RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - War Criminal And Pervert GbagboTellsAU To Go To Hell

Please read the excerpt below on the notion from my 2006 report on Cote d'Ivoire:

 

But first, Mwalimu Mensah, thanks a heap for pointing out the "ivoirite" foolishness in Gbagbo's head. It should be quite obvious to everyone by now that it does not matter who is on the AU team, Gbagbo will not step down peacefully. And if thinks that the AU will reverse the will of the majority in Cote d'Ivoire, then he is definitely coocoo.

 

Here is an excerpt on the nonsense that is "ivoirite" from a long section in my 2006 report on Cote d'Ivoire. Interestingly, the man that gave birth to the nonsense had long since denouced it because his own father has Ghanaian roots.

 

The attack on Ouattara's origins was a political masterstroke. It put Bédié's chief rival on the defensive, and it invented a political issue that had nothing to do with politics. Rather than denounce Ouattara as a reformer, the regime was still solicitous of foreign investment, Bédié's allies could vilify him as an outsider. The clear implication was that origins were more important than actions. Bédié's people called it ivoirité. The PDCI moved to revise Côte d'Ivoire's electoral code. The key clause was eligibility to run for office, particularly for president. Candidates were always required to be "Ivorian," but Bédié's legal maneuver restricted eligibility to persons "Ivorian by birth, of father and mother themselves Ivorian by birth." This was a slightly absurd requirement: the parents of anyone old enough to run for office would have been born before independence, that is, before the territory acquired firm borders. Indeed, many in that older generation have no official record of where (or when) they were born (Mundt and Woronoff 1995:343).

The revision also failed in its immediate purpose of excluding Ouattara. He was born in Dimbokro, in the center of the country; his father in Kong, in the north; his mother in Odienné, in the northwest; and all of this was documented. Bédié's team then accused the Ouattara clan of possessing false documents. It even alleged that his mother was an impostor and that the real Madame Ouattara was a Burkinabè who had died some years earlier. This approach of attacking the family did not take well with public opinion, even with people who did not like Ouattara. In fact, the "father and mother" provision made a political issue out of everyone's ancestry, including Bédié, whose origins were, if anything, less clear than Ouattara's. Some said Bédié was the son of Houphouët-Boigny himself; in any case, his father's identity had always been a mystery. When a team of reporters from an opposition newspaper headed into the Baoulé heartland in search of the president's birthplace, their investigations pulled them closer and closer to the Ghanaian border. The reporters were arrested before they could get there (Mundt and Woronoff 1995:346).

Yet, despite the glaring inconsistencies, the focus on origins had the merit of keeping Ouattara, who quit the IMF in the summer of 1999 to take over the RDR, entangled in a giant judicial runaround. It struck a powerful chord with the populace. The efficacy of the ad hominem attack on Ouattara and the general questioning of those of "foreign origin" made ivoirité the touchstone of Ivorian life, easy to denounce when employed by one's enemies, but difficult to resist. The police, who were relying more and more on bribes to augment their salaries, often preyed on Northerners. In a time of shrinking resources, weeding out the "foreigners" made it easier to ration civil service jobs, school admissions, and business licenses (Eriksson 2003:603).

When General Robert Guéi overthrew Bédié in a bloodless coup on Christmas Eve, 1999, he declared ivoirité a divisive distraction from the country's real issues, particularly the economy. It was the first coup in Ivorian history; but, frustrated with the incompetence of the Bédié regime, few Ivorians complained. They dubbed Guéi "Papa Noël" and welcomed his promise to "sweep the house clean." Within months, however, Guéi had lapsed into the grand tradition of "temporary" military rulers and announced his intention to run for the presidency himself. His denunciations of ivoirité abruptly ceased, and the pestering of Ouattara began again. Guéi initiated a new angle of attack: Ouattara had used a Burkinabè diplomatic passport during part of his early career. A new Constitution, adopted under Guéi, barred anyone who had "prevailed himself of another nationality" at any time from running for president. As the September 2000 elections drew near, the Supreme Court reviewed all of the candidacies and declared Ouattara ineligible. It also found procedural reasons to exclude other major candidate, save Guéi and Laurent Gbagbo, a longtime leftist critic of the government and leader of the FPI. The bet, clearly, was that Guéi would beat Gbagbo in a carefully controlled electoral setting (Eriksson 2003:605).

In fact, Gbagbo won, despite Guéi's blatant attempt to steal the election (Guéi was thwarted by a popular uprising). The general unrest provided cover for abuses, apparently by security forces, against northerners and immigrants, even though these communities had been largely excluded from the electoral process. The discovery of a mass grave of Dioulas in the sprawling Abidjan suburb of Yopougon raised ethnic tensions to a new level. Once Gbagbo's election was recognized, despite its flaws, by France and other countries, he, too, promised an end to division. But while Gbagbo held a lengthy "National Reconciliation Forum" in 2001, he maintained the pressure on Ouattara, speaking constantly of the legitimacy of institutions and the sanctity of the electoral process. He also encouraged the spread of a virulent strain of ivoirité among FPI youth leaders, evangelicals, pro-government academics, and the pro-government press (Eriksson 2003:605).

Ironically, the civil war came at a time when Côte d'Ivoire's political leadership seemed close to ending its vendettas. In January of 2002, the four frères ennemis—Gbagbo, Bédié, Guéï, and Ouattara—had come together for a handshake in Yamoussoukro, Houphouët-Boigny's birthplace. A few months later, the government announced that Ouattara would receive a new certificate of nationality, the first step in a possible political rehabilitation. The effects of ivoirité had spread so far into the daily lives of ordinary people that no grand compromise among the political elite could bottle them up again (Eriksson 2003:606).

 

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Edward Mensah

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Sent: 2/3/2011 3:28:55 PM

Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - War Criminal And Pervert GbagboTellsAU To Go To Hell

 

It must be obvious to any outside observer that Gbagbo will not accept an AU panel of leaders that includes Burkina Faso.  The guy thinks Alassane Ouattara is from Bukina Faso. As far as he is concerned there is no difference between the Bukina Faso leader and Dr. Ouattara.   

I think this panel's report will be rejected by Gbagbo.

 

Kwaku Mensah, PhD

Chicago

 

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Abdul Bangura
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 11:25 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - War Criminal And Pervert GbagboTells AU To Go To Hell

 

Good Greetings Mwalimu Okeke:

 

I thank you very much for your E-mail and its very respectful tone. They are truly appreciated.

 

I must, however, be honest with you that I will not relent on Gbagbo until he is removed from power by any means necessary. As a public scholar and political activist, I am not shy about being quite passionate about major political issues in Afrika and its Diaspora.

 

For ten years, I have conducted research, traveled throughout the country, given lectures and a Research Methodology workshop, and done development and peace work in Cote d'Ivoire. I have also written extensively on the crisis, and some of my essays on it have been published in books and refereed journals; a few other essays are in press. All these activities, plus my travels and work in neighboring countries, allowed me to learn a great deal about the tyranny of Gbagbo, his wife Simone and his henchmen in the country.

 

I will use any medium available to highlight the evils that Gbagbo and his goons have heaped upon the people of Cote d'Ivoire, and will continue to work with organizations on the Motherland and the Diaspora to help unseat Gbagbo. A few days before the election, I was in Cote d'Ivoire. I recall a conversation I had with a friend in Abidjan. He had a premonition about what is unfolding in Cote d'Ivoire. I told him that after ten years of such hard work and progress, with the eyes of President Jimmy Carter and his team, President John Agyekum Kufuor and his team, head of EU observer mission Cristian Preda and his team, the UN observer team, and the ECOWAS observer team, things would proceed smoothly and the choice of the people of Cote d'Ivoire will be respected. My God, how wrong I was!

 

The past many weeks have not been easy for me to engage in my professional work and still appear on national and international television and radio and write position statements on many media. But mine is an insignificant price compared to what the people in those mass graves in Cote d'Ivoire had to pay for freedom and Democracy and the price most Ivorians continue to pay because one man believes he is ordained by God to remain in power at all costs to the people. That is pure evil!

 

In Peace Always,

Abdul Karim Bangura/.

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Godwin Okeke

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Sent: 2/3/2011 7:07:55 AM

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - War Criminal And Pervert GbagboTells AU To Go To Hell

 

Dear Bangura,

It's quite unfortunate when scholars start writing position papers on critical issues, one of which is represented by the crisis in Cote D'voire. Some of us have been reading you on the Ivorian crisis for quite some time now. Please, try and hear Gbagbo out, and I think you need to understand that the situation is much more complex than you think. More so, the ECOWAS Political Principle of 1991 does not recommend the use of force to unseat recalcitrant regimes, etc, etc. It borders also on the indigene/settler dichotomy (when does a settler become an indigene?) which abound everywhere, including Nigeria, etc,... See also the MERCOSUR example with the Wasmosy/Oviedo imbroglio in the Paraguay crisis of April 22, 1996, and how it was finally resolved, with the intervention of MERCOSUR/OAS; Kenyan/Zimbabwean crises. You may have to read up some literature on the Ivorian crisis and stop your vituperations on issues that need to be analyzed with emotional detachment and philosophical calmness. I will not go beyond this until this crisis is over. I do believe you may learn one or two things from your present position.

Take care.

G.S. Mmaduabuchi OKEKE, PhD

Dept. of Pol. Sc.

UniLag

 

---

From: Abdul Bangura <theai@earthlink.net>
To: "USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com" <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: leonenet <leonenet@lists.umbc.edu>
Sent: Wed, February 2, 2011 5:48:05 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - War Criminal And Pervert Gbagbo Tells AU To Go To Hell

I hope that the African (Dis)Union can finally get out of the way of ECOWAS to fulfill his mandate. Thank you, War Criminal and Pervert Gbagbo, for helping the AU see its folly.

AU Mission in Ivory Coast Encounters Obstacles

Scott Stearns | Dakar  February 02, 2011

Photo: AP

Ivory Coast Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, attends a media conference at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, January 30, 2011.

The prime minister for the U.N.-certified winner of Ivory Coast's presidential election says African Union mediation is the last chance for a peaceful resolution of the political crisis.  The incumbent government says it will not accept any mediation that challenges the president's re-election.

The African Union's latest effort to resolve the political crisis in Ivory Coast is having problems before it gets started.

Members of the heads-of-state panel differ over the possible use of force to remove incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo supporters oppose the inclusion of the Burkina Faso president on the panel because he is an ally of Gbagbo's rival, Alassane Ouattara.

Gbagbo's foreign minister says his government will not accept any finding that questions the legitimacy of the constitutional council annulling nearly 10 percent of all ballots cast, which made Gbagbo the winner.

Ivory Coast's Electoral Commission and the United Nations say results shows Ouattara winning, even if most of the contested votes are thrown out.

Ouattara's prime minister, Guillaume Soro, says the African Union mission is the last chance for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

Soro says the five heads of state will go to Ivory Coast to ask the elected president to explain the guarantees he will offer to the losing president. Soro says Ouattara has promised if Gbagbo agrees to leave power, Ouattara will accord him the status of a former president with all of its privileges.

Having served as Gbagbo's prime minister for more than three years, Soro told VOA  that he does not expect the incumbent president will abide by the decision of the African Union, because the alliance already recognizes Ouattara.

"AU recognized Alassane Ouattara as the elected president of Cote d'Ivoire," he said. "And I think that it is a victory for democracy in Cote d'Ivoire.  It is a victory of the people of Cote d'Ivoire."

Human Rights Watch says Gbagbo allies are killing and raping Ouattara supporters in post-election violence. The United Nations says peacekeepers are being blocked from suspected mass grave sites.

Soro says those responsible for that violence must be brought to justice.

"The struggle for freedom and the fight for democracy is not easy," he said. "In the history of our continent, the struggle for freedom generally generates crimes and killings and everything."

Both of Ivory Coast's competing governments went into the African Union summit hoping for decisive action against their rival. Instead, they got a panel of heads of state. Soro says he is not disappointed.

"No, no, no.  I am not disappointed.  I am a fighter," said Soro. "When you fight for democracy you can not be disappointed."

The leaders of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, South Africa, and Tanzania make up the African Union panel. They met Monday to outline their strategy and must now decide when to visit Abidjan and how to approach the country's rival presidents.

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