Ivory Coast wonders: Where's our UN intervention?

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Ivory Coast wonders: Where's our UN intervention?

President-elect Alassane Ouattara asked the United Nations this week to provide 'legitimate force' to protect civilians, but Ivory Coast is unlikely to receive the kind of international military intervention currently underway in Libya.

Dakar, Senegal

As gun, rocket, and mortar battles intensify in Ivory Coast's capital, Abidjan, functionaries in distant capitals have begun selecting more loaded vocabulary to describe the conflict: civil war, ethnic cleansing.

And given that more than 400 people have died and nearly 400,000 have fled since renegade President Laurent Gbagbo refused to step aside after losing the Nov. 28 election, the conflict is earning comparisons to what's happening in Libya.

On Monday, rightful President Alassane Ouattara asked the United Nations to provide "legitimate force" to protect civilians after a mortar attack last week killed at least 25 people. But West Africa security specialists say Ivory Coast is hardly set to receive the kind of international military push currently underway in Libya.

"I don't think a Libya-style intervention is likely in Ivory Coast in the near term," says Anne Fruhauf, analyst for the New York-based Eurasia Group risk monitoring organization.

It once seemed possible.

In a bolder, early chapter of the Ivory Coast power struggle, all 15 nations in West Africa's economic union swore to stage a military intervention if that's what it took to dislodge incumbent Mr. Gbagbo from the presidential palace he's yet to leave.

Yet today, with two of the bloc's more hawkish governments, those of Nigeria and Senegal, heading into their own elections, such swift action looks increasingly unlikely.

Meanwhile, the United States Department of State has ruled out the option.

"The United States feels this is kind of France's stomping grounds, and France feels it needs to tread extremely carefully because of its legacy as the colonial oppressor and Gbagbo's ability to play that to his advantage," says Ms. Fruhauf. "At the moment, the feeling on the ground in Abidjan is that this is going to be fought out locally."

It already is. In the past week alone, Gbagbo troops have shelled markets and publicly armed thousands of civilians.

The UN mission there is increasingly powerless to stem the violence. Gbagbo supporters have blocked the movement of UN peacekeepers, and burned their cars. UN personel now circumnavigate the city in unmarked vehicles.

Gbagbo himself has demanded the departure of the UN, and once threatened to shoot down any UN aircraft hovering above the country a reverse no-fly zone, if you will.

Meanwhile, the killing continues.

"[The UN] is not really making their presence felt. They're not able to prevent assaults on civilians even within the vicinity of their own compound," Fruhauf says. "They're really caght between a rock and a hard place."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0323/Ivory-Coast-wonders-Where-s-our-UN-intervention

Edited March 24, 2011 by JohnSmith2007

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

most important - do they have oil? if not, fat chance.

[JohnSmith2007 353]

most important - do they have oil? if not, fat chance.

Pretty much sums that up.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The Ivory Coast is an oil producing country - They have natural gas too.

[JohnSmith2007 353]

The Ivory Coast is an oil producing country - They have natural gas too.

Not enough to warrant our attention it seems.

The West African state of Ivory Coast is known more as an oil refining country rather than as an oil producing one. While it does not have the prolific offshore oil fields of Nigeria, it does possess a modest upstream oil industry.

http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/af/ci/p0005.htm

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The UK government was up for intervening there as recently as December

[JohnSmith2007 353]

The UK government was up for intervening there as recently as December

So why did we choose Libya instead?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

The Ivory Coast is an oil producing country - They have natural gas too.

Ivory Coast: 56K bbl/day

Libya: 1.79MM bbl/day

Questions?

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Ivory Coast: 56K bbl/day

Libya: 1.79MM bbl/day

Questions?

None from me.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

So why did we choose Libya instead?

At a guess, most likely because of sweeping political instability across the middle east. Someone decided it was a higher priority.

[lostinblue 1,989]

At a guess, most likely because of sweeping political instability across the middle east. Someone decided it was a higher priority.

So North Korea should be next?. Talk about political instability across SE asia.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Should it? I have no idea, do you?

[mawilson 2,133]

Ivory Coast: 56K bbl/day

Libya: 1.79MM bbl/day

Questions?

Nope

[Zero Sum 305]

Really is sad when excuses are used instead of the truth. Otherwise, [take your pick of administration] we could have seen more proactive humanitarian action (by the US, since many here seem to confuse US involvement in coalitions with unilateralism) in Sudan, Rwanda, East Timor, etc.