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----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob@gmail.com>
To: Debate List <debate-list@fahamu.org>
Sent: Thu, February 17, 2011 9:48:43 PM
Subject: [Debate] Ivory Coast cocoa farmers protest at EU sanctions
17 February 2011 Last updated at 16:50 GMT
Ivory Coast cocoa farmers protest at EU sanctions
Protesting cocoa farmers The farmers say the EU is being manipulated by
France
Hundreds of Ivory Coast cocoa farmers have burned sacks of beans in
protest at EU sanctions intended to force Laurent Gbagbo from power.
The EU, like the UN and the African Union, recognises Alassane Ouattara
as the rightful winner of November's election.
Financial sanctions have been imposed on institutions seen as backing Mr
Gbagbo.
The country's largest bank has ceased trading - the fifth this week.
French bank Societe Generale said it was shutting down its Ivorian
subsidiary SGBCI because it is "no longer able to ensure the short term
supply of currency/cash to our branches".
There have been long queues of people outside banks in the main city
Abidjan this week after the other banks shut down.
Ivory Coast is part of the eight-country West African CFA monetary zone,
with a single central bank based in Dakar, Senegal, which has refused to
deal with Mr Gbagbo's administration.
Diplomats hope that Mr Gbagbo will have no option but to stand down if
he is no longer able to pay civil servants, especially members of the
security forces.
"We reject EU sanctions on our cocoa because we are not involved in
politics," Blehoue Aka, president of the planters' association, said at
the protest outside the EU headquarters in Abidjan.
"We are growers and without cocoa, we and our families risk dying," he
said as he delivered a letter of protest, reports the Reuters news agency.
Ivory Coast is the biggest cocoa producer in the world and the price of
cocoa has been trading at its highest levels for a year.
Exporters have stopped registering new beans for export as a result of
the sanctions, as well as a ban called for by Mr Ouattara.
The UN-backed electoral commission says Mr Ouattara won November's
election but the Constitutional Council overruled it, citing rigging in
the north, controlled by rebels who support Mr Ouattara.
The long-delayed elections had been supposed to reunify the country -
once the richest in West Africa - which has been divided since a 2002
civil war.
_______________________________________________
Debate-list mailing list
Debate-list@fahamu.org
http://lists.fahamu.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debate-list
From: Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob@gmail.com>
To: Debate List <debate-list@fahamu.org>
Sent: Thu, February 17, 2011 9:48:43 PM
Subject: [Debate] Ivory Coast cocoa farmers protest at EU sanctions
17 February 2011 Last updated at 16:50 GMT
Ivory Coast cocoa farmers protest at EU sanctions
Protesting cocoa farmers The farmers say the EU is being manipulated by
France
Hundreds of Ivory Coast cocoa farmers have burned sacks of beans in
protest at EU sanctions intended to force Laurent Gbagbo from power.
The EU, like the UN and the African Union, recognises Alassane Ouattara
as the rightful winner of November's election.
Financial sanctions have been imposed on institutions seen as backing Mr
Gbagbo.
The country's largest bank has ceased trading - the fifth this week.
French bank Societe Generale said it was shutting down its Ivorian
subsidiary SGBCI because it is "no longer able to ensure the short term
supply of currency/cash to our branches".
There have been long queues of people outside banks in the main city
Abidjan this week after the other banks shut down.
Ivory Coast is part of the eight-country West African CFA monetary zone,
with a single central bank based in Dakar, Senegal, which has refused to
deal with Mr Gbagbo's administration.
Diplomats hope that Mr Gbagbo will have no option but to stand down if
he is no longer able to pay civil servants, especially members of the
security forces.
"We reject EU sanctions on our cocoa because we are not involved in
politics," Blehoue Aka, president of the planters' association, said at
the protest outside the EU headquarters in Abidjan.
"We are growers and without cocoa, we and our families risk dying," he
said as he delivered a letter of protest, reports the Reuters news agency.
Ivory Coast is the biggest cocoa producer in the world and the price of
cocoa has been trading at its highest levels for a year.
Exporters have stopped registering new beans for export as a result of
the sanctions, as well as a ban called for by Mr Ouattara.
The UN-backed electoral commission says Mr Ouattara won November's
election but the Constitutional Council overruled it, citing rigging in
the north, controlled by rebels who support Mr Ouattara.
The long-delayed elections had been supposed to reunify the country -
once the richest in West Africa - which has been divided since a 2002
civil war.
_______________________________________________
Debate-list mailing list
Debate-list@fahamu.org
http://lists.fahamu.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debate-list
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