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GUARDIAN BLOG - No Blood for Cocoa?
A unilateral invasion without the permission of the United Nations. Thousands of civilian deaths. Mass graves uncovered. A foreign power imposing its will on a xenophobic, restless, resentful populace. Massive protests against the meddling foreigners in the streets. More troops pouring in, desperately trying to keep order and failing. Widespread fear of a quagmire. Whole segments of the population begging President Bush to help them expel the hated French invaders...
Hang on... what was that last part again?
On 19 September 2002, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) erupted into civil war. Two separate rebel factions fought each other and the government for control of the African nation, which produces about 43% of the world's cocoa. Both the Popular Ivorian Movement for the Far West (MPIGO) and the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) attempted to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo, taking control of the largely Muslim northern part of the country. At least one of the rebel groups (MCPI) may have ties to the neighboring country of Burkina Faso. The rebels claim to be loyal to the country's former leader, General Robert Guei, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but lost power in elections in 2001. He died on the first day of fighting, but the various insurrections continued. A few hundred French paratroopers entered the country to protect the 19,000 French nationals living there, but soon found themselves battling the rebels. American Special Forces landed as well, but only to evacuate American students from the country. Over 1,000 French troops set up a "buffer zone" to divide the country in half in October 2002, but it had little effect. French troops put down protesters with tear-gas as they chanted "Down with France" and "Chirac the enslaver."
A third major rebel group emerged by January 2003 -- the Movement for Peace and Justice (MJP). They absorbed MPIGO, but continued the fighting. The other main group, the MCPI, signed a cease-fire with the Ivorian government. With the emergence of new rebel groups and political parties, the fractured nation had over ten sides to the war by that time. The French government drew up a peace plan that divided the Ivorian President's power. It created a new cabinet, which would draw members from various opposition parties and rebel groups, and declared that Gbagbo may not run for office again. When Gbagbo and the leaders of several groups signed the plan, the populace erupted in protest against the French. Carrying signs declaring "Chirac is a terrorist" and declaring that "he is killing democracy in Ivory Coast" while begging the US to help expel the French troops, over 100,000 Ivorians marched for four days in the nation's capitol. They even bombed the French Embassy in Abidjan. President Gbagbo declared the plan he signed to be "null and void."
Finally, in February 2003, the United Nations quietly passed a resolution agreeing to the deployment of the French troops that had been there for five months already. Remember the huge outcry by American Liberals against the French unilateral invasion? Don't feel badly -- neither do I. By March 2003, there were over 3,000 French troops attempting to put down the rebellion and protect the peace treaty, to no avail. France continued to send troops, and by July 2003, a shaky peace was declared, protected by the 4,000 French troops in the country by then. But the protests, if not the fighting, continued.
After Ivorian security forces fired on protesters in March 2004, the rebel groups and the main opposition party withdrew from the government in protest themselves, but rejoined the government after two days of talks. 6,000 UN peacekeeping troops were deployed.The country has been relatively quiet since, except for the discovery of mass graves as fighting between rebel factions continues. Now the virulently anti-French protests continue amid escalating violence in Cote d'Ivoire. French troops fought Ivorian soldiers and angry mobs alike, after Ivorian planes killed 9 French soldiers and one American. The French retaliated by destroying the Ivorian planes and helicopters.
Mob violence erupted in Ivory Coast's national commercial capital, Abidjan, upon France's retaliation, sending thousands of angry loyalists armed with machetes, axes and clubs out into the streets in fiery rampages in search of French targets.
"French go home!" loyalist mobs shouted, as thousands set fire to at least two French schools and tried to storm a French military base, seeking out French civilians as French and Ivory Coast forces briefly traded gunfire.
"Everybody get your Frenchman!" young men screamed to each other, swinging machetes.
How long will it be, I wonder, before the French ask for our help? What should we tell them? Should we say that our own troops are busy fighting in Iraq -- you remember, the place you refused to send troops when we asked for help? Should we remind them that the last time they got in over their heads and asked for American aid was in a place called Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and we'd rather not repeat history? The French loss at Dien Bien Phu led to Vietnam being split in two, and America, having already become invested in the outcome, was almost inexorably drawn into the conflict between North and South. Will we turn our backs on the French in Cote d'Iviore as they continue to do in Iraq, even after the emergence of a democratic government? Jacques Chirac is still trying to cause trouble by snubbing Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Chirac skipped out on greeting him in Brussels to visit dying terrorist Yasser Arafat.
The question is, can we turn our backs on the Ivorians if they need our help? On the other hand, can we deal with more anti-war protesters in the streets of New York, this time chanting "No Blood For Cocoa?"
"Molon labe".
Leonidas, King of Sparta,
Thermopylae, 480 B.C.
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