Once again, African civilians are paying a heavy price for their
politicians' malpractice and turpitudes--this time around, in Abidjan,
Côte d'Ivoire (photo above).
Yesterday, northern politicians Alassane Draman Ouattara (recognized
by the international community as the president-elect) and his
PM-designate Guillaume Soro sent their "unarmed" supporters in the
streets to attempt and seize the buildings of the national television
station and of key ministries still being held by the "illegitimate"
regime of southern politicians led by Laurent Gbagbo who has total
military control of the south of the country.
The death toll was quite staggering: 30 dead demonstrators and bystanders.
And northern politicians were urging their supporters for yet renewed
attempts at takeover of the state-controlled television station and
ministries today! Fortunately, according to news reports, northern
demonstrators couldn't spill in the streets as the capital city is
sealed off by security forces...
The scheme of northern leaders is quite simple, as their spokesman
revealed last evening: with a mounting death toll of civilians in the
streets of Abidjan, the UN Security Council would be forced to change
the mandate of UN peacekeepers to allow them to attack the Ivorian
army in order to effect a violent regime change! A macabre
calculation...
Firing at unarmed civilians is no doubt a horrendous state crime, but
instrumentalizing them and using them as cannon fodder or human shield
are likewise criminal acts. While Ouattara and Soro are sending people
to the slaughter, they are themselves holed up in the luxurious
precinct of Hôtel du Golfe under the protection of a 900-strong
heavily armed UN peacekeeping contingent and armed rebel militiamen of
northern Force Nouvelles (some of whom were seen by witnesses firing
at Ivorian security forces from the crowd of demonstrators--btw, the
very presence of armed Forces Nouvelles militiamen in Abidjan speaks
volumes about UN-brokered peace deals). How cowardly...
2. French Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde on Julian Assange
Asked in a TV interview with Canal+ to choose between Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, French Minister
of Economy Christine Lagarde said yesterday:
"That's difficult because they are really interesting characters, both
are determined to support freedom of expression which is in my view
one of the fundamental liberties.
I'm not cautioning everything he's done, but I think that at the core
of his action there is freedom of expression with its consequences
[succédanés] and its drawbacks."
Lagarde's position is at odds with the stances taken by 1) her own
boss, PM François Fillon, who said that WikiLeaks at the minimum
broke the law for "theft" and for "receiving and concealing stolen
goods," and 2) Éric Besson, Minister of e-Economy [Économie
digitale]--whose portfolio I misidentified in a previous post as
Industry--who is still exploring legal ways of barring French servers
from hosting WikiLeaks. In fact, Besson's position has just become
tenuous as the powerful media group "Libération" has decided to host a
mirror site of WikiLeaks.
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