IVORY COAST: Now What? (UPDATE 4/18/2011)

Restoring Order, While Washing Away the Blood

Photo: EMA (European Medicines Agency)/French Army

The fighting is over (for the most part) in Abidjan, former President Laurent Gbagbo, who lost the last presidential election but wouldn’t give up power, is now in custody. The commercial capital and largest city of Ivory Coast is starting to return to normal. What happens now?

Alassane Ouattara, the economist and former prime minister who defeated Gbagbo in the Nov. 28 election says his deposed opponent will not be harmed while authorities investigate what crimes to charge him with. Ouattara was also urging forces loyal to Gbagbo to lay down their arms and seek reconciliation with the new government. And Ouattara asked the gangs of young men who supported him in the five-month struggle to lay down their arms, too, the Voice of America reports.

Ouattara also wants to start up cocoa exports while reopening banks and other businesses that closed down during the four months of violence and instability stemming from the stalemate with Gbagbo.

The head of Gbagbo’s political party, the Ivorian Popular Front, is calling for an end to the fighting so that Ivory Coast can “return to normal.”

There have been shooting and looting incidents in Abidjan since the Gbagbo regime fell Wednesday (April 13) and it is difficult to say which side is responsible for the disorder.

Both sides “have blood on their hands” the Ivory Coast’s new justice minister tells Britain’s Daily Telegraph, but Jeannot Ahoussou denies that militiamen loyal to Gbagbo killed as many as 1,000 people when they swept through the western town of Duekoue. He acknowledged Ouattara forces killed about 70 people in fighting around Duekoue — but in combat, not reprisals. The United Nations says 330 people were killed – 100 of them by Gbagbo’s militia.

Gbagbo was taken into custody Monday (April 11) inside the Abidjan compound that includes the presidential palace and residence. The compound was surrounded by French and U.N. tanks and heavy weapons. Helicopters from both military entities pounded the presidential compound and surrounding army camps, knocking out missile launchers and other heavy weapons. There’s been speculation by Ouattara’s people — as well as French and U.N. officials — that the hundreds of rockets as well as crates of grenades and smalls arms ammo stockpiled in Gbagbo’s residence prove the attack was necessary to prevent further bloodshed among civilians

The French say they did not apprehend Gbagbo – just made it easier for the new Republican Forces to get inside the compound. Both the French and U.N. have been criticized – especially by African pundits – for getting involved in what is an internal political issue. But the U.N. Is defending its action, according to Reuters.

The BBC has a time line of strife in Ivory Coast going back to colonization by Europeans in the mid-1800s. The BBC also has a wide-ranging summary of African editorial comment about the final outcome of the Ivory Coast crisis.

SHAKO: History Repeats Itself (Updated)

SHAKO: Musings on Military History

Libyan Rebels, Like American Militia 200 Years Earlier

Your intrepid 4GWAR editor was at the Navy League’s 2011 Sea-Air-Space Exposition at National Harbor in Maryland earlier this week, writing for SEAPOWER magazine’s online coverage. Since SEAPOWER follows not only the Navy, but Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine issues, we ended our three-day stint well educated in all things nautical.

For example, we learned several new terms including “Underwater Ship Husbandry,” which is what Navy divers do when they repair ships and submarines below the water line at sea. We also were exposed to a whole new lexicon of naval acronyms like NECC, which stands for Navy Expeditionary Combat Command.

To read what we wrote about Navy salvage divers, irregular warfare, V-22 helicopters, super-sized aircraft carriers littoral combat ships and unmanned aircraft please click on the SEAPOWER Expo website.

But that’s not our main reason for mentioning the Navy League Expo. While touring the exhibit floor, we came across the booth of the Naval Historical Foundation, which was promoting the Bicentennial of the War of 1812. Over the next six months there will be a series of commemorations in places like New Orleans, Baltimore, Toledo, Buffalo, and Toronto (Yes, the Canadians have apparently forgiven us for burning the place down during the war when it was known as York).

The rockets red glare (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

“But nothing on the West Coast?” asked another visitor to the booth who, like your editor, was graying — but not gray. The friendly young lady intern explained that in 1812, that part of the country wasn’t even part of the country.

Your editor mentioned recently reading a book about the final events of the War of 1812 (in 1814-15 to be precise.) We opined that the unreliable military skills of the American militia at the Battle of Bladensburg in 1814, reminded us of the brave, but hapless, Libyan rebels we’ve been seeing on TV for the past few weeks.

“Well what do you expect. We hadn’t been a country very long,” protested the West Coast visitor. He noted the small size and inexperience of the U.S. military at the time going up against veterans of the Napoleonic wars. We agreed, adding that there might not even have been a United States of America by the end of the 18th century if the French king hadn’t joined the war and sent his well-trained and well-equipped troops to aid the American rebels.

That got us thinking that six years after the 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War, the French monarchy — beggared by war with Britain –  raised taxes on the country’s poor and middle class. That led to a revolt by the over-taxed populace and another revolution that changed history.

Sound familiar?

Payback for the burning of York, Canada

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BTW, for those who think Patrick O’Brian is the greatest writer since Moses penned the Book of Genesis, the USS Constitution Museum in Boston, has an on-line game that goes into great detail explaining naval life aboard the frigate in the age of sail and broadsides.

You can go there by clicking here or visiting www.asailorslifeforme.org.