French troops arrive in Ivory Coast

[gopsdragon]

As France blocks attempts to prevent a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and blames the US for not giving peace a chance, today they took military action in an old colony. The world can't protect itself from madmen, but nobody should stand in the way of France's lingering colonialism.

Foreigners Quit Ivory Coast, France Sends Gendarmes - France rushed paramilitary gendarmes to Ivory Coast on Thursday to protect its citizens as hundreds of Westerners tried to leave, fearing more violence over a shaky peace deal which has triggered anti-French riots.

Rioting has rattled the main city Abidjan this week in some of the worst violence since a failed coup that triggered the war in the world's top cocoa producer on September 19. Streets were calm and most shops reopened on Thursday.

Protesters, who stoned the French embassy and military base and smashed up French businesses, accuse the former colonial power of forcing President Laurent Gbagbo into giving too much to rebels holding half the country in return for peace.

"The house next door was burned down on Sunday night," said Frenchman Jean-Michel Seuner of Renault, helping his family to the airport. "The situation is disturbing. Our company asked us to send out women and children."

Only two of the car firm's 14 expatriates are staying on.

A French government spokesman said 130 paramilitary gendarmes would arrive in Abidjan by Thursday to help protect its citizens, in addition to the existing French force that is also trying to stop civil war spiraling out of control.

The first Air France flight for five days on Thursday was packed. The airline said a bigger plane would operate from Friday. Big firms have chartered their own planes to get expatriates and their families out of the West African country.

Adding to unease among the thousands of Europeans in the Abidjan came news a Spanish diplomat was attacked overnight by youths who followed him home. Authorities have urged protesters to stop assaults on foreigners.

FRANCE READY TO EVACUATE CITIZENS

The departure of foreigners is already forcing some of Ivory Coast's most important businesses to close -- including plants processing the country's precious cocoa crop.

The whole country is on edge waiting for Gbagbo to say what will be the next step after the peace deal agreed near Paris at the weekend to end a war that has left hundreds dead and displaced more than one million.

Traditional chiefs have joined the army and several political parties in opposing the deal.

In Paris, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the accord had been agreed by Gbagbo and all Ivorian political forces.

"Everyone in Ivory Coast must face up to their responsibilities," Villepin told the French Senate.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said Seydou Diarra, the new prime minister designated by Gbagbo in Paris, would return to Ivory Coast on Friday to form the new government.

Rebels have said there is no way they will renegotiate the deal. France and the United Nations have also urged Gbagbo to push it through and not go back on his word.

But West African countries whose leaders gathered in Senegal for their annual summit appeared to take a softer line.

"The fundamentals are there, but on the details we need to see what we can do to help all the Ivorian parties to be able to work together," said Mohamed ibn Chambas, the top official of the Economic Community of West African States.

By Daniel Balint-Kurti
ABIDJAN (Reuters) -
Thu January 30, 2003 12:43 PM ET

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=IOGNYUG0UU1QWCRBAELCF FA?type=worldNews&storyID=2142295

[JBMoney]

War... what is it good for? :(

[Pistol Pete]

Originally posted by JBMoney
War... what is it good for? :(

Getting our way. Piss on the rest of those bastards. They've had 4 million years to make the planet livable and have always screwed it up. This is our time, our place, and our ability to take whatever we want. What are they gonna do, throw cheeze at us?

Rant :)

[gopsdragon]

Originally posted by Pistol Pete
What are they gonna do, throw cheeze at us?

Rant :)

They said, "Go away, pig dog. Or we shall taunt you a second time!!"

[Pistol Pete]

NEE NEE!

[JBMoney]

Originally posted by Pistol Pete
They've had 4 million years to make the planet livable and have always screwed it up.

The French have been around for 4 million years. Damn, that is impressive. :what:

[evereno]

Let's not get bent out of shape over the French desire to protect their personal interests over everything else. Which is why we should understand their pro-Iraq stance. It is in their economic interest to support Iraq, because of their desire to maintain their oil contracts.

Besides what do expect from a nation that fought for their independence by murdering the aristocracy and immediately giving power to a dictator.

[JBMoney]

Originally posted by evereno
It is in their economic interest to support Iraq, because of their desire to maintain their oil contracts.

Exactly! France and Germany are financing and making money off of Saddam's pursuit of WMD, in additon to oil deals. That's why they were nervous about Iraq's "declaration" and why they don't want anybody going in there to bust up their card game.

[evereno]

You see what happens when you let the French broker the peace!!!

Angry Mobs, Chaos as French Civilians Try to Flee Ivory Coast (01-31-03) - Heavily armed French forces in armored vehicles and helicopters took control of Ivory Coast's international airport Friday, after thousands of rock-throwing demonstrators attacked fleeing French citizens.

Members of the mob — angry over concessions in a a French-brokered peace deal for the West African nation — had invaded the airport, storming the tarmac and taunting French passengers trying to escape the troubled former French colony.

At least two French soldiers were injured by rocks, one seriously, French military spokesman Lt. Col. Philippe Perret said. Rioters terrorized passengers, stealing suitcases and handbags, Perret said.

"Go home and don't come back!" the protesters screamed at families as they grabbed their bags and rushed into the airport.

The airport clash follows days of often-violent protests by government loyalists. Government supporters are angry over a peace deal closed Jan. 24 in Paris that they say yields too much power to Ivory Coast's rebels, who have seized more than half the country in a 4-month-old civil war.

France urged its citizens to get out, recommending in a new message posted on the French Foreign Ministry's web site that "French people whose presence isn't indispensable leave the country." The United States, Britain and others recommended the same for their citizens months ago.

About 5,000 protesters massed at the airport by midmorning, and numbers of them held the tarmac for about 45 minutes.

The chaos prevented some passengers from boarding flights, while others were trapped inside planes and in the departure hall of the airport.

At the peak, Ivorian paramilitary troops and police sought to convince the whistle-blowing protesters — mostly young men dressed in the orange, green and white colors of the West African nation's flag — to leave.

Minutes later, four French military helicopters touched down on the tarmac and soldiers spilled out, rushing to secure the area as several demonstrators set a French flag on fire.

French forces in a dozen armored vehicles mounted with cannon took up posts on the airport perimeter and the main airport road.

Ivorian troops and the French together appeared to restore some order at the airport, although all but one airline suspended flights, and demonstrators remained out in force.

Militant youths continued to harass vehicles traveling to and from the airport.

Ivorian Defense Minister Bertin Kadet arrived at the airport at late morning, and sought to calm the crowd.

"I have asked the French military to evacuate the area in order to pacify the crowd," Kadet told the protesters.

He charged that the sight of such French military force only heightened the mob's anger.

The French forces, however, showed no sign of leaving.

"One thing is sure, we'll be at the airport as long as French nationals are there," French Commander Frederic Thomazo said.

"The Ivorian military is unable to provide liberty of movement," French army spokesman Perret said. "This is unacceptable."

The demonstration broke out early Friday morning to protest the scheduled arrival of Ivorian Seydou Diarra, slated to be the new prime minister under the now-threatened peace deal.

Demonstrators declared that they'd gathered to "keep Diarra from touching Ivory Coast soil."

Diarra at midday remained in Dakar, Senegal, where West African leaders gathered to search for resolution to the crisis in Ivory Coast.

Representatives of Ivory Coast's northern-based rebels also joined the talks.

Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa exporter, was once a stable African powerhouse. A 1999 military coup, its first-ever, ended decades of stability. Ethnic and political violence culminated in another coup attempt in September and subsequent civil war.

Rebels in the north and west accuse President Laurent Gbagbo of fanning ethnic hatred, and demand his resignation. The French-brokered peace deal was meant to create a power-sharing government until 2005 elections.

France has 2,500 troops based in the country to protect more than 16,000 French civilians. Paris sent another 130 paramilitary police on Thursday as violence welled against its citizens.

Meanwhile Friday, neighboring Liberia threatened trouble on another front for Ivory Coast — accusing Ivory Coast forces of hunting down and killing innocent Liberian refugees in Ivory Coast. Some Liberian gunmen are fighting on the side of rebels in Ivory Coast's west, which has sparked anger here against Liberians in general.

"Liberia will not sit back to see Liberians being humiliated and killed," Justice Minister Lavela Koboi Johnson said in a statement, without specifying what action his government might take.

http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77159,00.html

[Eagle3]

Originally posted by JBMoney
Exactly! France and Germany are financing and making money off of Saddam's pursuit of WMD, in additon to oil deals. That's why they were nervous about Iraq's "declaration" and why they don't want anybody going in there to bust up their card game.

Or discover some particularly dirty French/German laundry. I can imagine if they've made certain deals with Iraq they wouldn't want the rest of the world finding out. Conspiracy theory mode - OFF

[evereno]

Originally posted by eagle3
Or discover some particularly dirty French/German laundry. I can imagine if they've made certain deals with Iraq they wouldn't want the rest of the world finding out. Conspiracy theory mode - OFF

Who said it was a theory. Just ask anyone. No one will be surprised.

[Homer Simpson]

Those crazy French! Is there anything they can't do?

[cuda]

Originally posted by Homer Simpson
Those crazy French! Is there anything they can't do?

fight.:nolike:

[evereno]

Eagle 3 wrote regarding the possibility of France joining the US coalition forces against Iraq: "When this happens I expect to come home and find my dog in bed with the cat." Well, let me know the outcome.

France talks peace but sends warships east (04/02/03, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard) - Watch what Jacques Chirac does, not what he says. Meeting Tony Blair for an awkward mini-summit in Le Touquet today after months of Anglo-French skirmishing, the French president continues to bask in his star role as Europe's "conscience" and leader of restraint.

His public posture is to resist the slide towards an "unjustifiable" war that is opposed by the citizens of every European state.

But early today a French armada including an aircraft carrier, nuclear submarine and other warships slipped out of Toulon and headed for the eastern Mediterranean.

France's defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, said the mission was a routine training exercise, but added: "French military forces will be ready to intervene in Iraq, should the decision be taken."

Unlike Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, M Chirac has been careful not to "exclude" the option of war, if all else fails.

It suggests that he may copy President François Mitterrand's tactics in the first Gulf war, which was to join the US-led coalition at the last moment after extracting every ounce of possible advantage.

Geoffrey Van Orden, a Tory MEP and vice-chairman of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, predicted that M Chirac would come off the fence once he had guaranteed France's share of the post-reconstruction and oil contracts in Iraq and, more important, once he had exploited the acute vulnerability of Tony Blair, who is struggling to prevent his loyalty to America from shattering his European policy.

M Chirac is walking a political tightrope at home, where public opinion is set against any military action not sanctioned by the UN and where an immigrant population of four million Muslims exercises an unspoken influence on policy.

Muslim youths in Paris and other cities are carrying out a low-level "intifada" against French authority, burning cars in nightly raids, mostly unreported in the national news. The risk of escalating violence is real.

EU diplomats in Brussels said M Chirac had nothing to gain by aligning France too quickly behind the Bush administration, and is taking some pleasure in letting Downing Street squirm for a while by holding back support for the war.

"Britain has been making too much of the running without paying the price of EU influence, which of course is joining the euro, so there's an element of taking Blair down a peg or two," said one official.

But M Chirac has to watch his back as well. The letter published last week by Europe's "Gang of Eight" backing US policy in Iraq was a warning that France and Germany no longer call all the shots in the EU.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/02/04/nblur204.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=108569

[shotglass]

French. Hypocrites.

Redundant.

[gopsdragon]

Originally posted by shotglass
French. Hypocrites.

Redundant.

Sorry, it was 10 am in the mornining, and I was tired. :hehe:

[Eagle3]

I guess they're too busy with their imperialsm to confront Iraq. :what:

French troops arrive in I Coast (http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,6119,2-11-1447_1317562,00.html)

French troops arrive in I Coast
07/02/2003 19:15 - (SA)

Abidjan - More than 300 French soldiers arrived Friday in war-torn Ivory Coast, where their main task will be to protect French and other foreign nationals, an AFP correspondent reported.

Between 300 and 400 men disembarked from a regular Air France flight at Abidjan airport, most in uniform and some in civilian clothes, but not carrying their weapons.

Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe Perret, spokesman for France's Operation Licorne (Unicorn) in the west African former colony, said the troops would "as priority" safeguard foreign residents in the economic capital.

He refused to say precisely how many men had arrived, but the military in France have announced that 450 troops are to deploy, with 190 gendarmerie forces, to boost Operation Licorne's strength to some 3 000.

Ivory Coast has been divided in two between government forces in the mainly Christian south and rebels in the mostly Muslim north, then in parts of the west, since an uprising on September 19.

On October 17, the main rebel movement signed a truce, and French troops have for months been monitoring and enforcing fragile ceasefires along the front lines in a country which was once among the most stable and prosperous in the region.

The latest deployments come after a French-brokered peace pact reached among the parties to the conflict on January 25 triggered rioting and massive anti-French protests in Abidjan, where President Laurent Gbagbo's supporters accused Paris of forcing the head of state to make humiliating concessions.

Gbagbo, who has been engaged in consultations with political and other parties for days, is scheduled on Friday evening to make a broadcast address to the nation.

On returning to Abidjan from Paris, he told angry and volatile members of the youth wing among his backers that the French-brokered deal, known as the Linas-Marcoussis accord, was but a set of "proposals".

The army is incensed at the prospect of rebels being put in charge of the defence and interior ministries in a power-sharing government, a measure the main rebel group insists Gbagbo agreed to in France, though it is not written into the deal.