Uchenna Osigwe

2012-03-22, Issue 578

Simone, wife of President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire, is a political prisoner. The only reason why she’s in prison today is because her husband was overthrown in a military coup by the forces of the man under whose order she’s currently languishing in jail. Simone didn’t commit any crime. Indeed she won her parliamentary seat handily in the 2010 elections, and unlike the presidential election, that election result wasn’t contested by opposing parties. As women around the world celebrate International Women’s Day, and given that the month of March is dedicated to attracting attention to women’s issues, one needs to ask why there’s silence from all quarters about the ignoble treatment Simone Gbagbo is being subjected to.

Secretary Clinton said in her message to mark the day that many women are prisoners of conscience around the world. She was recently in Côte d’Ivoire, did she not think that First Lady Simone doesn’t deserve the humiliating treatment she’s been going through since the coup d’état that ousted her husband?

Nicholas Sarkozy had threatened to take Gbagbo and his wife to the ICC in the Hague if he didn’t hand over power to his chosen candidate in the 2010 Ivoirian presidential election. Sarkozy is a French, not an Ivorian citizen. Why he should have such a personal stake in who becomes president of a sovereign country is puzzling. And so he has made good his threat. Laurent Gbagbo is already being held in the Hague as a political prisoner, on trumped up charges, and his wife is rumoured to be on the waiting list.

When the French forces used their superior military power, using mainly aerial bombardment, to penetrate and desecrate the Ivoirian presidential palace, the world was shown a dishevelled Simone, sitting beside her husband, evidently being manhandled by the marauding soldiers. The French press made a big show of how their military prowess was used to achieve the ‘victory’ in Côte d’Ivoire. We know what soldiers normally do to their women captives. Gbagbo’s son, Michel, is also being held captive, just for being Gbagbo’s son. Desmond Tutu was on target when he said that what’s happening in Côte d’Ivoire may appear to be victor’s justice.

Neither Gbagbo nor his wife committed any crime that warrants such ignoble treatment. He was faithfully following the laws of his country in the disputed elections. On top of that, he asked for an international delegation of internationally acclaimed men and women of integrity to come and verify the disputed election results, with the pledge that should such a delegation ascertain that his rival won the election, he would hand over to him in an orderly manner. His rival refused to make such a pledge, and refused to accept such a delegation. Gbagbo’s language was the language of a man who was sure that he won the elections. If in doubt, compare it to the languages of Mwai Kibaki of Kenya after the 2007 hotly contested elections, which he lost, or that of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe after the 2008 equally hotly contested elections, which he also lost, or finally, to that of Joseph Kabila of the DRC after the 2011 elections that international observers, among them the Carter Centre, clearly said were not credible, and which Kabila lost anyway.

Given this scenario, on what grounds should this woman continue to be humiliated by the military ‘victors’? After being detained without trial for much longer than the laws of the country permitted, Gbagbo, his wife, and close allies, (one of whom, the interior minister, was extra-judicially murdered in front of his principal, President Gbagbo), were charged with phantom ‘economic’ crimes. The reason was simple: there was no Ivorian law under which they could be credibly charged. And the economic crime charge was laughable. Any person who cares to do a little research could easily discover that the economy of Côte d’Ivoire improved greatly under Gbagbo – he took the country from one that was highly indebted to one whose debts were brought under tight control, thereby ensuring a very strong growth – despite having to fight an intractable war, financed from overseas, for a decade. Indeed the person who sparked the post electoral crises was the one who illegally declared himself president because his foreign masters had assured him that the ‘international community’ would be lined up in his support, a feat they went ahead to achieve with their very powerful media. The new authorities seemed rather confused about how to handle the President, for no sooner had they started with the trial for the ‘economic crimes’ than he was again kidnapped and sent to the Hague where he’s being accused of committing ‘crimes against humanity.’

For the record, there was indeed a crime against humanity during the post electoral crises, but it was committed by the rebel forces of Gbagbo’s rival, the forces that are now part of the regular army of the country. The crime was committed in the glare of a horrified world in the town Douekué where more than 800 civilians were butchered in very horrific manners. So far, no one has been charged for that crime.

Simone didn’t commit any crime. There is no reason for her continued incarceration. Progressive women and first ladies around the world should speak up for the liberation of one of their own. Simone might have frailties like every human being, but being married to a man who was the president is not a crime. No woman should be punished for that. And no woman should be punished for standing with her beleaguered husband, especially when that husband had not committed any crime but was merely doing his duty as stipulated by the Constitution he swore to respect and protect. As at the time of the military putsch, Gbagbo was the only legitimate president of his country. The man to whom the ‘international community’ handed the country over as a prize had to get the Chief Justice to swear him in, despite the fact that he had claimed to have been ‘sworn in’ before in his hotel suite.

Before she met Laurent Gbagbo, Simone was already a well-established political figure in her own right in Côte d’Ivoire. She didn’t need any help from the men to win her own elections. Indeed both she and her husband met on the terrain of political activism. Maybe that’s why they are afraid of her.

In her speech to mark this year’s International Women’s Day, Secretary of State Clinton has this to say, among other things: ‘Too many women have found their attempts to participate in government, in the economy, and in society blocked. Women still disproportionately suffer from poverty and violence. Their voices are muffled and their presence denied at the places where critical decisions are made. They face nationality laws that deny them equal rights to citizenship. And women and girls are all too frequently deprived of access to reproductive healthcare, education, and the credit needed to launch small businesses.’

In Simone Gbagbo we have a woman who rose through many obstacles in a society dominated by men, to become a prominent political figure in her own right. She doesn’t deserve the kind of treatment she’s getting from the present authorities in her country. No woman deserves to be treated the way she’s being treated simply because she married a man who happened to be president. I think Clinton should know this quite well, which is why she could use her very powerful voice to help in galvanizing other progressive women and first ladies to ensure that Simone is freed without further delay. And that she gets redress for her illegal incarceration and abuse.

* Uchenna Osigwe, Ph.D. (Laval University, Quebec)

10 February 2012

In Ivory Coast, members of the old regime released last November by the Ivorian judiciary plead for their fellow prisoners who will face the interior minister. In December, several requests for parole were rejected by the court in Abidjan. There are about sixty pro-Gbagbo prisoners expected for trial.

Gervais Coulibaly, a former spokesman for Laurent Gbagbo, leads the delegation. There are a dozen relatives of the former regime, three of whom were imprisoned at the end of the Civil War.

Former Minister Gnamien Yao who spent four months in Bouna, in north-eastern Côte d’Ivoire, said “My nights are haunted and troubled by the look of President Affi N’Guessan and my younger brother Michel Gbagbo telling me” goodbye “when I remember when we left and they both remained in this prison. No sacrifice is too much for us so we can help free our comrades. ”

The interior minister says the government is reaching out to the opposition but to Hamed Bakayoko, this plea for the release of prisoners of the Gbagbo era is still premature.

“There are people who are still mourning on both sides, said Hamed Bakayoko, so whenever they see an act of appeasement they have a feeling that this is injustice. So we must look beyond that and we need to have the courage to reconcile. In order to seek reconciliation, it takes two. ”

Ivorian justice reviews dozens of cases of crimes committed during the post-election crisis. The first trial should begin within a few weeks.

African Diplomacy Staff

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press
News Fuze

THE HAGUE, Netherlands—Ivory Coast’s ex-president appeared at the International Criminal Court on Monday, the first former head of state to face judges at the world’s first permanent war crimes court. Laurent Gbagbo vowed to fight the charges against him.

Gbagbo, 66, was calm and smiled at supporters in the public gallery as the 25-minute hearing opened. He told judges he did not need them to read the charges.

Gbagbo was extradited to the Netherlands last week to face charges that his supporters committed murder and rape as he rejected an election result and tried to cling to power.

Prosecutors say about 3,000 people died in violence by both sides after Gbagbo refused to concede. President Alassane Ouattara took power in April with the help of French and U.N. forces.

The former president, speaking in French, said he wanted to see the evidence against him.

“I will challenge that evidence and then you hand down your judgment,” he told the three-judge panel.

Gbagbo also complained about his arrest by opposition forces backed by French troops in April, saying he saw his son beaten and his interior minister killed in the fighting.

“I was the president of the republic and the residence of the president of the republic was shelled,” he said.

He also complained about his transfer to The Hague last week from northern Ivory Coast where he was under house arrest.

“We were deceived,” he said, adding the official in charge of his transfer “did not have the courage to tell me I was going to The Hague.”

Monday’s brief hearing was to confirm Gbagbo’s identity and ensure that he understood his rights and the charges. According to court papers, Gbagbo is charged as an “indirect perpetrator” in a carefully orchestrated campaign of violence against supporters of Ouattara.

Presiding judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi of Argentina scheduled a hearing for June 18 where prosecutors will present a summary of their evidence and judges will decide whether it is strong enough to merit bringing Gbagbo’s case to trial.

Before that, judges will schedule interim status conferences to discuss progress in the case. Gbagbo could challenge his detention at such a conference and seek to be released pending further hearings.

Even before Gbagbo was led into the courtroom, his lawyers called his arrest and transfer to the court French “neocolonialism.”

“It’s a neocolonialist trial,” Gbagbo’s adviser Toussaint Alain told reporters in The Hague. “The (ICC) has become an instrument of France … to empower friends and punish the ones who don’t follow along.”

Gbagbo’s lawyer Habiba Toure also challenged the legitimacy of the Gbagbo’s detention last week on an ICC warrant while he was under house arrest.

“In principal, an arrest warrant is delivered to a free individual or a person on the run, which was not the case for Mr. Gbagbo because he was already in the hands of Ivory Coast officials,” Toure said.

A handful of supporters outside court also condemned France’s role in his ouster.

“This is a masquerade by French President Nicolas Sarkozy,” said Abel Naki, who traveled from Paris to be at the court. “Sarkozy orchestrated this coup d’etat.”

The protesters’ anger underscored lingering tensions between Gbagbo and Ouattara supporters in Ivory Coast.

The court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, stressed last week that both sides of the political divide in Ivory Coast committed crimes in the postelection chaos and that his investigation was continuing.

Human rights groups say grave abuses also were committed by forces loyal to Ouattara, who enlisted the help of a former rebel group to force Gbagbo from office.

Gbagbo is the sixth suspect taken into custody by the court, which has launched seven investigations, all of them in Africa. A further 12 suspects remain at large and the court has no police force to arrest them.

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has condemned the transfer of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo to the Hague to be tried by the International Criminal Court, saying the hasty procedure could be rightfully described as abduction”.

In a statement issued in Accra on Sunday, he said his suspicion grew even more when the prosecuting attorney, claiming to be targeting six officials in Cote d’Ivoire, “unduly focuses on Gbagbo, the one who is least likely to escape due to being already in custody”.

“I have learnt with dismay reports that deposed President Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire, has been transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, November 29th, following a speedy indictment, in total violation of relevant international code of procedures and in total disregard for the demands of peace in Cote d’Ivoire,” former President Rawlings said.

“This eagerness to indict and transfer Gbagbo, who did not run in the face of the bombing of his palace like a common criminal, defies logic and the quest for true reconciliation and sustainable peace in Cote d’Ivoire,” he added.

Former President said after fifty years of independence, Africa should have all the know-how to bring justice to its own citizens and do away with imported justice.

He said: “What kind of prosecution would rather be in haste to bring to justice the victim of an attack, and be lenient on the perpetrator of the attack?

“No one is trying to evade justice. But when such justice is drenched in a sea of humiliation and abuses, so as to be governed by self-righteous hatred with its untenable logic, it only befits human conscience to stand up against it for the good of all.

“We will not be silent about this because we must not be silent about it as participating members in this human drama.”

Former President Gbagbo was detained after a brief but bloody civil war that erupted in Cote d’Ivoire following a presidential election that was claimed by him and his rival Alassane Ouattara, who was adjudged by the UN to have won the disputed poll. GNA

From Eric Agnero

Abidjan, Ivory Coast (CNN) — Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo was being transferred Tuesday to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, said his adviser, Toussaint Alain.

He was flown out of the northern city of Khorogo, where he had been under house arrest, on an airplane of the Ivorian government at about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Alain said.

Alain called it an illegal transfer. “The international court has taken an illegal action. This is a political decision rather than a decision of justice,” Alain said.

The transfer was announced on national television Tuesday evening.

The action comes a week before parliamentary elections. Three political parties in an umbrella coalition (CNRD) with Gbagbo’s Front Populaire Ivorien issued a statement saying they would boycott the elections as a result of Gbagbo’s transfer.

Last month, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, arrived in Ivory Coast to meet with government and opposition leaders and began an inquiry into the West African nation’s post-election violence.

In his application to the judges for authorization to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, Moreno-Ocampo cited sources who said at least 3,000 people were killed, 72 people disappeared and 520 others were subject to arbitrary arrest and detentions since the November 28, 2010, election that resulted in the violence.

Gbagbo, the incumbent, refused to cede power even though challenger, Alassane Ouattara, was internationally recognized as the winner. Months of bloodshed ensued. The political stalemate was settled by Gbagbo’s capture in April by forces loyal to his rival, and he has been detained in the north of Ivory Coast. Gabgbo refused to accept the results of UN-certified elections.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying Gbagbo is “the first former head of state taken into custody by the ICC.”

President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi have also been subject to ICC arrest warrants, but Al-Bashir has not come into ICC custody, nor did Gadhafi, who was killed this year during Libya’s revolution, Human Rights Watch said.

“The ICC is playing its part to show that even those at the highest levels of power cannot escape justice when implicated in grave crimes,” Elise Keppler, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“This is a big day for the victims of (Ivory Coast’s) horrific post-election violence,” Keppler said. “That Laurent Gbagbo now has to answer to the court sends a strong message to Ivorian political and military leaders that no one should be above the law.”

CNN’s Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

19 November 2011

The son of Côte d’Ivoire’s deposed president Laurent Gbagbo is to challenge his detention in the French courts.

Michel Gbagbo, who has joint Ivorian and French nationality, is to sue Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and 10 other people for kidnapping.

Both Michel and Laurent Gbagbo have been under house arrest in the north-eastern town of Bouna since their arrest in 11 April in Abidjan.

Michel Gbagbo’s French lawyer, Habiba Touré, announced on Friday that he had opened a legal case in Bobigny, near Paris on Monday, accusing the regime that ousted his father of kidnapping, illegal detention and inhuman and degrading treatment.

President Alassane Ouattara’s government has failed to produce a decree that justifies the detention, Touré argued.

A communiqué also accuses Laurent Gbagbo’s captors of circulating videos of him on the internet which “exhibit him as a trophy of war”.

Laurent Gbagbo opened a legal case against the French military for attempted murder in July.

Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (PFI) will boycott next month’s general election because the “results are known in advance”, according to interim leader Miaka Oureto.

President Alassane Ouattara on Friday refused to delay the 11 December election to allow the PFI to contest the vote, although in the past he has said he wanted the party to take part.

(Translation from original French)

Ivory Coast, Ivory Coast, people of Cote d’Ivoire, dear compatriots, dear people of Cote d’Ivoire.

I wish, on this solemn day marking the 51st anniversary of Independence of our country, to join all of you to give glory to God first, our Lord continues to show its loyalty to noble country, despite the tribulations of these moments.

Then, each anniversary is an opportunity both to review and identify opportunities, I would like to share with you some thoughts on the meaning of the day of Aug. 7.

This reflection is an exercise in exploration of ourselves that is imposed on every citizen of this country, but especially the leaders, and political and administrative leaders who have the responsibility to lead the destiny of our nation, especially in the current context major trauma on our people, who aspires to live its sovereignty as an actor and about humanity, not as a mere object or a spectator in the construction of its own history.

Independence is a strong concept, which refers to a movement break. The break point is defined here does isolation or withdrawal, ideal position of the weak, but it is rather a transformation of consciousness that puts one who invokes it, the easement full accountability in the construction process of humanity.

I continue to believe that the world derives its freedom and dynamism of the freedom of each component. This belief has remained the compass of my entire political action, it never left me.Therefore, in my role as Head of State and President of the Republic, I have tried the face of adversity, to give substance to the notion that seemed to be evasive and elusive for our people.

I measure the best of my position, great suffering, but also the great merit of all those men who, throughout history, fought for freedom and independence of their people. I think of Martin Luther King, whose political commitment to death has more than forty years later the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, to Gandhi, whose work continues to feed the soul of the great INDIA; General de Gaulle, who refused the inevitability of defeat to restore the lost greatness of France to Mao Zedong, who broke the bonds of slavery at the cost of enormous sacrifices to give China its glory today.

I praise the courage of Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and all other worthy fighters in Africa, which are examples of self-sacrifice for freedom and pride of the African people. I welcome in particular the memory of our illustrious ancestors who fought for the outlines of what we call independence. Their merit is quite large in the context that was theirs.

But we must bear in mind that their struggle would be futile if we stopped to admire only their achievements. The symbols of the State and the Arms of the Republic remind us each day our duty and responsibility before our own destiny. Everyone is called to give them a real sense. It’s the constant struggle which should mobilize all the energies of the son and daughters of our country.

In my case, I continue to refuse the position of the frame in which you want to absolutely keep the African people. Indeed, I remain convinced that in the dialectical relationship of the rider and the horse, regardless of the quality and quantity of hay that the rider gives the horse’s position that one (the rider) is largely comfortable with relative to the position of it (the frame).

In a competitive world, it is unrealistic to believe that a people can provide the perfect happiness of another people, history shows no example of this type. Therefore, when I took office as Head of State, I put my political commitments, economic and social in the sense of our sovereignty, which in my view is a prerequisite for any development.

On the political level, respect for the Constitution, a symbol of the social contract that underpins our Nation, is an absolute requirement which can not accommodate possible compromise. I am convinced that if all of us, we gave our Constitution the sanctity that is his, the Ivorian crisis have had a better outcome in the shortest possible time. The Constitution is the guarantee of our national sovereignty. It deserves unflinching mobilization around it.

I want to level my words, pay tribute to our brave freedom fighters, some of whom lost their lives in defense of our Constitution. I think especially our brave soldiers of the Defence Forces and Security (SDS), all units combined.

Since 2002, they opposed a heroic, often under very difficult to subjugation of our people. Whenever they were close to winning, they were prevented by FRANCE. That was the case in November 2004 and March 2011, when at the cost of countless sacrifices, the SDS had taken over the enemy in the decisive battle of the city of Abidjan. They have not lost the war against the enemy officially declared. I reiterate my pride them and ask them not to grow so any complex of a defeated army.

I join all these tributes to these thousands of young women and men, young martyrs of our history which cost them their lives, were able to materialize our will to fulfill our common destiny as free people, as sovereign .

I praise the courage and bravery of the Prime Minister Professor Aké-Marie N’GBO Gilbert, Professor Emeritus of Economics, also President of the University of Abidjan-Cocody, and all the members of his Government that are either in prison or in exile, having chosen the side of freedom and dignity in Africa.

I associate these tributes also all those great civil servants who have lost everything and are living in absolute poverty to have fulfilled their duties. I keep a deep thought for all those anonymous exiled, imprisoned or living in fear because of their faith in the greatness of our country and Africa. History restore their glory.

I also thank the countless Africans living in Africa and elsewhere who wear every day that our fight is mostly their own, wherever the need arises. I reassure all my friends. Finally, all those other people who believe in the destiny of our continent and are committed to our side, I would express my deep gratitude.

I demand the release of all political prisoners, because it belongs to me, and me alone, to report to the sovereign people of Cote d’Ivoire the mandate he was kind enough to entrust me since October 2000.

Also on the political level, respect for our institutions seems to be another equally important aspect of the exercise of our sovereignty. That is why we negotiated with the French authorities break defense agreements that bound us to the former colonial power. The crisis in our country we have learned that in this world in open competition due to globalization, conflicts of interest may arise between nations, even the most friends. Under these conditions, it is better to give flexibility in the exercise of its right of defense.

However, these defense agreements, in their old writing, entrust the defense of our national sovereignty exclusively and entirely to a foreign power. They limit our freedom of action. In the same vein, the closure of the French military base of the 43rd BIMA is a requirement in line with the yearning of our people. The French military intervention in the violent electoral crisis in Côte d’Ivoire confirms my my choices. The massacre of our countrymen, mostly civilians, and especially young people, by the French army, leads us to ask ourselves about the meaning of independence of our people.

In the space of six years (2004-2011), the French army shot and killed Ivorian citizens who demanded nothing but their right to freedom. This is the biggest trauma of my life. At the same time, these two massacres strengthen my conviction that the struggle for sovereignty remains an existential question for our people. I will never tire of the lead. For this reason, no humiliation will be too much for me. I intend to fight this battle by making one with my people, with the support of all freedom fighters around the world in the land of our ancestors.

On the economic front, I put my action in the logic of our sovereignty. Indeed, from 2001 to 2011, the Ivory Coast lived on equity despite the division of the territory in two. We were able to provide all our obligations as a state within, and all our commitments abroad. In the same vein, despite the difficulties in the implementation of the reform of the cocoa-coffee sector, the transfer of its management to farmers also reflects our desire to free the fundamentals of our economy of alienation.

The concepts of budget and other secure, far from being mere diversions themes, reflect my profound thought that we must rely primarily on ourselves to ensure our development. IVORY COAST and has the means. I recall that for the single year 2010, despite a tumultuous season, the Internal Revenue Service, Customs and Treasury have mobilized more than 2200 billion francs now.

Allow me to welcome here, all officials and agents of the State of the larger jurisdictions that have successfully translated into practice for ten years our sovereignty. For 2011, these services were engaged in mobilizing some 2,500 billion CFA francs. Unfortunately, the burden of debt, including external, limit the scope of our performance. The social impact has not been up to this performance because of debt burden.

Therefore, when I took office, I raised this issue a national priority. The debt burden makes us slaves.Our independence also means our postage chains of debt. It is with good reason that despite the difficulties of all kinds, we continued to pay it back.

The decision point under the HIPC Initiative reached in 2009, despite the crisis, is recognition of our efforts by the international financial community. We must all bear in mind that no country can develop with the sole effort of the taxpayers of another country. Similarly, a country that fights in another country, fighting first and foremost to the economic interests of its people. It is both unrealistic and dangerous to believe and to argue otherwise. CÔTE D’IVOIRE can afford to live without excessive debt, provided it has the full and free administration of his wealth. I remain convinced that this is one of the reasons why we are victims of the attacks we are experiencing.

On the social level, our determination to preserve the sovereignty of our people, has led in all of our citizens the energy that mobilizes around the nation. Despite the anathemas thrown on our youth overused the great values of patriotism it embodies, we saw serious progress on the awareness of our common destiny. From this point of view, our country has become the bearer of a new hope for all of Africa fighting. All great nations feed their patriotism. CÔTE D’IVOIRE, which aims to become a great nation can not be ashamed of his own.

My dear compatriots, of my whereabouts, I continue to keep faith in our struggle. As in all battles, there are battles lost. But the main purpose is which is the goal of beginning. A losing battle, we do not turn away from our ultimate goal is affirmation of our existence as a community of free and sovereign destiny.

The independence we celebrate today required great sacrifices from us. The humus bodies of fallen fighters for freedom, always germinate the seeds of hope for future generations. It’s the chain of solidarity between generations that continues until the end of time. The generation that is shirking its duty of solidarity remains permanently indebted to those who follow it, if not of all humanity.

The great powers that we require today have gone through these tests. Their current generations enjoy the dividends of struggles their ancestors. It’s an old law of nature to which we must submit to acquire in the end, our full sovereignty. Always remain engaged and confident. For ever a people struggling to gain his freedom has been won. It is also a historical truth.

I never stopped believing that the Ivorian problem must be resolved between us, Ivory Coast, with the support of the African sage. I still wonder, therefore, the motives which have governed the action of the French authorities, in a conflict that was being processed at the African level. I note that the Ivorian crisis has greatly stuck every time the French government is involved it beyond reason.

Therefore I appeal to the inter-Ivorian political debate under the aegis of Africans. Africa has all the skills to manage its own contradictions. It must fully support themselves if they want to stop being the scene of the most unbelievable experience who despise their own values. Only at this price that no one will dare challenge his contribution, however, still evident in the construction of the history of our humanity.

God bless you, God bless the IVORY COAST.

Happy Independence Day to you all!
Laurent Gbagbo

July 29, 2011

Link to Video

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), today reacted to President Obama’s meeting with potential war criminal and illegitimate leader of Cote d’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara in Washington, D.C.

“It is outrageous that President Obama would welcome, with open arms, a man who is responsible for the death of at least 3,000 people and displacement of half a million refugees in the African country of Cote d’Ivoire,” said Inhofe. “Instead of participating in our nation’s budget crisis, the President spends his time meeting with this killer and human rights abuser. Ouattara’s bloodletting seems unabated, and he does not seem to be interested in restraining his forces from eliminating perceived pro-Gbagbo supporters.  He did not deserve an invitation to our White House or an audience with our President in the Oval Office.  Ouattara is nothing more than an illegitimate usurper who has scandalized Cote d’Ivoire’s electoral system, and unlawfully ousted democratic incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.”

Inhofe cited Amnesty International’s report from July 28 that states half a million Ivorians are displaced in post-election violence, and are prevented from returning home because of a “climate of fear” that continues to reign in Cote d’Ivoire.  Amnesty International specifically singles out Ouattara’s security forces and his state-sponsored militia composed of Dozos who continue to target pro-Gbagbo ethnic groups.  Dozos, traditional hunters, are a mercenary group that both Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross blame for carrying out a massacre in April of at least 220 people in the western town of Duekoue.

Beginning late last year, Ouattara fraudulently won Cote d’Ivoire’s presidential election, and after President Gbagbo revealed the fraud, led a rebel army that violently overthrew the Gbagbo government with support from the French military, which wrongly intervened in this former French colony.

Inhofe has regularly called for new elections in Cote d’Ivoire.  In May, Inhofe demanded answers from Administration officials during a SFRC hearing on the current crisis in the war-torn country. He has remained an outspoken critic of Ouattara and has repeatedly drawn attention to this issue on the Senate floor.

July 22, 2011

A video showing several prominent supporters of former Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo being forced to do push-ups in jail by troops loyal to President Alassane Ouattara has surfaced on the Ivorian web, dealing a serious blow to the country’s reconciliation efforts.

The scene takes place in a prison in the north-eastern city of Bouna, some 600km away from the economic capital Abidjan. The amateur video shows seven members of Gabgbo’s close entourage being humiliated by their jailors. Among them are Pascal Affi N’Guessan, former prime minister and president of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI, Gbagbo’s now defunct party), and Michel Gbagbo, the ousted president’s eldest son. The footage was reportedly shot sometime between April 22, the day N’Guessan was arrested, and early June, after which one of the prisoners visible in the video (Gnamien Yao, one of Gbagbo’s former ministers) was released due to his deteriorating health.

After Gbagbo’s arrest on April 11, which ended a violent four-month stand-off between his supporters and those loyal to arch-rival Ouattara, several former FPI officials were placed under house arrest. Others, including the former president and his wife, Simone, were transferred to the north of the country, a Ouattara stronghold.

Pascal Affi N’Guessan was initially part of a small group of Gbagbo supporters who took refuge in an Abidjan hotel and requested the protection of the state, but he was later transferred to Bouna. According to the African Press Agency (APA), authorities accused him of speaking against Ouattara’s national reconciliation plan when interviewed by the media.

The man seen barking orders at the seven prisoners in the video is Mourou Ouattara, an officer of the FRCI, the armed forces loyal to the new president. At the start of the video the officer is heard haranguing the group:

“We’ll deal with you all, you’ll get 100 years [in prison]. I’d rather you die in jail, every one of you. We could hit you. But we’re not hitting anyone. Because we’re not judges. It’s not our role to judge you. […] You should hide, you should be very afraid […].

You paid for all sorts of weapons, hired mercenaries. You squandered all of Ivory Coast’s money […]. Now let the Ivorians live in peace […].

Go look inside the hospitals, inside the morgues. […] You’ll have to answer for that! Now do push-ups!

The prisoners obey. “Don’t just pretend to do them: do them!” hollers the officer, before concluding: “Enough. Get up.”

The timing of these videos could not have been worse for newly elected president Alassane Ouattara, who is calling for Ivorians to overcome bitter regional and ethnic divides. Earlier this month, Amnesty International voiced its “preoccupation” concerning the fate of some 50 Gbagbo supporters detained without trial. According to the human rights group, their treatment is in “blatant violation of international human rights norms”. Neither Amnesty International nor the Red Cross have been granted access to prisons in the north of the country, despite repeated requests. The only international group authorised to visit the prison in Bouna since early May was the UN peacekeeping force in the Ivory Coast, ONUCI. Its interim director for human rights, Guillaume Ngefa, told FRANCE 24 that he dispatched two patrols to the detention centre after hearing reports that prisoners were forced to do push-ups. He says the peacekeepers observed that certain prisoners were indeed “victims of abuse” and were detained in “inhuman and degrading” conditions.

Abidjan’s state prosecutor, Simplice Koffi Kouadio, auditioned the members of Gbagbo’s entourage held in Bouna in June as part of a continuing investigation into the country’s post-electoral violence. Contacted by FRANCE 24, he refused to comment on what he saw in the prisons but insisted that the terms “detention” and “prisoners” were improper in this case. Gbagbo aides and supporters, he said, were “placed under house arrest” until Ivorian judges decide on the charges that are to be brought against them.

“Such a lengthy imprisonment, without any form of official charges or trial date, gives the impression of a victor’s justice”

This footage completely discredits Alassane Ouattara’s calls for national reconciliation. The entire population is shocked by these videos and Ouattara’s supporters aren’t minimising the problem, on the contrary. Of course, you can say that push-ups aren’t torture. But it is still cruel and degrading treatment. [According to article 1 of the UN convention against torture, the term torture designates “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as (…) punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person (…)”].  And it’s probably safe to say that the video only shows the tip of the iceberg.

I spoke with several local rights groups and bi-partisan pro-democracy activists, and none of them were granted access to detention centres in the north of the country. The fact that several former government figures are detained in the north makes many people here say that the region has become a prison camp for Gbagbo supporters. Northern Ivory Coast is considered the stronghold of Ouattara’s aggressively anti-Gbagbo Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro. The fact that incidents like this are going on tarnishes the government’s reunification efforts.

The situation in the Ivory Coast will only return to normal when members of both camps who are responsible for violent acts are brought to justice, in full compliance with international human rights law. Right now, such a lengthy imprisonment of former Gagbo aides, without any form of official charges or trial date, gives the impression of a victor’s justice.”

Post written with FRANCE 24 journalist Peggy Bruguière.

inhofe.senate.gov

June 10, 2011

(as prepared for delivery)

Mr. President, I want to give you the latest on the grave situation in Cote d’Ivoire, and I can only say that it continues to be a targeted genocide against supporters — or perceived supporters — of deposed President Laurent Gbagbo.

This will be my seventh time speaking on the Senate floor about the tragedy in Cote d’Ivoire in addition to the statements I made at a hearing two weeks ago before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa.

And Mr. President, I have new information that proves what I have been alleging for over seven weeks:  that rebel leader Alassane Ouattara is still carrying out reprisal killings by his ‘death squads’ roaming the streets of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

The proof is in a newly released report by Human Rights Watch which states, and I quote:

“Armed forces loyal to President Alassane Ouattara have killed at least 149 real or perceived supporters of the former President Laurent Gbagbo since taking control of the commercial capital of Abidjan in mid-April, 2011.”

The report goes on to describe in gruesome detail, barbaric episodes of torture and death of civilians at the hands of Ouattara’s forces.  

Here are a few examples straight from the report:

Ouattara’s Forces  . . . sealed off and searched areas formerly controlled by pro-Gbagbo militia . . . and the majority of documented abuses occurred in the longtime pro-Gbagbo stronghold of Yopougon . . . . Most killings were point-blank executions of youth from ethnic groups generally aligned with Gbagbo, in what appeared to be collective punishment for these groups’ participation in Gbagbo’s militias.

One man described how Republican Forces soldiers killed his 21-year-old brother: “Two of them grabbed his legs, another two held his arms behind him, and a fifth one held his head,” he said. “Then a guy pulled out a knife and slit my brother’s throat. He was screaming.  I saw his legs shaking after they’d slit his throat, the blood streaming down.  As they were doing it, they said that they had to eliminate all of the [Young] Patriots that had caused all the problems in the country.”

Mr. President, these Young Patriots were young supporters of President Gbagbo who surrounded his presidential palace in a human chain armed with only sticks and bats against UN and French attack helicopters which were bombing Gbagbo’s residence.  Now they are being searched out by Ouattara’s forces for torture and death.

The report goes on to describe more horror:

Another woman who witnessed the killing of 18 youths . . . was brutally raped by a Republican Forces soldier after being forced to load their vehicles with pillaged goods. On May 23, an elderly man in the same neighborhood saw Republican Forces execute his son, whom they accused of being a member of pro-Gbagbo militia.

Another witness described seeing the Republican Forces slit the throat of a youth in front of his father after finding a Kalashnikov and grenade in his bedroom during a 4 a.m. house-to-house search.  The witness was stripped and forced to hand over his laptop computer, cell phones, and money.

Human Rights Watch documented similar pillaging of scores of houses in Abidjan.  The witness, like many others interviewed by Human Rights Watch, wanted to flee Abidjan to his family village, but had no money for transportation since the Republican Forces had taken everything.

Human Rights Watch documented 54 extrajudicial executions at detention sites, including police stations and the GESCO oil and gas building now used as a Republican Forces base.  On May 15, Human Rights Watch observed a body burning less than 30 meters from the 16^th precinct police station.  Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch the following day that it was the body of a captured militiaman who had been executed inside the police station grounds.

In addition to killings, Human Rights Watch interviewed young men who had been detained by the Republican Forces . . . and arrested for no other apparent reason than their age and ethnic group.  Nearly every former detainee described being struck repeatedly with guns, belts, rope, and fists . . . for alleged participation in the Young Patriots . . . . Several described torture, including forcibly removing teeth from one victim and placing a burning hot knife on another victim, then cutting him.

Mr. President, Human Rights watch reports that “witnesses consistently identified the killers or abusers as Republican Forces” and that they were “overseen” by Ouattara and Guillaume Soro, now Ouattara’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister.  The report has eye witness accounts of mid- and high-level commanders being at or near the place where the killings took place.

Mr. President, the Human Rights Watch report calls on Ouattara “to immediately ensure the humane treatment of anyone detained” by his forces.  And Corinne Dufka, a senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch said that, “[t]he hope of a new era following President Ouattara’s inauguration will fade fast unless these horrible abuses against pro-Gbagbo groups stop immediately.”

This is something I have been demanding for seven weeks, Mr. President. I hope finally now that this report — along with an Amnesty International report released last week that found similar ongoing killings and looting in Abidjan by Ouattaran forces — will bring enough pressure to halt this ongoing bloodbath.

Mr. President, I have been very critical of our State Department’s handling of this situation in Cote d’Ivoire from the beginning.  I sent them evidence months ago that showed that Ouattara had engaged in massive election fraud during last year’s presidential election, and I called for an investigation, which the State Department ignored.  I also called upon the State Department to inquire into the safety and health of President Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone.  But to date, they have not shared any information about them with me.  I am not sure they even know anything — which is very disturbing.

Lastly, I had urged our State Department to use its power and influence to allow the reconciliation process in Cote d’Ivoire to begin by allowing the Gbagbos to go into exile.

I pointed out that at least half the population of Cote d’Ivoire supports the Gbagbos, and I have knowledge of one African leader who is willing to give them asylum right now in his country.  The State Department has been aware of this offer for over a month, and I again strongly suggest they examine this path to peace.

The U.S. has performed such a role before in 1986, when, under the Reagan Administration, Haiti’s “Baby Doc” Duvalier was sent into exile in France.  This could be an important step towards beginning this process of reconciliation in war-ravaged Cote d’Ivoire.

Mr. President, I met privately with Under Secretary for Political Affairs Bill Burns yesterday in connection with his nomination to be the Deputy Secretary of State.   I found him to be a knowledgeable public servant, and I will support his nomination.

I am convinced Under Secretary Burns embodies the highest traditions of the Foreign Service – selfless, non-partisan diplomatic service – and he indicated to me that he will follow through on my previous requests with the State Department, and specifically regarding the health and well-being of the Gbagbos.  I thank him for his concern, and am more hopeful that my calls for action will now receive the attention they deserve at the State Department, the United Nations and with the French government.

Mr. President, the ongoing slaughter in Abidjan and Cote d’Ivoire generally must end now, and Ouattara and his forces held accountable.

The UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) has declared Thursday, June 9,“particularly concerned” by the “multiplication” of recent violence committed by members of the armed forces of the president Alassane Ouattara in the south the country. UNOCI “is particularly concerned at the increasing incidents of violent attacks by elements of FRCI (Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire) against several villages,” said Guillaume Ngefa, Division of Human Man of UNOCI, at a press conference in Abidjan.

Deploring the use of “heavy weapons” to maintain order, he has demanded“immediate and impartial investigation” into these incidents have occurred in recent days in locations around Abidjan, south-west and center-west, regions known from many supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo . The former head of state was arrested April 11 after an offensive FRCI, supported by the UN and France, after more than four months of a crisis arising from his refusal to cede power after his defeat at the polls in November 2010.

A Becouesin (50 km north of Abidjan), elements of FRCI “raided the village and made ​​use of deadly force. They then arrested twenty young (…). Along the way, they beat another person who has died from his injuries, “said Mr. Ngefa. Yakassé A-Me (50 km north of the economic capital), “an old man collapsed and died while trying to flee into the bush for fear of being arrested by elements of FRCI who had launched an operation sweep, “he said.” These incidents have been at least forty-five wounded, including three gunshot, “said the UN official. According to him, “the heavily armed reinforcements FRCI (…) stormed the village by shooting and beating young people”, forcing residents to flee into the forests.

A Domolon (55 km south-east of Abidjan), a foray FRCI “resulted in some thirty wounded with machetes and lacrosse,” “large-scale looting” and a massive exodus of population in the bush. The restoration of security is one of the sites most urgent government Ouattara. Following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he pledged to bring the FRCI “as quickly as possible” in barracks. It must accelerate the parallel back on the field of police and gendarmes.

Sarkozy, Ouattara, the African Bishops Break the Silence

In an article dated June 6 last on his blog (1), Shlomit Abel published excerpts of the African bishops’ conference (2) that denounces the crimes of bleached Ouattara, indifference guilty of France, and his distrust in vis “experts” of the United Nations in charge of investigating crimes Gbagbo.

US Senator Inhofe: “We Can Save Cote d’Ivoire”

Senator Inhofe (R-OK) calls for the release of the Gbagbos, also calling for the US Dept. of State to change their position– stating that if they don’t act soon, the Gbagbos will be executed. At the end of his speech, Senator Durbin (D-IL) commends Inhofe and reinforces the change of the State Department’s position, and states that on a bipartisan-basis, both agree that the US should pay more attention to ‘that important continent.’

Video can be seen in the “Featured Video” column to the right or through the link above.