USA Africa Dialogue Series - Please Leave Gbagbo Alone

Folks,

 

Gbagbo is a jerk. Like practically every other misruler in Black Africa. I get that. But why is the world picking on him? Are we not yelling at the symptoms of a larger problem? Democracy as practiced in Black Africa today has been a plague on a truly dispossessed people, perhaps worse than the scourge of AIDS. This "democracy" was imported willy-nilly by our leaders, political and intellectual, the new masters of mimicry. The last time I checked Gbagbo is an intellectual. We are asking for external forces to be massed against Ivory Coast because it is a small country. That is just not right. Are there no other options to deal with this matter?

 

If the soldiers take over from the resident termites in Aso Rock would the AU similarly mass soldiers against Nigeria? Why not send soldiers after Mubarak in Egypt? What about North Korea? What are we doing? Let me be blunt: Every day I wake up and pray for the end of whatever they are calling the yeye government in Nigeria. I will not cry in my beer if monkeys overthrow those assholes in power. Please leave Gbagbo alone. Our problems are worse than merely unseating an asshole with a PhD. This democracy is not working for us. It is actually killing us.

 

- Ikhide

 

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From: Abdul Bangura <theai@earthlink.net>
To: "USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com" <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: leonenet <leonenet@lists.umbc.edu>
Sent: Wed, February 2, 2011 12:48:05 PM
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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