Ivory Coast and the ICC: Will justice ever be even-handed?
Posted: March 26, 2014 Filed under: Ivory Coast | Tags: Abidjan, ADO, Alassane Ouattara, Charles Blé Goudé, crimes against humanity, FESCI, FPI, ICC, International Criminal Court, Ivory Coast, Jeunes Patriotes, Laurent Gbagbo, RDR, reconciliation, The Hague, Young Patriots Leave a commentThe extradition of one of the president’s foes poses awkward questions for him
ON MARCH 22nd Charles Blé Goudé (pictured), an Ivorian widely known as the “street general”, was flown from the Ivory Coast to The Hague, to be charged at the International Criminal Court (ICC), alongside his patron, Laurent Gbagbo, the previous Ivorian president, with four counts of crimes against humanity. Mr Blé Goudé is alleged to have masterminded an ethnic pogrom after Mr Gbagbo’s defeat at the polls in 2010. Mr Blé Goudé had been in prison in the Ivory Coast for 14 months at the behest of its current president, Alassane Ouattara, following a year-and-a-half on the run.
Hurry up, or it’ll be too late
Posted: March 21, 2014 Filed under: Mali | Tags: al-Mourabitoun, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar ed-Dine, Ansar Eddine, AQIM, AQMI, Arab Movement of Azawad, Azawad, Azawad People's Coalition, Bamako, CPA, IBK, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, MAA, Mali, MINUSMA, MNLA, National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, peace talks, Tuareg, UN 1 CommentAs Mali’s feuding parties dither, the extremists may get stronger again
IN THE lobby of Bamako’s El-Farouq hotel, Ould Mohamed Ousmane Omar, a middle-aged Malian Arab whose life has been one of exile, rebellion and plot, is gossiping about friends and enemies. Take the Tuareg rebels, whose 2012 rebellion precipitated the fall of northern Mali to al-Qaeda-linked extremists. “They’re only in it for their own gain,” he says, adjusting the white veil of his turban to reveal a wisp of goatee. Or Mali’s new government, which, he grimaces, “knows nothing—not the north, not the Tuareg, not the problems. It’s so easy to fool.” As for his own faction, the Arab Movement of Azawad (as some northern Malians call their homeland), Mr Omar can only lament that an international conspiracy to thwart its potency has cracked it down the middle. But then again, he says, few of his erstwhile colleagues were ever more than “second-class” and “drug dealers”. Read the rest of this entry »
julius cavendish 