Alassane Ouattara Archives - Page 2 of 2

February 22, 2011

Amnesty Reports on Ivory Coast Abuses

Selah Hennessy, VOA

Human rights abuses have been committed by forces loyal to the incumbent leader of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo and by forces loyal to his rival Alassane Ouattara, an Amnesty International investigation reported Tuesday.

Gaetan Mootoo is one of the Amnesty researchers who went to Ivory Coast to investigate human rights abuses there. The team stayed for four weeks. “Human rights violations are being committed by both the security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo and by the Forces Nouvelles, an armed opposition group which is supporting Alassane Ouattara,” Mootoo said.

Alassane Ouattara is internationally recognized as the winner of the November election but Laurent Gbagbo, who has been president since the year 2000, is refusing to step down.

The Amnesty research has found that forces loyal to Mr. Gbagbo have committed extrajudicial executions, rape, and used excessive force. Amnesty says a number of people have also disappeared after being arrested.

But Amnesty says the Forces Nouvelles, former rebels loyal to Mr. Outtara, have also been responsible for abuses.

Mootoo says they received credible testimonies of rape, arbitrary detention, and ill treatment by members of the Forces Nouvelles in the western region it controls. He says African leaders who arrived in Ivory Coast Monday in order to try to mediate the situation need to address violations on both sides of the political divide.

“What we would like the African Union to do is to put Human Rights on the agenda of both parties so that they are aware of what is happening in that country,” Mootoo said.

Rinaldo Depagne is a senior West Africa analyst with the International Crisis Group. He’s based in Dakar, Senegal. He says Amnesty International should make a clear distinction between abuses carried out by either side. “It’s very important to highlight the abuse on both sides,” he said. “But it is also very important not to put them in the current circumstances on the same level because they are not.”

He says Mr. Gbagbo is carrying out what he calls a “real strategy of terror”. On Monday Ivorian troops broke up demonstrations calling for Mr. Gbagbo to step down – according to witnesses several people were killed.

Depagne says the situation in the West is specific to that region. Human Rights Groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch, say the far western regions of Ivory Coast are characterized by a breakdown of the rule of law and that assaults, rapes, and robbery are regularly carried out with impunity.

February 9, 2011

Gbagbo Adviser: AU Investigation of Ivorian Crisis Welcomed

Peter Clottey, VOA

A special adviser to embattled Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo said the arrival of African Union (AU) experts to investigate and find ways to resolve the crisis shows, in his words, an indictment and failure of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to end the political impasse.

Ambassador Yao Gnamien, who is in New York to seek support for his administration, told VOA Mr. Gbagbo is gaining support among African leaders about finding solutions to the Ivorian crisis.

“The presence of the AU experts is very important for our country because, at the beginning, President Gbagbo was calling for this investigation, because the so-called international community sanctioned President Gbagbo without proving that he is guilty,” said Gnamien.

“The stay in Cote d’Ivoire of the (AU) experts will tell all the world what was going on in Cote d’Ivoire after the (November) election, and then we will see whether the president was guilty or not.”

His comments came after James Victor Gbeho, president of the ECOWAS commission, said South Africa is undermining efforts to resolve the Ivory Coast political crisis. Mr. Gbeho criticized South Africa’s decision to deploy a Navy frigate to Ivory Coast. He said such actions “can only complicate” the situation.

But, South African officials say the frigate is a support vessel with no military purpose, which could be used as a neutral site for negotiating.
South Africa is part of an AU mediation team given the task of resolving the Ivorian political impasse.

Gbeho accused South Africa of pushing the two sides to negotiate a solution because of its own interests instead of demanding that Mr. Gbagbo cede power.

President Gbagbo is refusing to cede power to rival, President-elect Alassane Ouattara, who most countries recognize as the winner of the November presidential election.

Gnamien said that the outcome of the investigation has to conform to the Ivorian constitution, which he said is the “supreme law of the land.”

“If the AU came to Cote d’Ivoire, it was because of the failure of the ECOWAS. ECOWAS failed to solve the problem. How can they sanction President Gbagbo without listening to him? They were accusing President Gbagbo because they were thinking that President Gbagbo has not been elected,” said Gnamien.

“Instead of saying that, they (ECOWAS) should have investigated first and, after the investigation, then they can make a sound decision. They didn’t do this. And what is now clear is that none of them has sent a message of congratulations to Prime Minister Ouattara.”

January 25, 2011

ECOWAS to Meet Obama and UN Chief on Ivory Coast Crisis

A Nigerian foreign minister has said that An ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) delegation will meet U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week to discuss the Ivory Coast crisis.

“The delegation is led by President (Ernest Bai) Koroma of Sierra Leone and comprises the president of the ECOWAS Commission, James Victor Gbeho, myself and our ambassador in Washington,” Odein Ajumogobia told Reuters on Tuesday.

The ECOWAS delegation is set to meet Obama in Washington on Wednesday before heading to the United Nations in New York to meet Ban and Security Council members on Thursday.

The incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, is locked in a power struggle with rival Alassane Ouattara, who was declared winner of a November 28 election by United Nations-certified results before they were overturned by a pro-Gbagbo legal body, which alleged fraud.

ECOWAS has threatened to use force to remove Gbagbo.

January 18, 2011January 18, 2011

Côte d’Ivoire: Gbagbo Loyalists Open fire towards UN security patrol

18 January 2011 –Forces loyal to former president of Côte d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to step down despite his defeat in November’s elections, opened fire last night towards United Nations peacekeepers in charge of security for a top African Union (AU) emissary, according to the UN peacekeeping mission in the country.

Deploring the repeated acts of aggression against its patrols, the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) reported today that its security forces stationed at the Pullman Hotel were waiting for the arrival of the AU Emissary, Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was escorted by a UNOCI patrol, when a group of young people from the Gbagbo camp encircled them.

“The armed elements, which were supporting them, opened fire in the direction of the UNOCI vehicles forcing the peacekeepers to respond by shooting in the air,” the mission said in a press statement.

It stressed that the version of events given by Ivorian state television, under Mr. Gbagbo’s control, was not based on fact.

“It was in fact part of an ongoing campaign whose objective is to incite hatred among President Gbagbo’s supporters against UNOCI,” it said in the statement, adding, “UNOCI reiterates its appeal for calm and serenity to ensure a favourable environment to find a solution to the current post-electoral crisis.”

The nearly 9,000-strong peacekeeping operation has been supporting efforts over the past seven years to reunify a country split by a civil war in 2002 into a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.

November’s run-off election was meant to be a culminating point in this process; and the UN, the AU, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and many countries recognized opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the clear victor. But Mr. Gbagbo rejected the outcome of the poll, refused to step down and demanded UNOCI’s withdrawal – which the UN has rejected.

The resulting turmoil has displaced tens of thousands of people, mainly in the west of the country where the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is strengthening its presence to cope with the crisis.

UNHCR teams have been deployed in the towns of Man and Danané to register internally displaced people (IDPs) and monitor their protection needs. More than 18,000 people are believed to be in this area.

The UN refugee agency “is particularly concerned about conditions at the Catholic mission in the town of Duékoué, where some 13,000 people have sought shelter,” the agency said in a statement today. “The church compound there does not have the sanitation facilities to cope with the numbers, garbage is accumulating, and the risks of disease are growing.”

Meanwhile in eastern Liberia, where some 30,000 refugees have fled from Côte d’Ivoire, work is under way on the construction of a new camp in the town of Bahn but the difficult jungle conditions have made this slower going than anticipated, UNHCR reported. Two bulldozers have been brought in from Sierra Leone to speed up the clearing of land, which until now has been done by hand. UNHCR estimates that some 600 Ivorians are crossing the border into Liberia each day.

In Geneva, humanitarian agencies with a presence in West Africa today launched a $32.7 million regional emergency plan in order to be prepared for humanitarian needs that could arise due to Côte d’Ivoire’s political crisis. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that two millions Ivorians – including 100,000 refugees and 450,000 IDPs – could be affected if a major humanitarian crisis develops.

The six-month appeal aims to allow UN agencies and non-governmental organizations to secure funds that would be used to provide a timely and effective humanitarian aid in Côte d’Ivoire and in the neighbouring countries of Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana in vital sectors. The aid will include support for protection, health, water and sanitation, education, food and nutrition. The funds will also help assist those already affected by the ongoing crisis.

In a statement today, OCHA said that the current crisis is already affecting lives and livelihoods of both the displaced and host communities. Displaced children are unable to attend school and families have lost their sources of income. Humanitarian aid workers also estimate that as many as 420,000 nationals of neighboring countries currently living in Côte d’Ivoire could return to their countries of origin and require assistance, notably in transit camps, should the situation further deteriorate.

December 15, 2010January 6, 2011

Cote d’Ivoire: Several die in clashes between protesters and security forces

Solomon Aben

Several people died on Thursday when demonstrators calling for President Laurent Gbagbo to step down clashed with security forces in Cote d’Ivoire’s commercial capital, Abidjan, reports said. Reports put the number of dead between four and 20. Journalists reported seeing four bodies in Abidjan, while a spokeswoman for Gbagbo said 10 protesters and 10 members of the security forces had died.

It was unclear if those casualties were in Abidjan or other parts of the country as well. The BBC said clashes had erupted between Rebel New Forces fighters and troops backing Gbagbo near the town of Tiebissou, just south of the ceasefire line agreed in 2003 to end the country’s brief civil war.

Alassane Ouattara, the man that the international community says won last month’s run-off vote in Cote d’Ivoire’s long-delayed presidential election, had called on protesters to take to the streets on Thursday to protest Gbagbo. Gunfire was heard from many parts of the city as demonstrators attempted to make their way to the state-run television downtown. Gbagbo has been using state-run media to spread his claim of legitimacy.

He says the elections were fraudulent, and both he and Ouattara have established rival governments.

Ouattara is holed up at the luxury Golf Hotel in Abidjan’s east and is protected by United Nations peacekeepers. Troops loyal to Gbagbo have positioned themselves outside the hotel.

allAfrica.com

December 13, 2010December 14, 2010

Gbagbo; Another ugly face for Africa

E. Ablorh-Odjidja (pubhisher, ghana.com)

There was a presidential election in Cote d’Ivoire in December 2010, as required by the peace agreement after the civil war of 2002/2003. The arrangement allowed the then incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo to stretch his hold on power.

He has been in power for ten years and just lost the 2010 presidential election to his rival, Mr. Alassane Ouattara.

Mr. Laurent Gbagbo, however, refuses to leave office, citing a supposed vote rigging by his rival in the northern half of the country as his reason.

The UN has declared Gbagbo the loser after the vote count. Major European countries have backed the UN’s decision.

ECOWAS, the West African regional economic group, has given the nod to Gbagbo’s rival Ouattara as the winner and president elect.

At a meeting held in Abuja on December 7, ECOWAS members went a step further to suspend Cote d’Ivoire from the group because of Gbagbo’s refusal to step down.

The United States and the European Union are considering other sanctions should Gbagbo continue his grip on the presidency.

So far, the situation looks ominous with Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to back down. Not surprising, he is being encouraged by none other than Russia, the old nemesis of the West in the cold war days.

The BBC quotes diplomats who say “Russia is blocking a Security Council statement endorsing Ivory Coast opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara as president” because Russia claims the UN has no mandate on the issue, notwithstanding the fact that the Russians are aware of the peace agreement that gave the UN the right to supervise affairs in the Ivory Coast election.

Gbagbo knows that Russia’s stance at the UN can easily re-ignite the Ivorian conflict. With America supporting President-elect Ouattara, chances are that the West African region may erupt into a super-power rivalry that will be costly. But because of personal ambition, Gbagbo is blind to this possible outcome.

Why Russia doesn’t understand the UN position on the matter should not be a mystery. Rather, it should be understood as a classy case of mischief making at the expense of the Cote d’Ivoire and West Africa.

This same Russia that hamstrung the US in the UN on matters leading to the Iraq war is at it again; this time, in another part of the world; all in the name of ideological and super-power struggle.

So the Civil War, as part of Cote d’Ivoire’s history, may rear its ugly head again. But not to blame the Russians, there is no reason why they should love Africa, much less Cote d’Ivoire.

The blame must go to Gbagbo who should know better to help the Cote d’Ivoire come out of this chaotic situation.

For the Russians this much can be said: the messier the situations in Cote d’Ivoire, the better the chances are to turn her into a client state.

But the same cannot be said for ex- President Laurent Gbagbo, a citizen of Cote d’Ivoire and the man with the insatiable ambition.

Ten years in office as president is a lot for most, except leaders in the Third World. And given the odds, the remainder of Gbagbo’s Ivorian generation, within that same time frame, can never constitutionally arise to the presidency because he is in power.

How does one account for the loss of potential leaders if one were to allow an incompetent like Gbagbo to straddle his rule to two or more generations?

Amazing and cruel as it is, the above is lost on Gbagbo. For his personal ambition, the whole of Cote d’Ivoire and generations of citizens after him may likely come to ruin.

Instead of looking at the looming danger ahead, Gbagbo has insolently named himself the president of Cote d’Ivoire even though he lost the 2010 election.