Hidden from the news is France's adventurism in the Ivory Coast. Together with the UN, it seems things are pretty much a mess.
Channel New Asia reports:
Thousands of hardline supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo crowded into an Abidjan stadium demanding newly-arrived UN peacekeepers "liberate" Ivory Coast from rebels who still hold the north and west 19 months after an armed uprising.Parc Champroux stadium was filled with as many as 20,000 people, witnesses said, and ringed by Ivory Coast security and defense officials as well as guards attached to the "Young Patriots" who organized the rally.
Firebrand Young Patriots leader Charles Ble Goude said earlier this week the rally was a chance for his supporters "to tell the peacekeepers what we expect of them": the rapid and efficient disarmament of the rebel forces whose failed coup bid in September 2002 plunged the country into war.
If they refuse, he warned, "we will send them back where they came from."
But, it seems, not everyone likes President Laurent Gbagbo . According to this report from VOA:
Rebels in Ivory Coast have held a rally in the north, saying they no longer want contact with the government of President Laurent Gbagbo.In the rebel controlled northern city of Korhogo, drums and a crowd estimated by local reporters at about 10,000 people greeted the defiant rebel leader Guillaume Soro as he thanked all his supporters.
Mr. Soro said his rebel group has found diamonds and gold in the north to finance salaries for its fighters and provide basic services for civilians. He called for teachers, doctors, and business leaders to come back to the north, where he says the situation is stable.
Mr. Soro accused the government of trying to convince the northerners not to return home. Many people fled the fighting during the rebellion a year and a half ago.
The rebel leader also said rebels would set up a police force and border posts with neighboring countries. To conclude his speech, Mr. Soro took a defiant tone. He said the rebels will not rejoin the power-sharing government, will not disarm and will not accept elections in 2005 as long as Mr. Gbagbo is in power.
Ivorian opposition leaders were trying to meet with Mr. Soro in the rebel-controlled north, but decided not to travel after French soldiers turned down their request for an escort. They said they are still hoping to meet with Mr. Soro later in the week.
And there is apparently a French/Canadian journalist missing. A journalist who was critical of President Gbagbo, as this VOA report shows:
French authorities and press freedom groups have expressed increasing concern over a missing journalist in Ivory Coast who has dual French and Canadian citizenship. Journalists feel increasingly under threat in the West African country, which is divided by civil war....Mr. Kieffer was last seen April 16, a day he was scheduled to meet the brother-in-law of the president's wife. Since then, his car has not been found and his mobile phone has been shut off. No further information has been confirmed...
The missing journalist, Guy-Andre Kieffer, wrote articles that the president's supporters would not have liked. Among other topics, he wrote about corruption in the cocoa industry and about cross-border money laundering.
Mr. Kieffer, who was also a consultant in the cocoa industry, had close ties with several rebel leaders. He also wrote under false names for opposition media.
One of the publications that used his work was La Lettre du Continent, or The Continental Letter, an investigative newsletter. Its director, Antoine Glaser, said that he believes the Franco-Canadian journalist was kidnapped.
And it appears other journalists are in danger there as well:
...The militants view foreign journalists as favorable to rebels, who have controlled northern Ivory Coast since September 2002, seeking equal rights for northerners...A press-freedom advocate at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Julia Crawford, said that insecurity is growing among journalists in Ivory Coast.
"We are hearing more and more cases of journalists who have been receiving threats, either direct or indirect, indeed sometimes even through the press and many incidents of journalists who have been harassed or roughed up at demonstrations," she said. "So, it is extremely worrying. We are extremely concerned. The situation seems to be really chaotic."
Security forces warned one foreign journalist to stay away from a protest Sunday by militants close to President Gbagbo. Others were warned they could be killed.
An Ivorian journalist who was close to Mr. Kieffer said that his neighbors reported that three men came looking for him at his apartment last week, but that he had already been warned not to be there.
Last month, security forces stopped a team of journalists while they traveled to investigate an alleged mass grave. The security men said they had been ordered to shoot at the journalists' car.
At the Committee to Protect Journalists, Julia Crawford said that journalists have reason to fear in Ivory Coast.
"There are many rumors, there is a generalized atmosphere of fear," she added. "But nobody's quite sure how much in charge the authorities really are, whether they actually can do something, even if they want to."
In at least one case, the threats proved to be deadly. French radio journalist Jean Helene was shot down last October outside police headquarters by a police officer. The officer was sentenced to 17 years in jail for the killing, but militant supporters of President Gbagbo call him a hero.
Anyway, just thought you'd like to know.
