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| Laurent Gbagbo |
Dominant Social Theme: The removal of Laurent Gbagbo from the tiny Ivory Coast is a big victory for freedom everywhere.
Free-Market Analysis: In the modern age, with the power elite pressing hard for world government, it is sometimes difficult to note turning points, but the more we see of the tiny Ivory Coast affair the more we tend to believe this is another watershed moment. It is truly a big deal. Though we have covered this unfolding story with regular articles now, we believe it deserves additional coverage.
What is the underlying message? That the UN is evidently and obviously not just in charge of elections but of results as well. This presumably was necessary as Africa is about to be convulsed by no less than 30 top-level elections and the Western powers-that-be want to make sure that appropriate controls are in place so no unpleasant surprises (unexpected and anti-Western results) take place. No longer will the top powers refuse to act when one believes another is engaged in "abuses." Instead interference is the order of the day. We see in the results in the emergent agony of the Ivory Coast.
What has been engineered, in fact at the very least, is not merely a local coup but a pan-African one. The murderous results of the contented Ivory Coast election are a banner, a bloody flag that Western powers have planted in the tortured soil of sub-Saharan Africa. The UN and France have sent a message to all of Africa that the UN itself will not merely supervise elections but determine the winners. And if the winners are not amenable to Western interests, they will be thrown out, overthrown, forced to the sidelines. If they resist as Laurent Gbagbo did, they may be hauled into The Hague.
This is not idle speculation. The Western media ignores it, but a continental coup has just taken place. It is the direct result apparently of an "R2P" UN resolution that has changed the way the world's governments relate to one another. In 2005, while the West's confused populations concentrated mostly on buying and selling overpriced real estate, something of the utmost import took place: the UN's great powers engineered the overthrow of The Pact of Westphalia, a 400-year-old pact that had been the foundation of whatever peace was to had in this miserable world.
It is truly remarkable. People know the ins and outs of the scandalous behavior of their favorite movie stars and singers and the endless security measures implemented against imaginary terrorists, but they still do not know that one of several building blocks of Western civilizations has just been deliberately blasted away. While the Peace of Westphalia was never entirely effective – observed more in the breach than in fact – the results initially ended wars that had simmered in Europe for decades and presented the principal that the nation state itself was impregnable within its own boundaries. Not anymore.
Now we live with the results, a "new world order." In both the Ivory Coast and Libya, France has attacked with force using 2005's R2P as the rationale. If citizens are seen to be under threat by their governments, then those who run the UN (the Anglo-American elite and its Gallic ambit, to sure) have an affirmative obligation to respond in force. R2P is not merely a statement of modern civility and governmental responsibility – which is what it has been dressed up as – but a significant justification for violent, renewed neo-colonialism. It is truly another watershed moment for the world.
France under Nikolas Sarkozy has used R2P to great effect (if great effect is taken to mean the initiation of great violence). In Libya a war will simmer on infinitely as a result. In the Ivory Coast the results have been immediately horrific; millions are displaced and an elected government has been overthrown in what can only be described as a Western coup (not that the mainstream media would ever explain it that way).
Alassane Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund official will do what the nationalist Gbagbo will not; He will bring the Ivory Coast into the technocratic embrace of the larger military and economic superstructure that is being erected for Africa – which is destined to be the next China, a continent whose underpaid workers will busy themselves constructing trinkets that will be sold to the West. (Money shall flow to Africa and then back to America, as cowed African leaders purchase the Treasuries that in turn fund continued US's military adventurism abroad.)
Yet sometimes it is not that neat. Now the UN panics and France's military slips away from the crime scene. Sarkozy has hastily announced France is cutting its military presence in the Ivory Coast by half, to 900 or so troops and airlifting out (or otherwise removing) heavy military equipment such as tanks, big guns, etc. The UN, meanwhile has moved beyond calling for the removal of the "tyrant" Laurent Gbagbo (he was likely no such thing in the strict meaning of the word) to openly advocating the astonishing position of a government of joint-political interests. This was what Gbagbo himself had advocated for the last four months without success. Irony is piled atop of bloodletting.
No doubt the sudden change of heart stems from (Muslim) revenge killings sweeping the Ivory Coast that include reports of cold-blooded street side executions, machete-wielding exterminations, rape, torture and general mayhem in pro-Gbagbo Christian strongholds. Could it be said that the Anglo-American elites in their hypocritical insistence that they must act in such instances to prevent "another Rwanda" have now given rise to one – writ small but occurring nonetheless? Here's something from a Christian Network that is borne out by other reports from the area:
An Associated Press reporter witnessed Ouattara's troops beating a man for not giving them the right answers. The man turned up dead a few minutes later. Another reporter also saw pro-Ouattara soldiers pull five men from a minibus and drag them into some thick brush at a road block. A woman at the cathedral who was too scared to give her name said her neighbor, the headmaster of the Catholic primary school, was killed Monday night at his home because he belonged the wrong tribe.
"We have a very toxic and explosive mix here of political, ethnic, religious, and land rivalry," the priest said. "The recent tumultuous events have brought long-simmering conflicts to a head. Who knows where this will end." No one knows how many people have been killed. A week ago when the United Nations was reporting more than 400 deaths throughout the country, the International Federation of the Red Cross Society said thousands had been killed and wounded. The U.N. is launching an investigation. (-CBN)
Gbagbo, who fought for a decade to remove the Ivory Coast from France's grasp was supposed to go quietly. But "the baker" – who rolls people in flour and then pops them in the oven before they know it – would not concede to the evident high-handedness of UN "electoral supervision." He objected to being displaced and eventually was driven out of office by the combined might of UN and French forces.
Gbagbo had demanded a joint government along the lines of what had emerged in Kenya after the electoral violence in that country in 2008. In Kenya, the two main tribes that spilled blood as a result of close elections agreed to share power and the electoral crisis was finally resolved. Today of course The Hague has interfered and threatens to undermine the fragile truce by putting various Kenyans on trial for "crimes against humanity."
But in the Ivory Coast, Gbagbo wanted to use the Kenyan resolution as an example. He wanted to remain as president and Ouattara could presumably serve as the country's Prime Minister. The facts are seemingly not in dispute and the reality of what has occurred in the Ivory Coast is being reported mostly by African publications, though only in a somewhat patchy presentation. Here is an excerpt from something we found yesterday in Ghana's Joy Online News entitled: "Gbagbo's 'girl' screams: Release Gbagbo, he's still the president:"
A proponent of the discredited Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo, claims peace could return to Ivory Coast only if the international community prevails on his captors to free him. Nathalie Nyamba, a top business executive from Ivory Coast, maintained that Mr Gbagbo's life was under threat due to the maltreatment being meted out to him after his capture, insisting that "Mr Gbagbo is still the President of Ivory Coast."
"The way forward for me would be, first of all, Mr Gbagbo must be freed; Mr Gbagbo is in danger, he was mutilated, he was beaten up, his wife was beaten up, it was shown on TV, this is the president of Cote d'Ivoire and he must be freed. "Then the French army must leave Cote d'Ivoire and then we shall sit down and have a dialogue ... It is not a civil war, it is an electoral crisis, so lets deal with it," she argued on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Wednesday. Ms Nyamba described the circumstances under which Gbagbo was seized as a coup, contesting that the only way a president could be disposed would be through a constitutional means, insisting that it is the reason why his captors did not say he has been arrested.
The Joy article also sources a BBC report from Amnesty International that armed men in uniforms "were conducting house-to-house searches in Abidjan looking for Laurent Gbagbo's supporters." And Ms. Nyamba finally penetrates to the heart of the UN's electoral fraud when she "wondered why nobody raised an alarm when the [Ivory Coast] Constitutional Council announced a runoff after the general election failed to produce a winner, but, when this same body overturned the Electoral Commission's decision and declared Mr Gbagbo the winner of the runoff, the international community started crying foul."
According to Ms Nyamba, Gbagbo's determination to maintain power was "absolutely" right. Ouattara cannot hold himself out as the president because the Constitutional Council body has already declared Gbagbo as the president. The country's Electoral Commission that said Mr Ouattara won November's election – she pointed out – lacked credibility because it was fully packed with "90% supporters and men of Mr Ouattarra."
The results, illegitimate or not, surely haven't been pleasant for Gbagbo and his family. Gbagbo's wife was the subject just yesterday of a New Yorker article, which commented on the strangeness of a photograph that had been released of her. In the photo, no less than six armed, uniformed men surround
her. Her eyes are wide. Some of the soldiers hold her hair and braids, tipping her head back. Her clothes are well ripped and do not entirely cover her nakedness. The New Yorker commentary uses its trademark sophisticated language to imply – sorrowfully but resignedly – that she has possibly just been raped. Presumably if she were a more popular person there would be more of an outcry. Her husband, meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen, but there are dark rumors about his health and safety.An article posted by BNO news entitled "UN Security Council urges Côte d'Ivoire to form all-inclusive Government seems to recognize what is actually taking place. The illegitimacy of Gbagbo's overthrow remains, and the current UN position likely recognizes that fact. While barricaded in his presidential bunker, he remained cognizant of the law and as a history professor would not be pressured into signing a French-composed letter acknowledging that Ouattara was the legitimate president of the Ivory Coast. This was perhaps the incident that precipitated his removal by force. Here's more from the weird article featuring the UN's sudden reversal excerpted at the top of this analysis :
Critical challenges in Côte d'Ivoire following the surrender of recalcitrant former President Laurent Gbagbo, include restoration of order, prevention of further human rights abuses, national reconciliation and rebuilding and completion of the peace process," said Y. J. Choi, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General. Choi also remarked that despite all the challenges Ivoirians organized impressive elections, resolved the post-election crisis largely by themselves, and allowed the will of the people to prevail. The Special Representative called for national reconciliation and reconstruction as the ways for restoring peace and stability.
Choi, who is also the head of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI), assured the support of the international community for this transition. "Reconciliation will not be accomplished without meaningful accountability, which has been lacking in Côte d'Ivoire over the past decade," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. "To achieve peace and reconciliation, the cycle of impunity must be stopped, perpetrators must be brought to justice, and victims must be rehabilitated in their rights and dignity." UN aid officials have estimated that up to 1 million Ivorians have been displaced by the violence, with some internally displaced and others forced to flee into neighboring countries, particularly Liberia which is hosting 135,000 Ivorians.
It is the UN itself, with France's help, that has spawned this latest "genocide." Those who should be "brought to justice" surely are those who provided the fuel and lit the match. Instead, Gbagbo may face a Hague trial unless his nemesis Ouattara – who apparently while briefly in power a few years ago tortured him and his wife – is discouraged. Judging by the backpedaling the UN is doing now, various pressures will be brought on Ouattara to be at least a little less vengeful, at least cosmetically.
In the meantime, the larger message has been sent: The UN shall do as it pleases, ignore results that are not in line with Western interests and will even use overwhelming force when necessary to abrogate sovereign electoral results. We are no fans of regulatory democracy but what has taken place in the Ivory Coast is noteworthy. We highly doubt that Ouattara's "conciliation" will be effective. The results of this deliberate disaster will likely spawn yet another undeclared civil war between the Muslim North and the Christian South.
Was it necessary? The 21st century is not the 20th as we often point out and as France's hasty retreat from the Ivory Coast shows us. Given the prevalence of electronic communication and a rising knowledge of how Western powers actually operate, the new Pax-UN may not hold despite the passage of R2P. The warning has surely been sent to African leaders that they are to be obedient within the larger context. But the results are not clear cut; the UN overreached and may now regret at leisure. If Gbagbo is tried in an international court, he shall surely be gagged.
Conclusion: Gbagbo, reviled and beaten, his wife perhaps raped (both under UN protection not less), may yet emerge on the right side of history. The actions that have taken place in the little Ivory Coast may have big ramifications indeed, just not the ones the West expects.
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