----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian Murray" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> http://www.latimes.com > Oil Boom Enriches African Ruler > While the people of Equatorial Guinea live on a dollar a day, sources > say their leader controls more than $300 million in a Washington bank. > By Ken Silverstein > Times Staff Writer ======================= A lose-lose battle One of Africa's wealthiest countries, Ivory Coast, is on the brink of a civil war that could create mayhem in the whole region James Astill Tuesday January 21, 2003 The Guardian Ivory Coast's government and three rebel groups began talks in Paris last week to try to avert the threat of civil war. Yet to most observers the war had already begun. Four months ago, Ivory Coast was sub-Saharan Africa's fourth richest country. Now rebels control over half the nation, a million Ivoireans have fled their homes, and hundreds - probably thousands - are dead. Without far greater international attention, Ivory Coast could share the fate of its neighbours, Sierra Leone - which witnessed mass rape and mutilation, half the country depopulated, and a generation of children schooled on drugs and guns - and Liberia, which saw scores of local massacres. For a decade, Ivory Coast's rulers have been stirring ethnic hatred to rally their supporters. Henri Konan Bedi� - who became president in 1993 - started the rot by introducing a policy of "Ivoirit�" to strip the migrants - mostly Muslims and northerners, including many resident in Ivory Coast for generations - of property and voting rights. The incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, won a violent election in 2001 from which 14 of the initial 17 candidates were barred on ethnic grounds. Mr Gbagbo's gendarmes now harass everyone apart from his own B�t� people. "Ivoirit�," says one commentator, "now refers exclusively to the president's tribe." In September, Muslim soldiers mutinied in the north, forming the MPCI (see map). Thousands of well-armed men of the same ethnic group swarmed across from neighbouring Burkina Faso - though whether they were returning exiles or invading foreigners remains unclear. Only the intervention of 2,500 French troops stopped them sweeping to Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial capital. In November, two more rebel groups emerged in the west - the MJP and the MPIGO. They included thousands of well-trained fighters of the same ethnic group from next-door Liberia, and - it is strongly rumoured - former rebels from Sierra Leone. The probable hand of Liberia's president, Charles Taylor, in this is a disaster for Ivory Coast. He was the architect of Liberia's civil war and the sponsor of Sierra Leone's vicious rebels. Where Ivory Coast's northern rebels have been reasonably well-behaved - mostly killing only enemy troops - the western rebels stand accused of raping and murdering civilians. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has warned they could spread mayhem around the region, rekindling war in Sierra Leone. Last week, as the delegates arrived for the peace talks at France's national rugby training centre, they were urged to "score a try for Africa". Yet the prospects for peace look feeble. Mr Gbagbo refused to go to the talks at the last minute - perhaps so he can reject whatever agreements wrung out of his representatives. While it remains unclear who commands the rebels, they are at least united in wanting to see the back of Mr Gbagbo and, they say, fresh elections. But Mr Gbagbo is offering them nothing but a general amnesty. Meanwhile, France is pushing for new citizenship laws and a government of unity, probably retaining Mr Gbagbo as its figurehead. But even if it can bludgeon this through, Ivory Coast seems to have no leaders able to end the crisis. This puts France in an uncomfortable position. It cannot abandon Ivory Coast because of its massive economic interest and its 25,000 citizens there. But the alternative is to be stuck in the middle of a lengthy shootout, and to invite accusations of neo-colonialism. Whereas, for example, Britain's intervention in Sierra Leone was based on support for a democratically elected government against a nihilistic rebel movement, France doesn't know who to back. It is disillusioned with Mr Gbagbo, but reluctant to side with the rebels. France will not be able to pass the buck to the UN, after America rejected a French plea for peacekeepers last month. With a war on Iraq looming, and the Democratic Republic of Congo's UN mission proving ineffectual and expensive, Washington is reluctant to foot another peacekeeping bill in Africa. Instead, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has agreed to send 2,500 troops - including a first batch of 200 Senegalese who arrived on Sunday. Yet Ecowas has a poor reputation for peacekeeping, after two botched Nigerian missions to Liberia and Sierra Leone. And according to the thinktank International Crisis Group no less than 17,500 peacekeepers - the number deployed in Sierra Leone - are required. For years France has dismissed the concerns of other donors and pumped Ivory Coast with cash. A year ago in Abidjan - shortly after the arrival of the latest French loan of 400m euros - a French ambassador was mocking Britain's reservations about Mr Gbagbo. "You have to be realistic in Africa," he said. "You see the glass half-empty; we choose to see it half-full." With Ivory Coast at war now, the region's security under threat and Nepad - the African economic recovery plan that it should have led - presumably bound for the scrapheap, it is difficult to see any positive side. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
