This is part of a regular feature on my blog that presents interesting stories from elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa, that are little reported in the American media. It's part of my campaign to get people to realize there is a lot going on in the world outside the US, Israel and Iraq.
How bad are things in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa? Bad. Really bad. Some people think irrational war fervor was bad in the United States a few years ago. It was.But it's nothing compared to Côte d'Ivoire.
The country was long a paragon of stability in a turbulent region. That's the cliche, anyway. Much like Tito's Yugoslavia, this was attributable more tot he political skill of one man. Côte d'Ivoire was ruled by Félix Houphouët-Boigny, from independence in 1960 until his death in 1993. Houphouët-Boigny was talented in managing a coalition of disparate interests and even in co-opting the country's large immigrant population. He ran the country as a one-party state until the early 90s, when most African countries had to present at least the facade of multi-party democracy.
The pompous Henri Konan Bédié succeeded Houphouët until a military coup overthrew the PDCI party regime on Christmas Day in 1999. This coup ushered in an era of instability that the country had never seen before.
The military regime tried to rig elections in 2001. It excluded all the major candidates except long-time opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo of the FPI party. It allowed Gbagbo because the junta needed a candidate whose stature was modest enough to make the sham appear credible yet weak enough that the military ruler, Gen. Robert Guéi, would triumph comfortably.
The regime miscalculated and results started showing Gbagbo ahead. The junta tried all kinds of machinations but the public wouldn't accept it. This occured shortly after the huge public uprising in Belgrade forced Slobodan Milosevic from power. The Ivorians tried the same thing and had the same effect. Gen. Guéi quit and Gbagbo became president.
Africans and westerners alike invested much hope in Gbagbo, who'd been opposition leader for nearly two decades and jailed often during PDCI rule. Whenever such uprisings succeed and dictators unseated, there always seems to be the hope that the new leader will be another Nelson Mandela. This is often unrealistic. Mandela is considered a great man precisely because he was EXCEPTIONal, and thus was the EXCEPTION.
One of the characterstics of Bédié's six year rule was the development of a concept known as Ivoirité, or Ivorianness. It is a very xenophobic principle that is used to distinguish 'real Ivorians' from, presumably, fake ones. This was an explosive principle in a country like that. As the region's economic powerhouse, Côte d'Ivoire attracts migrant labor from many of the countries in West Africa. 1/3 of the population is foreign born.
Bédié's regime pushed through a constitutional amendment requiring that in order to run for president of the Republic, both of your parents had to have been born in Côte d'Ivoire. (By contrast, in the US, only the candidates themselves have to have been born on American soil... and some Republicans are even pushing to scrap that). Again, with such a large immigrant population in the country, this was hugely divisive.
It was even more controversial since the move was really designed to exclude opposition leader Alasanne Ouatarra, one of whose parents was born in the country now known as Burkina Faso. (The requirement was absurd since any candidate's parents would've actually been born in the expansive colony of French West Africa, before Côte d'Ivoire was even an independent country)
The targeting was even more ludricrous since Ouatarra was sufficiently 'Ivorian' to have been Houphouët-Boigny's prime minister in the early 90s. In fact, Ouatarra served as acting president whenever Houphouët-Boigny was out of the country or as he was incapacitated and dying.
This move was seen not only as being designed against Ouatarra, but against all northern Ivorians. The north of the country is where the largest population of immigrants can be found.
Though Gbagbo had been opposed to Bédié's regime and to its authoritarian tone, he eagerly adopted Bédié's destructive Ivoirité policy. Ivoirité is the Pandora's Box that has destroyed Côte d'Ivoire.
Northerners had long felt slighted by the central government, as it's the poorest region of the country. Exclusionary Ivoirité targeted at them was the last straw. Rebel groups were founded and a civil war was launched.
I won't go into the long, twisted history of the war and various peace negotiations but the fundamental demand of the main unified rebel group is better, non-exclusionary treatment for northerners. The Gbagbo/FPI government frequently agrees to this in words but both their other propaganda and their actions betray this.
Northerners want the constitution changed to remove the objectionable clauses and then they will disarm. Southerners want unilateral rebel disarmament first. Needless to say, there is no trust on the northern side that this will actually happen.
It's been exacerbated by the hate media campaign put forth by pro-government forces. And by the groups of so-called 'Jeunes patriotes', or Young Patriots. They are roving, violent militias of predominantly young men who go around terrorizing anyone suspected of being a rebel sympathizer, or at least not sufficiently loyal.
And though the Young Patriots and other militias are nominally aligned to the government and claim to be acting on its behalf, it's really unclear how much control Gbagbo has of any of this. I seriously suspect that Gbagbo fears that if he negotiates and actually tries to implement a fair peace agreement, he will be assassinated by extremist elements.
This is what happened to Rwandan strongman Juvénal Habyrimana in 1994 as he tried to implement a peace deal with Tusi rebels. And what followed his murder? A genocide. This is what I'm afraid might happen in Côte d'Ivoire.
There are so many parallels between the two, it's scary. From the leader who considered making peace with rebels but was opposed by extremists in his own camp. To the despicable hate media campaign against 'foreigners.' To the involvement of French and UN troops. To the meticulously planned campaign against all 'enemies' of the regime... and thus enemies of the Republic... the rhetorical unification of the government of the day with the nation as a whole is a key part of any sinister propaganda campaign. Even to the Lady MacBeth wife of the president with her own Pretorian Guard entourage (Agathe Habyrimana in Rwanda and Simone Gbagbo in Côte d'Ivoire).
You think I'm exaggerating about the virulence of the situation there? If you read French and have a strong stomach, just take a look at the Ivorian press [links to many of the country's media outlets can be found at the portal Abidjan.net].
This article from the UN's IRIN service gives an idea of just how strongly fanatacism reigns in the country.
Even the title says a lot: "I'm against the war but please don't quote me."
"I've been taken off the air [of state radio] because I'm not on anyone's side, I just want peace in Cote d'Ivoire," said a well-known preacher whose sermons were taken off the air after the war broke out.
[...]
"But I cannot speak out this way in public because of the youths," he said, referring to the xenophobic, rampaging so-called Young Patriots militias.
The preacher continued, "Some of them asked me how I thought the crisis could be resolved. When I said through negotiations, they said 'no way.' If you knew how well they were organised, you'd understand why I've stopped speaking publicly."
One schoolteacher explained, "A woman who lives in my suburb who's a 'patriot' [a militant, pro-government person] said she was going to tell the GPP [a hardline militia group] I was a suspect individual because I never go out on their [pro-government] demonstrations.
"I tell them this is not the case, that it's just that I'm not at war with anyone. What I want is peace for everyone in this country, not a peace that favours some and not others. But people who think the same way I do can't really speak their minds, neither here in Abidjan [Ivorian commercial capital] nor anywhere else in the country. There's no-one to protect us."
"You're either with the rebels or with the republic. You can't sit on the fence in this war," declared Mamadou Koulibaly, the parliamentary speaker and a key figure in the ruling party. [Does that rhetoric sound familiar?]
But not everyone is cowed by the fanatacism.
"If you fail to come out in favour of one or the other political camp, and make impartial appeals for peace and the respect of the peace agreements, your organisation will be attacked. But we're ready to take on this risk because that's our choice," said Salimata Porquet, who heads a women's group. "We need to think Cote d'Ivoire first and not one group or the other, because the people who are being silenced and who are suffering from the troubles are the majority of the people. We are mothers and wives and we know what we're talking about."
One can only hope that the silent majority in Côte d'Ivoire no longer remains silent... and is actually a majority.
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