
Stop the French/ECOMOG planned invasion of Cote d'Ivoire


The
French are planning the invasion of Côte d’Ivoire, an independent African
country, by using the dispensable African ECOMOG contingent whose leaders
themselves are largely beneficiaries of disputed/rigged elections. France
intends to finance and provide the logistics for the invasion – but does not
intend to use its own troops as this would be political suicide for the
government of Nicolas Sarkozy. France claims that Alassane Ouattara as opposed
to Laurent Gbagbo is the rightful winner of the recent elections. Clearly there
is a dispute as to the outcome to these national elections. This is not new to
Africa. All elections (probably with the exception of Botswana, Ghana, Senegal
[2000] and South Africa) are rigged and heavily disputed. So why wasn’t Kenya
invaded, or Nigeria, or Zimbabwe or, most recently, Egypt all of which have had
disputed/rigged elections? Does France have any plans to invade Belarus, a
European country just 1000 miles way from it, where Alexander Lukashenko has
once again emerged as president after a highly-disputed election? Why Côte
d’Ivoire, an African country 3000 miles away from France? And when will Myanmar
in Asia be invaded to install Aung San Suu Kyi.? Why have we still not learnt,
as a human race, to avoid such levels of hypocrisy and suffering? The result of
the invasion of Côte d’Ivoire will be catastrophic to the country and the
entire west Africa region. Internally, in Côte d’Ivoire, there will be huge
human suffering, the destruction of towns and villages and the displacement of
communities. Additionally, there are millions of other Africans across the
region (from Senegal to Cameroon) who live and work in Côte
d’Ivoire – all of whom will be displaced, intensifying the levels of
suffering in the region. All of this will have huge impacts on already
stretched countries – Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana. Here in
the West we will once again be subjected to pictures of dying Africans and
emergency appeals. This cannot be allowed to happen. All this is preventable.
France must not be allowed to be instigators of the deaths of millions of
Africans by Africans. This invasion must be stopped. The people of Côte
d’Ivoire need to settle their own disputes, using their own internal
resources and other African mediation however long it takes them. Côte d’Ivoire
is NOT part of France. France must stop this continuous, potentially murderous
interference in the affairs of African countries.
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