new president still has some very tough tasks in front of him, and peace in the war-torn country is far from guaranteed.
The situation could be interpreted either as an end to something or a new beginning to another thing. On the one side, sure, it's a turning point in this prolonged and brutal struggle for power between Gbagbo and Ouattara, who had practically created to separate governments in the recent weeks. The conflict turned the main city Abijan into arena for horrific battles, the streets were covered with dead bodies, the civil war took the lives of 1500 people and drove off nearly a million refugees into neighboring countries.
The key question now is: what of Gbagbo's fate? The Human Rights Watch insists that he should be put to trial for crimes against humanity. Another important question is what will happen to his supporters who fought on his side. The support of EU, USA and the African countries for Ouattara is also further complicated by the fact that, according to a Human Rights Watch report, his forces have killed hundreds of civilians, and they committed mass rapes and burned at least ten villages.
But the situation could be a beginning of something else. Many analysts are warning that, despite Gbagbo's arrest, it'll be very difficult to put an end to the conflict, apart from everything else, also because of the French involvement, which could undermine the authority of the new president. Last year Ouattara won the elections by 54% of the vote. And now he'll have to find some way to convince the other 46% of the population that he's their president too, not some marionette of the former colonial power, France. There are warnings that this could only be the beginning of the real crisis.
Ouattara is going to inherit a practically paralyzed economy. EU already lifted the embargo for the Ivorian exports but restoring the cocoa trade will take some more time. The power struggle in Cote d'Ivoire may've ended, but the trench war could be just beginning.
X-posted to
talk_politics
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-12 11:06 pm (UTC)Damn. For a second I thought you were writing pr0n fic and was wondering who the woman in question might be. Then I read further and lol...what a letdown. :p
Well, I can live without it. But my wife would go batshit and make my life a living Hell until she got her fix.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-13 07:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-14 12:18 am (UTC)