Psaume 123:2 (New International Version (NIV)): Voici, comme les yeux des serviteurs sont fixés sur la main de leurs maitres, et les yeux de la servante sur la main de sa maitresse, ainsi nos yeux se retournent sur l'Eternel notre Dieu, jusqu'a ce qu'il ait pitié de nous..
Ephésiens 6:4-6: Pères, n'irritez pas vos enfants, mais élevez-les dans la formation et l'instruction du Seigneur. Esclaves, obéissez à vos maîtres selon la chair avec crainte et respect, et avec sincérité de cœur, comme vous le feriez obéir au Christ. Ne leur obéis pas seulement pour gagner leur faveur lors de leur oeil est sur vous, mais comme esclaves de Christ, en faisant la volonté de Dieu de votre coeur.
Ephésiens 6:05: Esclaves, obéissez à vos maîtres selon la chair avec crainte et respect, et avec sincérité de cœur, comme vous le feriez obéir au Christ.
Ephésiens 6:09: Et les maîtres, traitez vos esclaves de la même façon. Ne menacez pas, puisque vous savez que celui qui est à la fois leur maître et le vôtre est dans les cieux, et il n'y a pas de favoritisme avec lui.
Colossiens 3:22: Esclaves, obéissez à vos maîtres selon la chair en tout, et le faire, non seulement sous leurs yeux sur vous et de gagner leur faveur, mais avec sincérité de cœur et de révérence pour le Seigneur.
Colossiens 4:1 Maîtres, fournissent à vos esclaves ce qui est juste et équitable, parce que vous savez que vous avez aussi un maître dans le ciel.
Tite 2:09: Apprenez esclaves à être soumis à leurs maîtres en toutes choses, d'essayer de les s'il vous plaît, de ne pas parler de nouveau à eux,
1 Pierre 2:18 Serviteurs, soyez soumis à vos maîtres avec tout le respect, non seulement à ceux qui sont bons et doux, mais aussi à ceux qui sont d'un caractere difficile..
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Sunday, July 20, 2014
A Duékoué, l'impunité des pro-Ouattara
Les fidèles du président ivoirien n'ont jamais été jugés pour leurs crimes, commis lors de la crise qui a secoué le pays entre 2011 et 2012.
Qu'est devenu le corps d'Amédé ?
Il y a deux ans, il a été envoyé à Abidjan «pour autopsie». Depuis, son frère Julien n'a plus jamais eu aucune nouvelle. «C'est long, deux ans, pour une autopsie», note d'un air maussade cet homme trapu et musclé, assis sous un manguier, à 500 km à l'ouest de la capitale économique ivoirienne. D'un geste, il désigne les bâtisses en briques grises qui l'entourent, recouvertes de nouveaux toits en tôle : «Nos maisons ont été décoiffées ! Ici, pendant la crise [2011-2012, ndlr], tout a été détruit.» Amédé, le frère de Julien, est l'une des victimes des derniers soubresauts de cette crise sanglante.
Le 20 juillet 2012, lors de l'attaque d'un camp de déplacés, ce père de famille de 39 ans a été emmené par des hommes en armes, puis fusillé avant d'être jeté dans un puits abandonné. Lequel ne sera découvert, par hasard, que deux mois plus tard. On y retrouvera cinq autres cadavres, tous envoyés «pour autopsie» à Abidjan.
Après une période particulièrement sanglante, la Côte-d'Ivoire est désormais en paix. En accueillant pour la première fois, ce jeudi, François Hollande, le président Alassane Ouattara pourra légitimement se targuer d'avoir remis le pays au travail et rétabli la sécurité après dix ans de guerre civile.
«Verrou». Reste un sujet sensible : l'impunité dont continuent à bénéficier les forces fidèles à Ouattara qui ont conquis le pouvoir les armes à la main en 2011. Jusqu'à présent, seuls les partisans de son rival, l'ex-président Laurent Gbagbo, ont été mis en cause pour les violences commises en 2011 : trois ans après la crise, 700 sont toujours emprisonnés sans jugement, et parfois même sans connaître les charges qui pèsent contre eux. Un soupçon de justice à deux vitesses qui agace visiblement Abidjan. Lundi, un porte-parole du parti du président ivoirien a ainsi tenu à souligner que le chef de l'Etat français venait pour «apporter son soutien à l'oeuvre de reconstruction et de réconciliation entreprise avec succès par le président Alassane Ouattara» et non pour «se préoccuper du sort de personnes qui ont commis des crimes odieux pendant notre crise postélectorale» ou pour «plaider la cause des bourreaux d'hier». Voilà François Hollande prévenu. Le président français apporte pourtant dans ses bagages une aide de 25 millions d'euros à la reconstruction d'une justice qui semble parfois en panne ou partiale
Sur ce terrain délicat, une petite ville est devenue le symbole des exactions restées impunies en Côte-d'Ivoire : Duékoué, bourgade sans charme de l'ouest ivoirien, fut le théâtre de certains des épisodes les plus sanglants de la crise postélectorale. Sur les 3 000 morts recensés pendant cette période, un tiers des victimes ont été répertoriées dans cette région, où vit aussi Julien. «Duékoué a été le dernier verrou dans la conquête de l'ouest du pays par les forces alliées à Ouattara. C'était un fief pro-Gbagbo, et les combats ont été très violents», rappelle le père Cyprien, qui se trouvait aux premières loges quand la ville a été prise, le 28 mars 2011. «Dès l'aube, la foule a envahi la mission catholique, ça tirait de partout !» se souvient-il.
Les jours suivants, on dénombrera près d'un millier de morts, dont un certain nombre froidement exécutés. La peur sera telle, que les habitants refuseront longtemps de quitter l'enceinte de la mission catholique. Une partie d'entre eux sera finalement relogée dans un camp de déplacés à Nahibly, une localité voisine. Jusqu'à ce que ce site, soupçonné d'abriter des miliciens pro-Gbagbo, soit lui-même attaqué le 20 juillet 2012. Combien de morts ce jour-là ? Personne ne sait, tant les bilans sont manipulés. Les chiffres divergent selon qu'on s'adresse à des partisans de l'actuel pouvoir ou de l'ancien régime à Duékoué. Reste les six hommes exécutés et retrouvés dans le puits. Autour de la ville, il en existe neuf autres, également soupçonnés de contenir des corps. Ils sont gardés par des Casques bleus pakistanais, qui offrent un verre de jus de fruits aux curieux avant de les inviter fermement à faire demi-tour. Ce «circulez, il n'y a rien à voir» est un peu la règle à Duékoué, où le calme est revenu, sous un silence de plomb. «De toute façon, tout le monde connaît les responsables, Duékoué n'est qu'un gros village», rappelle le père Cyprien.
Sapins de Noël. Parmi ceux qui sont soupçonnés d'avoir orchestré les exécutions sommaires près des puits, il y a l'ancien commandant militaire sur place : le lieutenant Koné Daouda (alias Konda) a été renvoyé, certes contre son gré, à Abidjan. Mais apparemment sans avoir été inquiété. Son remplaçant actuel, le lieutenant Ben Bamba, un géant débonnaire dont le portable vibre sans cesse au son de «la joie vient le matin», affirme avoir discipliné ses 480 hommes. Mais il n'est pas le seul à prétendre contrôler la sécurité de la ville.
Souvent accusés d'avoir participé aux tueries de mars 2011, comme de juillet 2012, les «dozos» jouent toujours un rôle trouble dans la région. Ces chasseurs traditionnels, aux pouvoirs mystiques redoutés, font partie du folklore ivoirien. Mais pas seulement. A l'origine implantés dans le nord du pays, ils ont suscité des centaines de vocations dans cette région Ouest depuis longtemps tourmentée. En 2011, ils ont souvent aidé les forces de Ouattara à prendre le pouvoir. On les retrouve dans leur QG, un immeuble en construction, dans un quartier misérable de Duékoué : une assemblée d'hommes souriants, plus tout jeunes, souvent affublés d'étranges costumes en toile de jute, leurs «treillis», disent-ils, truffés d'amulettes comme des sapins de Noël. Malgré la bonhomie affichée, certains les accusent d'être un clan des Siciliens version gri-gri. «C'est une mafia. Ils monnayent leur protection, rackettent les gens et font régner leur loi», chuchote un commerçant, sous couvert d'anonymat. A plusieurs reprises, le gouvernement a annoncé son intention de les désarmer. «Ça se dit. Mais ça ne se fait pas», note un brin narquois Souleymane Fofana, un chauve rondouillard qui figure parmi les leaders des 2 064 dozos de Duékoué.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Peillon
Le général Joana, qui commandait à l'époque l'opération Licorne, attendait le feu vert pour mettre en action l'accord de Défense avec la Cote d'Ivoire, signé en 1961. Parce qu'on savait qu'il y avait les exactions au Nord, qu'il fallait quand même qu'on réussisse à réunifier le pays qui était complètement scindé en deux. Tout était prêt, avec une offensive rapide sur trois axes, et les moyens que nous pouvions déployer, ajoutés au professionalisme de nos unités, auraient rendu la reconquête du Nord très simple. En trente-six heures, et sans beaucoup de casse, c'était terminé. Cette décision politique de soutien au gouvernement légitime de Laurent Gbagbo, pour rétablir la paix, n'est jamais venue.
La France a enteriné cette partition du pays et le général Joana qui nous commandait, a compris que nous n'avions pas la meme conception de notre mission que le pouvoir politique à Paris.
J'ai côtoyé les Forces Nouvelles à l'occasion de négociations sur des questions comme le désarmement, ou le rétablissement d'accès de circulation. A part un ou deux, les autres étaient des hommes incultes, bardés de gri-gri. Ce n'étaient pas des militaires, c'étaient des chefs de bandes. Des gens sans foi ni loi, qui tenaient leur pouvoir par la violence, par la terreur qu'ils faisaient régner dans le Nord du pays, où les populations ont vécu l'enfer au quotidien. Quand j'ai su qu'Abidjan était tombée entre les mains de ces gens-là, je me suis dit: les brigands sont dans la place.
La France a enteriné cette partition du pays et le général Joana qui nous commandait, a compris que nous n'avions pas la meme conception de notre mission que le pouvoir politique à Paris.
J'ai côtoyé les Forces Nouvelles à l'occasion de négociations sur des questions comme le désarmement, ou le rétablissement d'accès de circulation. A part un ou deux, les autres étaient des hommes incultes, bardés de gri-gri. Ce n'étaient pas des militaires, c'étaient des chefs de bandes. Des gens sans foi ni loi, qui tenaient leur pouvoir par la violence, par la terreur qu'ils faisaient régner dans le Nord du pays, où les populations ont vécu l'enfer au quotidien. Quand j'ai su qu'Abidjan était tombée entre les mains de ces gens-là, je me suis dit: les brigands sont dans la place.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Les verites de Gildas Le Lidec
Gildas Le Lidec (Ambassadeur de France en CI 2002-2005 ):Entretien
Marianne: Certaines ONG l’accusent d’être directement impliqué dans les exactions auxquelles se sont livrées les com’zones dans le Nord ?
Gildas Le Lidec: Je pourrais apporter des informations sur les massacres commis par ces salopards échevelés qui exerçaient leur pouvoir avec une incroyable brutalité, une violence inouïe. Leurs crimes sont connus mais, en toute honnêteté, je n’ai pas d’éléments permettant d’y raccrocher Soro.
Mariannne: Les négociations et les accords de Marcoussis ne sont-ils pas le ferment de la crise de 2011 ?
Gildas Le Lidec: Elles ont été organisées dans la plus totale précipitation, c’est le fruit de la machine Villepin… La façon dont Gbagbo y a été traité, notamment lors du retour en Côte d’Ivoire, était à mon avis inacceptable. En tout cas, ce fût ressenti comme une insulte, au moins par tous les Ivoiriens du Sud du pays.
Marianne: Laurent Gbagbo sera jugé par la CPI pour crimes contre l’humanité. Qu’en pensez-vous ?
Je trouve cela profondément injuste. Cela ne correspond pas aux valeurs et au tempérament de l’homme que j’ai connu. Et c’est d’autant plus injuste que Ouattara n’a pas touché un cheveu des salopards qui, depuis 2011, se sont taillés de véritables royaumes dans le Nord du pays. En ne prenant aucune mesure contre eux, la CPI ne va pas améliorer son image, déjà très dégradée sur tout le continent.
La Côte d’Ivoire se porte-t-elle mieux depuis la chute de Gbagbo ?
Sur le plan de la sécurité et de la stabilité, pas sûr. Licorne est toujours là-bas, comme le 43ème Bima, sous une autre forme. A la fin de ma mission, j’avais recommandé sa dissolution La France, en fait, aurait dû partir depuis longtemps.
Ouattara ?
Il était programmé pour prendre le pouvoir, mais n’y est vraiment parvenu que grâce à l’aide décisive de son ami Nicolas Sarkozy.
Marianne: Certaines ONG l’accusent d’être directement impliqué dans les exactions auxquelles se sont livrées les com’zones dans le Nord ?
Gildas Le Lidec: Je pourrais apporter des informations sur les massacres commis par ces salopards échevelés qui exerçaient leur pouvoir avec une incroyable brutalité, une violence inouïe. Leurs crimes sont connus mais, en toute honnêteté, je n’ai pas d’éléments permettant d’y raccrocher Soro.
Mariannne: Les négociations et les accords de Marcoussis ne sont-ils pas le ferment de la crise de 2011 ?
Gildas Le Lidec: Elles ont été organisées dans la plus totale précipitation, c’est le fruit de la machine Villepin… La façon dont Gbagbo y a été traité, notamment lors du retour en Côte d’Ivoire, était à mon avis inacceptable. En tout cas, ce fût ressenti comme une insulte, au moins par tous les Ivoiriens du Sud du pays.
Marianne: Laurent Gbagbo sera jugé par la CPI pour crimes contre l’humanité. Qu’en pensez-vous ?
Je trouve cela profondément injuste. Cela ne correspond pas aux valeurs et au tempérament de l’homme que j’ai connu. Et c’est d’autant plus injuste que Ouattara n’a pas touché un cheveu des salopards qui, depuis 2011, se sont taillés de véritables royaumes dans le Nord du pays. En ne prenant aucune mesure contre eux, la CPI ne va pas améliorer son image, déjà très dégradée sur tout le continent.
La Côte d’Ivoire se porte-t-elle mieux depuis la chute de Gbagbo ?
Sur le plan de la sécurité et de la stabilité, pas sûr. Licorne est toujours là-bas, comme le 43ème Bima, sous une autre forme. A la fin de ma mission, j’avais recommandé sa dissolution La France, en fait, aurait dû partir depuis longtemps.
Ouattara ?
Il était programmé pour prendre le pouvoir, mais n’y est vraiment parvenu que grâce à l’aide décisive de son ami Nicolas Sarkozy.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
HOW OUATTARA CREATED HATRED IN IVORYCOAST
To Professor Bangura:
Smearing Laurent Gbagbo is un-Panafrican
At a June 18th 2012, conference, in Rockville, Maryland, organized by The Revival of Panafricanism Forum, you first acknowledged (claimed) that you were an earlier supporter of Laurent Gbagbo for his struggle for democracy in the Ivory Coast. You observed that Laurent Gbagbo was a true Panafricanist in the earlier stage of his political career. Then to justify why you had a change of heart, you repeated unsubstantiated accusations against him previously written in a biased and disingenuous opinion, titled “Laurent Gbagbo’s “One Dozen Major Sins””and posted in the Sunday 20 February 2011 edition of the patriotic Vanguard, a Sierra Leone online news portal.
My main contentions with your analysis and positions are that:
1- Although you are an expert o resolutions of conflicts, which you taught at prestigious peace institutes such as the American University’s International Peace and Conflict Resolution, did beat the drums of war during the 2010-2012 electoral impasse in Ivory Coast by advocating military intervention instead of a recount of votes. Though you rightly condemned the NATO military intervention and bombing of Libya, you curiously call it a double-standard because the West did not intervene in Ivory Coast instead.
We all opposed the bombing of Libya and the Western actions against Khadafy because we all knew that it was only motivated by the attempt to control the oil of Libya. But, Khadafy is no saint. He has formed and supported most of the rebel movements which have caused havoc and destruction in our sub-region included the United Revolutionary Front’s Leadership. Foday Sankoh, who committed War crimes and crimes against humanity in your native country was formed and supported by Khadafy. Yet, you disregarded these facts and look at the greater impact on NATO intervention on Africa as a whole. Why are you failing to see that France and others intervention in Ivory Coast even through proxies like Ouattara’s is no different than the case of Libya? Isn’t it the same Nicolas Sarkozy and the same Obama who lent support to Ouattara and went after Gbagbo?
You also advocated that Nigeria should have bombed Ivory Coast, but since they failed to do so France did nothing wrong by dropping bombs on Africans in Abidjan.
If in the US, as in the case of Bush versus Gore, they did not resolve electoral disputes through war, why does it make any sense to anyone who claim to be for African unity to think it is OK when one side ask for recount , that it is ok to simply go to war to impose the other side?
I was very amused when I read some of your criticism against US based Ghanaian scholar Professor George uncle-Tom Ayitteh’s assertions that slavery and colonization are not to be blamed for the conditions of black and African people. Ironically, you embrace the same attitude of denial of western imperialist interference when it comes to the Ivorian crisis when you know well that France has manufactured the Ivorian crisis and targeted President Gbagbo while promoting Ouattara to serve their colonial interest.
I find it quiet bizarre that, you, a self-professed Pan-Africanist who also claims to be the descendant, of Bai Bureh, (the legendary Temne chief, hero and leader of the indigenous resistance against British colonialism in your native Sierra Leone) shrewdly echoed the same colonialist propaganda spread by Western mainstream media about the Ivory Coast. And you sided with Alassane Ouattara, the agent of French re-colonization of not just Ivory Coast but the entire West African sub-region.
People of Mali who supported him mainly for tribalistic reasons, are now crying and calling him a traitor because of his involvement in the destabilization of their country and his recent threat as the Head of ECOWAS( Economic Community of West African States) to impose medicine and other embargo on that country.
You even admitted at the conference that you supported Ouattara because you had hoped that he would turn things around. Oh really? Those expectations were based on what? You are a scholar on African affairs and you have 4 PH’Ds, you had extensively travelled countless times all over Ivory Coast and acquainted with officials there, therefore you are not an ignorant person on the political history of that country.
So, how come you display such naivety about Mister Ouattara, who you are surely aware, had displayed dictatorial tendencies during his tenure of the Premiership in the last Houphouet Boigny government?
You praise Gbagbo for his struggle for democracy against Houphouet, but who do you think was the Prime-Minister of Houphouet who really was persecuting Gbagbo, the civil society, labor movements, student activists and other branch of the society demanding democratic reform? Ouattara was. Did you not know that Ouattara had then, jailed Laurent Gbagbo, his wife Simone Gbagbo, his son Michel Gbagbo, Union leaders, student activist, opposition leaders, journalists etc while he was Houphouet’s Prime-Minister?
And do you not know why that most of the demands which were not just for political reform but also against the afflictions that the austerity measures of the IMF Structural Adjustment programs implemented by Ouattara caused to the most vulnerable elements of the Ivorian society?
So you a self-proclaimed Panafricanist and a very educated man, who wrote at least 50 books, had hoped that Ouattara who sold most of the Ivory Coast to French corporations through structural adjustment programs’ privatization policies would turn things around? Your wish did come through because he really did turn things around in the negative way though, by ending democracy, the rule of law, human rights and all the freedoms that Ivorian gained as a result of Laurent Gbagbo struggle.
The whole crisis in Ivory Coast which started by a French-backed failed coup attempt against Laurent Gbagbo turned rebellion was only the result of France attempt to recolonize Ivory Coast by removing Gbagbo from power in order to impose , their own stooge, Alassane Ouattara. An African scholar and Panafricanist who failed to understand that is either ignorant of the facts, simply or disingenuous.
2- You gratuitously accused Gbagbo of having killed, Africans, his countrymen and French. You never give any fact of when, where and how. Off course these accusations are false, and part of the smear campaign waged by France and its colonial allies to vilify President Gbagbo. I will discuss the issues of the deaths of pro-Ouattara supporters during the crisis and explain how it is not correct to impute them to Laurent Gbagbo, while on the other end, it is evident that Ouattara and his henchmen purposely massacred pro-Gbagbo supporters are still massacring Ivorians even more today under Ouattara’s rule than before.
I find it quite disturbing that you supported Ouattara against Gbagbo, though the government Ouattara led as Houphouet Boigny Prime-Minister, fully supported and assisted the Revolutionary United Front, the rebellious army led by Foday Sankoh and supported by Charles Taylor, both charged and found guilty of crime against humanity in Sierra Leone, your country of origin.
I refuse to believe that you were not aware that arms that travelled from Burkina Faso, to Sierra Leone via Liberia transited through Danane in Western Ivory Coast to the Liberian border under the escort of Ivorian regular army during Ouattara’s tenure of the Premiership in Ivory Coast? This practice that continued under Konan Bedie and was interrupted or ended should I say under Gbagbo.
Do not tell me Sir, you who were involved in humanitarian work in Bouake, in Central Ivory Coast that you did not know that Commanders were involved with Ouattara’s armed rebellion when it first started. Commandant Mosquito, the famous Sierra Leonean rebel Leader who oversaw the cutting of limbs of your countrymen, wasn’t he based in Bouake?
In case you didn’t know here are few comments on commandant Mosquito, in Wikipedia: “Samuel "Sam" "Mosquito" Bockarie (October 2, 1964 − May 5, 2003) was a leading member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone. Bockarie was infamous during the Sierra Leone Civil War for his brutal tactics, which included amputation, mutilation, and rape.....
After fleeing Sierra Leone in 2000, Bockarie joined with Taylor's Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) in Liberia, eventually moving to the Ivory Coast, where he participated in the rebellion led by Guillaume Soro in connection with the Gbatala base headed by Charles Taylor.
......On 3 March 2003, Sam Bockarie was indicted for crimes against humanity, violation of the Geneva Convention and violation of international humanitarian law. During this time, Bockarie commanded his troops to attack civilian populations who he felt were supporting the government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, including the use of mutilation and sexual violence. These attacks brought to the world the horrific images of children with missing arms and legs. He was also accused of recruiting child soldiers and abducting people to fight with him, and of attacking UN peacekeepers working under UNAMSIL.
These horrific acts of savagery perpetrated on your people by the allies of those you supported, makes me wonder why would you support Ouattara and his murderers and have high expectations of them?
It may be a surprise to you to read in the news about the ongoing genocide in Duekoue by Ouattara’ forces, but to us who observed that evil man from the start, it is just a logical continuation of the same destruction these kind of people caused in Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Ivory Coast.
You said that you were in Ouagadougou when the discussion of military intervention in Ivory Coast by ECOWAS was being held. Now, you cannot tell me that you were not aware that Blaise Compaore whose hands are covered of the blood of your people supported militarily the rebel groups of Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh and Alassane Ouattara , which murdered hundreds of thousands of Africans in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast?
One last word, the Ivoirite issue:
Politically motivated inter-ethnics incidents are common in Africa, as one can currently witness in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians, or in your own country Sierra Leone, between the Mende and the Temne during the recent civil war there, or between the Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda and Burundi, or between the Kikuyu and the Luo in Kenya or between the Malinke and the Soussou in Guinea.
In the case of Ivory Coast, Mister Ouattara and his current ally former President Henry Konan Bedie, introduced such a conflict between the Northerners and the rest of the country’s ethnic populations. Ouattara started injected ethnic hatred in his quest for power by publicly stated that “ It is because I am a Muslim and a Northerner that they don’t want me to run for President”. But the true reason why Ivorians had issue with his interest in the presidency was that he was a citizen of Burkina Faso all his childhood and adult life until Houphouet Boigny publicly gave him the Ivorian nationality in a TV broadcast ceremony.
As in most country in the world, the US included, a citizen of another country is not allowed to run for the highest office in his new country of adoption. This is the case in the US for former government of California, Harold Shwartznegger or even former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who were not naturally born citizens of that United States, a constitutional requirement for eligibility for the US Presidency. Northerners, who were already disgruntled by the perception given by Ouattara assertion that he was being discriminated because of his religion and his region of origin, were pushed further to the edge by Henry Konan Bedie, Ivoirite xenophobic propaganda according to which his Akan ethnic group was pure Ivorian and northerners especially were not pure bread Ivorians.
It is very nauseating to attribute to Laurent Gbagbo, Ivoirite, when it is obvious that he opposed it and even show solidarity with Ouattara, by refusing to run for President in support of the rejection of his candidacy by Bedie.
What make such a false claim so sickening is that there has been a deceitful amalgamation of Ivoirite with real genuine immigration, indigenous rights and national sovereignty issues in Ivory Coast, which were raised under Gbagbo’s term.
Ivory Coast being home to a disproportionate number of citizens of neighboring countries, the issue of who has the right to run for president or simply vote in Ivory Coast was raised when citizens of neighboring countries wanted to be able to vote in Ivory Coast. To say that only Ivorians can vote was by no means the same as promoting ivoirite but a question of national sovereignty. The law in the same neighboring country, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, were basically the same as far as the requirement of citizenship to be able to vote or that the candidate for President be a citizen of their country who never was a citizen of another country or whose parents were themselves citizens of that country.
So, your claim that Gbagbo engaged in Ivorite is preposterous. Alassane Ouattara as someone in the Q and A brought to your attention was as Prime Minister of Houphouet Boigny the first one to impose a permit of residency in Ivory Coast for none Ivorian citizens of neighboring countries including his own country of origin, Burkina Faso although members of the ECOWAS community were allowed to move and live freely without passport or any other resident permit from one country to another in their Union.
It is true that Alassane Ouattara has nothing to do with “La Charte du Nord”, a document circulated in Mosques during his Premiership, and which asserted that it was time for Northerners to rule Ivory Coast. Ouattara then, sent army troops in Mosques during prayer service to repress proponent of the “ Charte du Nord”. Though today he is the beneficiary of such tribalist and exclusionist concept. Ouattara today has engaged in his own tribalism and exclusion policy with his own concept of RATTRAPAGE.
Contrary to what you said at the conference to a question that was put to you on the issue, RATTRAPAGE is the full implementation of the exclusionist and tribalist idea that it is the time for the Northerners to rule Ivory Coast as Ouattara clearly expressed during an interview with a French TV station during a recent visit to France.
Today 90 percent of Ouattara nominations in his government, administration and army are northerners and Muslims in a country where leaders were always careful not to exclude others in nominations in cabinet positions, the administration and the Army.
Today ethnic cleansing, ethnic based killings and exclusions are the common plight of ethnic groups accused of being supporters of Laurent Gbagbo. The Guéré are paying a heavy price. Ouattara is bringing in everyday, truckloads of Burkinabe citizens from Burkina Faso to the Western part of the Ivory Coast to occupy the land, farms and villages of the Guéré People. One of Ouattara’s Burkinabe Warlord, Amade Oueremi, who Matt Wells of Human Rights cited in his presentation at the Rockville conference, is still ruling supreme on Mt Peko, in the Duekoue area where he and his Burkinabe kin are mass murdering the Guere people and chasing them off their ancestral land. The UN , France and Ouattara’s government who have armed forces in the area are not oblivious to what is occurring in the West of Ivory Coast.
We Panafricans know what is going on in Ivory Coast, the same that is going on in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and other parts of Africa where imperialists who seek to recolonize our continent and have our nations and ancestral lands run and owned by western corporations are creating these conflicts to impose their proxies like Ouattara. It is sad that African scholars like you are pretending not to understand what is going on.
We support Gbagbo because he dared say no to France and in him we see an African Leader who standing to imperialism while his adversary, Alassane Ouattara is willing to be the boy of the colonizers. In one the rare interview Laurent Gbagbo gave to an French journalist of African descent, he said that he knew the day he say no to Chirac invitation to all former French colonies o send troops to parade to French Independence day, that was his end.
Leo Gnawa, Ivorian Patriot and organizer for the Ivorian non-violent Resistance
Smearing Laurent Gbagbo is un-Panafrican
At a June 18th 2012, conference, in Rockville, Maryland, organized by The Revival of Panafricanism Forum, you first acknowledged (claimed) that you were an earlier supporter of Laurent Gbagbo for his struggle for democracy in the Ivory Coast. You observed that Laurent Gbagbo was a true Panafricanist in the earlier stage of his political career. Then to justify why you had a change of heart, you repeated unsubstantiated accusations against him previously written in a biased and disingenuous opinion, titled “Laurent Gbagbo’s “One Dozen Major Sins””and posted in the Sunday 20 February 2011 edition of the patriotic Vanguard, a Sierra Leone online news portal.
My main contentions with your analysis and positions are that:
1- Although you are an expert o resolutions of conflicts, which you taught at prestigious peace institutes such as the American University’s International Peace and Conflict Resolution, did beat the drums of war during the 2010-2012 electoral impasse in Ivory Coast by advocating military intervention instead of a recount of votes. Though you rightly condemned the NATO military intervention and bombing of Libya, you curiously call it a double-standard because the West did not intervene in Ivory Coast instead.
We all opposed the bombing of Libya and the Western actions against Khadafy because we all knew that it was only motivated by the attempt to control the oil of Libya. But, Khadafy is no saint. He has formed and supported most of the rebel movements which have caused havoc and destruction in our sub-region included the United Revolutionary Front’s Leadership. Foday Sankoh, who committed War crimes and crimes against humanity in your native country was formed and supported by Khadafy. Yet, you disregarded these facts and look at the greater impact on NATO intervention on Africa as a whole. Why are you failing to see that France and others intervention in Ivory Coast even through proxies like Ouattara’s is no different than the case of Libya? Isn’t it the same Nicolas Sarkozy and the same Obama who lent support to Ouattara and went after Gbagbo?
You also advocated that Nigeria should have bombed Ivory Coast, but since they failed to do so France did nothing wrong by dropping bombs on Africans in Abidjan.
If in the US, as in the case of Bush versus Gore, they did not resolve electoral disputes through war, why does it make any sense to anyone who claim to be for African unity to think it is OK when one side ask for recount , that it is ok to simply go to war to impose the other side?
I was very amused when I read some of your criticism against US based Ghanaian scholar Professor George uncle-Tom Ayitteh’s assertions that slavery and colonization are not to be blamed for the conditions of black and African people. Ironically, you embrace the same attitude of denial of western imperialist interference when it comes to the Ivorian crisis when you know well that France has manufactured the Ivorian crisis and targeted President Gbagbo while promoting Ouattara to serve their colonial interest.
I find it quiet bizarre that, you, a self-professed Pan-Africanist who also claims to be the descendant, of Bai Bureh, (the legendary Temne chief, hero and leader of the indigenous resistance against British colonialism in your native Sierra Leone) shrewdly echoed the same colonialist propaganda spread by Western mainstream media about the Ivory Coast. And you sided with Alassane Ouattara, the agent of French re-colonization of not just Ivory Coast but the entire West African sub-region.
People of Mali who supported him mainly for tribalistic reasons, are now crying and calling him a traitor because of his involvement in the destabilization of their country and his recent threat as the Head of ECOWAS( Economic Community of West African States) to impose medicine and other embargo on that country.
You even admitted at the conference that you supported Ouattara because you had hoped that he would turn things around. Oh really? Those expectations were based on what? You are a scholar on African affairs and you have 4 PH’Ds, you had extensively travelled countless times all over Ivory Coast and acquainted with officials there, therefore you are not an ignorant person on the political history of that country.
So, how come you display such naivety about Mister Ouattara, who you are surely aware, had displayed dictatorial tendencies during his tenure of the Premiership in the last Houphouet Boigny government?
You praise Gbagbo for his struggle for democracy against Houphouet, but who do you think was the Prime-Minister of Houphouet who really was persecuting Gbagbo, the civil society, labor movements, student activists and other branch of the society demanding democratic reform? Ouattara was. Did you not know that Ouattara had then, jailed Laurent Gbagbo, his wife Simone Gbagbo, his son Michel Gbagbo, Union leaders, student activist, opposition leaders, journalists etc while he was Houphouet’s Prime-Minister?
And do you not know why that most of the demands which were not just for political reform but also against the afflictions that the austerity measures of the IMF Structural Adjustment programs implemented by Ouattara caused to the most vulnerable elements of the Ivorian society?
So you a self-proclaimed Panafricanist and a very educated man, who wrote at least 50 books, had hoped that Ouattara who sold most of the Ivory Coast to French corporations through structural adjustment programs’ privatization policies would turn things around? Your wish did come through because he really did turn things around in the negative way though, by ending democracy, the rule of law, human rights and all the freedoms that Ivorian gained as a result of Laurent Gbagbo struggle.
The whole crisis in Ivory Coast which started by a French-backed failed coup attempt against Laurent Gbagbo turned rebellion was only the result of France attempt to recolonize Ivory Coast by removing Gbagbo from power in order to impose , their own stooge, Alassane Ouattara. An African scholar and Panafricanist who failed to understand that is either ignorant of the facts, simply or disingenuous.
2- You gratuitously accused Gbagbo of having killed, Africans, his countrymen and French. You never give any fact of when, where and how. Off course these accusations are false, and part of the smear campaign waged by France and its colonial allies to vilify President Gbagbo. I will discuss the issues of the deaths of pro-Ouattara supporters during the crisis and explain how it is not correct to impute them to Laurent Gbagbo, while on the other end, it is evident that Ouattara and his henchmen purposely massacred pro-Gbagbo supporters are still massacring Ivorians even more today under Ouattara’s rule than before.
I find it quite disturbing that you supported Ouattara against Gbagbo, though the government Ouattara led as Houphouet Boigny Prime-Minister, fully supported and assisted the Revolutionary United Front, the rebellious army led by Foday Sankoh and supported by Charles Taylor, both charged and found guilty of crime against humanity in Sierra Leone, your country of origin.
I refuse to believe that you were not aware that arms that travelled from Burkina Faso, to Sierra Leone via Liberia transited through Danane in Western Ivory Coast to the Liberian border under the escort of Ivorian regular army during Ouattara’s tenure of the Premiership in Ivory Coast? This practice that continued under Konan Bedie and was interrupted or ended should I say under Gbagbo.
Do not tell me Sir, you who were involved in humanitarian work in Bouake, in Central Ivory Coast that you did not know that Commanders were involved with Ouattara’s armed rebellion when it first started. Commandant Mosquito, the famous Sierra Leonean rebel Leader who oversaw the cutting of limbs of your countrymen, wasn’t he based in Bouake?
In case you didn’t know here are few comments on commandant Mosquito, in Wikipedia: “Samuel "Sam" "Mosquito" Bockarie (October 2, 1964 − May 5, 2003) was a leading member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone. Bockarie was infamous during the Sierra Leone Civil War for his brutal tactics, which included amputation, mutilation, and rape.....
After fleeing Sierra Leone in 2000, Bockarie joined with Taylor's Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) in Liberia, eventually moving to the Ivory Coast, where he participated in the rebellion led by Guillaume Soro in connection with the Gbatala base headed by Charles Taylor.
......On 3 March 2003, Sam Bockarie was indicted for crimes against humanity, violation of the Geneva Convention and violation of international humanitarian law. During this time, Bockarie commanded his troops to attack civilian populations who he felt were supporting the government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, including the use of mutilation and sexual violence. These attacks brought to the world the horrific images of children with missing arms and legs. He was also accused of recruiting child soldiers and abducting people to fight with him, and of attacking UN peacekeepers working under UNAMSIL.
These horrific acts of savagery perpetrated on your people by the allies of those you supported, makes me wonder why would you support Ouattara and his murderers and have high expectations of them?
It may be a surprise to you to read in the news about the ongoing genocide in Duekoue by Ouattara’ forces, but to us who observed that evil man from the start, it is just a logical continuation of the same destruction these kind of people caused in Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Ivory Coast.
You said that you were in Ouagadougou when the discussion of military intervention in Ivory Coast by ECOWAS was being held. Now, you cannot tell me that you were not aware that Blaise Compaore whose hands are covered of the blood of your people supported militarily the rebel groups of Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh and Alassane Ouattara , which murdered hundreds of thousands of Africans in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast?
One last word, the Ivoirite issue:
Politically motivated inter-ethnics incidents are common in Africa, as one can currently witness in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians, or in your own country Sierra Leone, between the Mende and the Temne during the recent civil war there, or between the Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda and Burundi, or between the Kikuyu and the Luo in Kenya or between the Malinke and the Soussou in Guinea.
In the case of Ivory Coast, Mister Ouattara and his current ally former President Henry Konan Bedie, introduced such a conflict between the Northerners and the rest of the country’s ethnic populations. Ouattara started injected ethnic hatred in his quest for power by publicly stated that “ It is because I am a Muslim and a Northerner that they don’t want me to run for President”. But the true reason why Ivorians had issue with his interest in the presidency was that he was a citizen of Burkina Faso all his childhood and adult life until Houphouet Boigny publicly gave him the Ivorian nationality in a TV broadcast ceremony.
As in most country in the world, the US included, a citizen of another country is not allowed to run for the highest office in his new country of adoption. This is the case in the US for former government of California, Harold Shwartznegger or even former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who were not naturally born citizens of that United States, a constitutional requirement for eligibility for the US Presidency. Northerners, who were already disgruntled by the perception given by Ouattara assertion that he was being discriminated because of his religion and his region of origin, were pushed further to the edge by Henry Konan Bedie, Ivoirite xenophobic propaganda according to which his Akan ethnic group was pure Ivorian and northerners especially were not pure bread Ivorians.
It is very nauseating to attribute to Laurent Gbagbo, Ivoirite, when it is obvious that he opposed it and even show solidarity with Ouattara, by refusing to run for President in support of the rejection of his candidacy by Bedie.
What make such a false claim so sickening is that there has been a deceitful amalgamation of Ivoirite with real genuine immigration, indigenous rights and national sovereignty issues in Ivory Coast, which were raised under Gbagbo’s term.
Ivory Coast being home to a disproportionate number of citizens of neighboring countries, the issue of who has the right to run for president or simply vote in Ivory Coast was raised when citizens of neighboring countries wanted to be able to vote in Ivory Coast. To say that only Ivorians can vote was by no means the same as promoting ivoirite but a question of national sovereignty. The law in the same neighboring country, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, were basically the same as far as the requirement of citizenship to be able to vote or that the candidate for President be a citizen of their country who never was a citizen of another country or whose parents were themselves citizens of that country.
So, your claim that Gbagbo engaged in Ivorite is preposterous. Alassane Ouattara as someone in the Q and A brought to your attention was as Prime Minister of Houphouet Boigny the first one to impose a permit of residency in Ivory Coast for none Ivorian citizens of neighboring countries including his own country of origin, Burkina Faso although members of the ECOWAS community were allowed to move and live freely without passport or any other resident permit from one country to another in their Union.
It is true that Alassane Ouattara has nothing to do with “La Charte du Nord”, a document circulated in Mosques during his Premiership, and which asserted that it was time for Northerners to rule Ivory Coast. Ouattara then, sent army troops in Mosques during prayer service to repress proponent of the “ Charte du Nord”. Though today he is the beneficiary of such tribalist and exclusionist concept. Ouattara today has engaged in his own tribalism and exclusion policy with his own concept of RATTRAPAGE.
Contrary to what you said at the conference to a question that was put to you on the issue, RATTRAPAGE is the full implementation of the exclusionist and tribalist idea that it is the time for the Northerners to rule Ivory Coast as Ouattara clearly expressed during an interview with a French TV station during a recent visit to France.
Today 90 percent of Ouattara nominations in his government, administration and army are northerners and Muslims in a country where leaders were always careful not to exclude others in nominations in cabinet positions, the administration and the Army.
Today ethnic cleansing, ethnic based killings and exclusions are the common plight of ethnic groups accused of being supporters of Laurent Gbagbo. The Guéré are paying a heavy price. Ouattara is bringing in everyday, truckloads of Burkinabe citizens from Burkina Faso to the Western part of the Ivory Coast to occupy the land, farms and villages of the Guéré People. One of Ouattara’s Burkinabe Warlord, Amade Oueremi, who Matt Wells of Human Rights cited in his presentation at the Rockville conference, is still ruling supreme on Mt Peko, in the Duekoue area where he and his Burkinabe kin are mass murdering the Guere people and chasing them off their ancestral land. The UN , France and Ouattara’s government who have armed forces in the area are not oblivious to what is occurring in the West of Ivory Coast.
We Panafricans know what is going on in Ivory Coast, the same that is going on in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and other parts of Africa where imperialists who seek to recolonize our continent and have our nations and ancestral lands run and owned by western corporations are creating these conflicts to impose their proxies like Ouattara. It is sad that African scholars like you are pretending not to understand what is going on.
We support Gbagbo because he dared say no to France and in him we see an African Leader who standing to imperialism while his adversary, Alassane Ouattara is willing to be the boy of the colonizers. In one the rare interview Laurent Gbagbo gave to an French journalist of African descent, he said that he knew the day he say no to Chirac invitation to all former French colonies o send troops to parade to French Independence day, that was his end.
Leo Gnawa, Ivorian Patriot and organizer for the Ivorian non-violent Resistance
Thursday, March 6, 2014
OUATTARA, ASSASSIN
Adobi Grégoire, et sa femme ont été tués, dans la matinée de mardi, a son domicile, par les forces gouvernementales. Selon l’information reçue de source crédible, l’épouse d’Adobi Grégoire s’apprêtait à se rendre au travail quand des militaires lourdement armés ont fait irruption dans la cour. La femme a poussé des cris de détresse. Son époux, Adobi Grégoire, qui était dans la maison, accourt. C’est ainsi qu’il est abattu froidement par les malfrats. Son épouse a subi le même sort. Tous deux sont donc tués sur le coup sous les yeux de leurs enfants.
A BODY GUARD OF AN OPPOSITION LEADER, AND HIS WIFE, WERE GUNNED DOWN BY GOVERNMENT FORCES IN FRONT OF THEIR CHILDREN. ADOBI GREGOIRE AND HIS WIFE WERE KILLED ON THE MORNING OF TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 IN THEIR HOME BY PRESIDENT OUATTARA'S TRIBAL MILITIAS. ACCORDING TO INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM CREDIBLE SOURCE, HIS WIFE WAS PREPARING TO GO TO WORK WHEN HEAVILY ARMED MEN STORMED THE HOUSE. SHE SCREAMED FOR HELP. WHEN HER HUSBAND, ADOBI GREGOIRE CAME OUT OF THE BEDROOM, HE WAS SHOT IN COLD BLOOD BY THE ARMED MEN. THE WIFE SUFFERED THE SAME FATE. BOTH ARE KILLED ON THE SPOT IN FRONT OF THEIR CHILDREN. THE ARMED MEN IN MILITARY UNFORM FLED THE CRIME SCENE IN THE COUPLE'S CAR.
OUATTARA'S DEATH SQUADS ARE BACK AND WELL IN BUSINESS. FEAR (AGAIN) IS SPREADING RAPIDLY ALL OVER IVORYCOAST (COTE D'IVOIRE ).
Adobi Grégoire, and his wife were killed on the morning of Tuesday, March 4th in his home by government forces. According to information received from credible source, his wife was preparing to go to work when heavily armed soldiers stormed the court. The woman screamed for help. Her husband, Adobi Gregory, who was in the house, ran outside. Thus it is shot in cold blood by the thugs. His wife suffered the same fate. Both are killed on the spot in front of their children.
A BODY GUARD OF AN OPPOSITION LEADER, AND HIS WIFE, WERE GUNNED DOWN BY GOVERNMENT FORCES IN FRONT OF THEIR CHILDREN. ADOBI GREGOIRE AND HIS WIFE WERE KILLED ON THE MORNING OF TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 IN THEIR HOME BY PRESIDENT OUATTARA'S TRIBAL MILITIAS. ACCORDING TO INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM CREDIBLE SOURCE, HIS WIFE WAS PREPARING TO GO TO WORK WHEN HEAVILY ARMED MEN STORMED THE HOUSE. SHE SCREAMED FOR HELP. WHEN HER HUSBAND, ADOBI GREGOIRE CAME OUT OF THE BEDROOM, HE WAS SHOT IN COLD BLOOD BY THE ARMED MEN. THE WIFE SUFFERED THE SAME FATE. BOTH ARE KILLED ON THE SPOT IN FRONT OF THEIR CHILDREN. THE ARMED MEN IN MILITARY UNFORM FLED THE CRIME SCENE IN THE COUPLE'S CAR.
OUATTARA'S DEATH SQUADS ARE BACK AND WELL IN BUSINESS. FEAR (AGAIN) IS SPREADING RAPIDLY ALL OVER IVORYCOAST (COTE D'IVOIRE ).
Adobi Grégoire, and his wife were killed on the morning of Tuesday, March 4th in his home by government forces. According to information received from credible source, his wife was preparing to go to work when heavily armed soldiers stormed the court. The woman screamed for help. Her husband, Adobi Gregory, who was in the house, ran outside. Thus it is shot in cold blood by the thugs. His wife suffered the same fate. Both are killed on the spot in front of their children.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Ivory Coast: Security Forces Are Killing and Torturing Opponents, Group Says
Ivory Coast: Security Forces Are Killing and Torturing Opponents, Group Says
Ivorian soldiers and allied militias are killing and torturing supporters of the ousted president Laurent Gbagbo, and they took part in a deadly attack on a camp housing displaced civilians,Amnesty International said Tuesday. The violence and the government’s failure to prosecute those responsible are derailing efforts to heal the country’s wounds nearly two years after the end of its civil war, the group said. The “army, along with an armed militia of traditional hunters, the Dozos, are carrying out extrajudicial executions, deliberate and arbitrary killings, politically motivated arrests and torture,” Amnesty said in a statement.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)