The first recognised ambassador of Côte d'Ivoire's internationally-backed president Alassane Ouattara said on Tuesday that the United Nations had to act to prevent "genocide" in his country. The envoy, Youssoufou Bamba, made the plea after handing over his credentials as envoy to the United Nations to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Ban promised the "full cooperation" of the UN leadership for the government of Ouattara who is in a tense stand-off with Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to recognise the victory of his rival in Côte d'Ivoire's November 28 presidential election. The ambassador said Ouattara had "real concern" about attacks on his supporters. According to UN rights officials at least 173 people were killed in attacks between December 16 and 21.
The victims were only killed "because they wanted to demonstrate, they want to speak out, they want to defend the will of the people", Bamba told reporters. "We are on the brink of genocide, something should be done." Bamba said people's homes in some areas had been marked according to their tribe. "What will be next? So the situation is very serious and I have put that message across in all the meetings I have had, including with the secretary general. The protection of civilians is at the heart of peacekeeping and we expect the United Nations to fulfill its duties," he said.
There is a UN force of more than 9 500 troops in Côte d'Ivoire and 800 are deployed around the Abidjan hotel where Ouattara has his base. Ban made no comment on the Côte d'Ivoire crisis when he formally accepted Bamba's credentials in front of photographers at the UN headquarters. But he assured the envoy "of the full cooperation of the secretariat in meeting the challenges ahead". Ban was briefed again on Tuesday by the UN mission in Côte d'Ivoire on efforts to persuade Gbagbo to peacefully stand down, his spokesperson Martin Nesirky said.
The UN chief also held telephone talks with Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, current chairperson of the West African regional bloc Ecowas, which has threatened to intervene militarily if Gbagbo does not quit. Bamba, who was previously ambassador for the Gbagbo government at the UN in Vienna, is the first ambassador named by the Ouattara administration to have started work. He hinted that he was not yet being paid, saying that as a career diplomat "I have savings."
Meanwhile, Gbagbo's most notorious street lieutenant has vowed that the country's youth will rise up from Saturday and seize Ouattara's headquarters. "From January 1, I, Charles Ble Goude and the youth of Ivory Coast are going to liberate the Golf Hotel with our bare hands," the leader of Gbagbo's radical Young Patriots told a cheering crowd in Abidjan on Wednesday. "It's the moment to liberate Ivory Coast," he declared.
Political showman and faction leader Ble Goude is now Gbagbo's minister for youth and employment, but he is best known for stoking bloody anti-French riots in 2004, a role which saw him placed under United Nations sanctions. "We are ready to die for this Ivory Coast," he declared, while insisting that his supporters were unarmed and hoped to triumph through strength of numbers and will against Ouattara's men. "We are mocked by rebels," he complained.
Tension is mounting in and around the Golf Hotel -- a waterfront resort on the outskirts of the port city which Ouattara and his supporters had turned into an election headquarters. The shadow government in the hotel is guarded by a small contingent of former northern rebel fighters dubbed the New Forces, and the grounds are shielded by armed UN peacekeepers backed by armoured cars.
Access to the area is blocked by Gbagbo's regulars, the Security and Defence Forces (FDS), working alongside what UN observers say are mysterious masked militia fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades. UN supply convoys are regularly blocked as they try to cross Abidjan -- one patrol was attacked on Tuesday a mob of pro-Gbagbo youths and a Bangladeshi soldier was hurt -- and the hotel is supplied by UN helicopter.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Showing posts with label Arab Associations Union. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arab Associations Union. Show all posts
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Policemen arrested for gunning down hawker in Bruma
Two policemen and a civilian were expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday for allegedly killing an Egyptian hawker at the Bruma flea market, police said. “They will appear in court today [Monday],” said Captain Julia Claassen.
She said a 28-year-old man was arrested on Friday morning while an inspector from the Germiston flying squad and a constable from Nigel police station were nabbed on Thursday. The hawker, identified as Nabil Hasaballa, 32, was killed on Thursday at his Bruma flea market stall.
The policemen allegedly threatened to arrest him without any reason and a scuffle ensued. One of the men then shot Hasaballa dead. Claassen said the police were still searching for a fourth man.
Meanwhile, members of the Arab Associations Union were planning to stage a protest march outside court on Monday. “There is a great deal of anger in the Arab community in South Africa because of this incident. We believe it is unacceptable that an innocent man is handcuffed by police and then shot at point-blank range in a market in front of many people, and for no reason whatsoever,” said a statement released by the organisation. “Our march will demand that the perpetrators not be given bail and be given the maximum sentences for their brutal crime. We trust the judicial system, and we believe that justice will be served. We must show the world that we can fight crime together.”
Source: Business Day
She said a 28-year-old man was arrested on Friday morning while an inspector from the Germiston flying squad and a constable from Nigel police station were nabbed on Thursday. The hawker, identified as Nabil Hasaballa, 32, was killed on Thursday at his Bruma flea market stall.
The policemen allegedly threatened to arrest him without any reason and a scuffle ensued. One of the men then shot Hasaballa dead. Claassen said the police were still searching for a fourth man.
Meanwhile, members of the Arab Associations Union were planning to stage a protest march outside court on Monday. “There is a great deal of anger in the Arab community in South Africa because of this incident. We believe it is unacceptable that an innocent man is handcuffed by police and then shot at point-blank range in a market in front of many people, and for no reason whatsoever,” said a statement released by the organisation. “Our march will demand that the perpetrators not be given bail and be given the maximum sentences for their brutal crime. We trust the judicial system, and we believe that justice will be served. We must show the world that we can fight crime together.”
Source: Business Day
Friday, October 27, 2000
Dictator Gone, Violence Erupts In Ivory Coast
A day after toppling the military dictator in a popular uprising, residents of Ivory Coast furiously turned against one another today, and the deadly clashes quickly took on religious and ethnic overtones and spread to smaller cities.
Supporters of two of the main political parties, unified the day before in their opposition to the officer, Gen. Robert Guei, were thrust apart today by religion, ethnicity and their leaders' ambitions.
The winner of Sunday's disputed election, Laurent Gbagbo, was sworn in as president this afternoon in the presidential palace. Mr. Gbagbo, who has the backing of the security forces, said he would not hold a new election despite calls to do so from the country's two other major parties, the United Nations, the United States and the Organization for African Unity. ''I extend my hand to everyone,'' he said after the inauguration, adding that he would form a government of national unity as early as Friday.
But Alassane D. Ouattara, a former prime minister who was barred from running in the election and is insisting on a new vote, took refuge in the German ambassador's residence this morning after security forces surrounded his house and fired tear gas and ammunition.
The attack was led by supporters of Mr. Gbagbo and backed by paramilitary gendarmes in two vehicles, according to Mr. Ouattara's supporters and other witnesses. A motley group of Mr. Ouattara's own forces -- including armed guards, traditional hunters known as dozos and young men carrying machetes, Molotov cocktails and rocks -- guarded the house after he fled. ''Look at what they tried to do the house this morning,'' said Ali Coulibaly, a spokesman for Mr. Ouattara, rejecting the idea that his party could work with Mr. Gbagbo. ''We can't tell the difference now between the security forces and Gbagbo's party. Look at the way Gbagbo seized power today.''
Elsewhere in Abidjan, dozens of people were reported killed, pushing the toll over three days to near 90. Only a day earlier, euphoria had swept the country after tens of thousands of Ivoirians descended on the city center and, in scenes that recalled the popular revolt against Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia but were new to Africa, overthrew General Guei. The general, who had declared himself winner of the election after canceling the count, fled Abidjan, though his whereabouts was still unclear tonight.
Immediately after the general's downfall, Mr. Gbagbo declared himself president, called for national reconciliation and lifted the state of emergency and curfew. But tonight, after it became clear that Mr. Ouattara's supporters were unwilling to accept Mr. Gbagbo's terms, the state of emergency and the curfew were reimposed.
Today, supporters of both men fought one another with machetes and clubs, and mosques and churches were attacked in clashes that have increasingly taken an ethnic and religious cast in a country that until recent years was an unusual model of unity in Africa. General Guei and the unpopular president he overthrew last year, Henri Konan Bedie, had each tried to exploit the ethnic and religious divisions, and hence inflamed them. A court controlled by the general excluded Mr. Ouattara, a Muslim, from the vote Sunday, provoking a boycott by his party and many Muslims, who make up 40 percent of the population in this West African nation. The court also barred the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast, which had governed for most of the country's post-independence history.
In the face of many Muslims' calls for a new election, supporters of Mr. Gbagbo, who like 30 percent of the population is Christian, have vented their anger. His supporters and their gendarme backers seemed to overwhelm Mr. Ouattara's supporters, who began the day with vast demonstrations, and most of those killed today were Muslims. In Abobo, a sprawling working-class neighborhood that suffered the heaviest violence, three mosques were attacked and half a dozen people were reported dead. The neighborhood remained on edge after the morning's riots, with fires smoldering on deserted streets. At one mosque, the imam, Traore Yaya, nervously answered the door when a reporter knocked this morning. Muslim neighbors came quietly out of their houses as he showed two palm-sized tear-gas canisters. ''We were praying on the street in front of the mosque when gendarmes came by and threw tear gas at us,'' the imam said. A jeep filled with gendarmes suddenly passed as he was talking, and the crowd scattered.
On a main street not far away, where a wounded old woman was trying to find help, Muslims also said the gendarmes had backed Mr. Gbagbo's supporters. ''All the gendarmes we saw were from one ethnic group -- Gbagbo's,'' said Sekou Kone, 35, a merchant who had been hiding in his shop. ''This means we are heading into a civil war.'' ''Since the general is gone, the people must now have fair elections,'' he said. ''One-third of the Ivoirian population cannot choose a president,'' a reference to the 37 percent turnout.
By tonight the violence appeared to have died down after two high-ranking officials from Mr. Ouattara's and Mr. Gbagbo's parties appeared together on state television and urged their followers to stop fighting. They announced that the two political leaders would meet, but did not say when. The call for a new election was endorsed by several prominent outsiders, including Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Gnassingbe Eyadema, the president of Togo and the current head of the Organization for African Unity. The United States echoed these calls. ''It's going to be very important for the voices of the disenfranchised Ivoirians to be heard and, in that sense, the holding of free, fair and inclusive elections will be needed,'' said Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman.
Significantly, however, France, the former colonial power and the biggest foreign power broker here, said it was satisfied with the results of Sunday's election and called for legislative elections to be held as scheduled in December. Mr. Gbagbo, a socialist, has close ties with the Socialist Party in France. According to the final results of the National Electoral Commission, which General Guei dissolved after preliminary figures showed he was trailing, Mr. Gbagbo received 59 percent of the votes, compared with 33 percent for the general. Because of the boycott, only 2 million voted in this country of 15 million people.
Voting was especially light in the Muslim north. In addition to Mr. Ouattara's call for a boycott, the largest Islamic organization told Muslims to stay home. The Ivory Coast was for decades an African anomaly: a country where people of different religions and ethnic groups co-existed peacefully, under policies enacted by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who led the country for three decades.
But President Bedie, who took over in the early 1990's, stirred up xenophobia aimed at Muslim northerners in an attempt to sideline his main rival, Mr. Ouattara, who was deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund until last year. As Mr. Bedie spoke of ''pure Ivoirians'' and ''foreigners,'' northerners and immigrants became targets of the authorities. Among ordinary Ivoirians, the cleavages widened between Muslims and Christians. General Guei, who seized power last year, adopted a similar anti-northern position. What is more, Mr. Gbagbo, who had been allied with Mr. Ouattara, broke off their union and also inserted ethnocentric language in his political messages.
Source: new York Times
Supporters of two of the main political parties, unified the day before in their opposition to the officer, Gen. Robert Guei, were thrust apart today by religion, ethnicity and their leaders' ambitions.
The winner of Sunday's disputed election, Laurent Gbagbo, was sworn in as president this afternoon in the presidential palace. Mr. Gbagbo, who has the backing of the security forces, said he would not hold a new election despite calls to do so from the country's two other major parties, the United Nations, the United States and the Organization for African Unity. ''I extend my hand to everyone,'' he said after the inauguration, adding that he would form a government of national unity as early as Friday.
But Alassane D. Ouattara, a former prime minister who was barred from running in the election and is insisting on a new vote, took refuge in the German ambassador's residence this morning after security forces surrounded his house and fired tear gas and ammunition.
The attack was led by supporters of Mr. Gbagbo and backed by paramilitary gendarmes in two vehicles, according to Mr. Ouattara's supporters and other witnesses. A motley group of Mr. Ouattara's own forces -- including armed guards, traditional hunters known as dozos and young men carrying machetes, Molotov cocktails and rocks -- guarded the house after he fled. ''Look at what they tried to do the house this morning,'' said Ali Coulibaly, a spokesman for Mr. Ouattara, rejecting the idea that his party could work with Mr. Gbagbo. ''We can't tell the difference now between the security forces and Gbagbo's party. Look at the way Gbagbo seized power today.''
Elsewhere in Abidjan, dozens of people were reported killed, pushing the toll over three days to near 90. Only a day earlier, euphoria had swept the country after tens of thousands of Ivoirians descended on the city center and, in scenes that recalled the popular revolt against Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia but were new to Africa, overthrew General Guei. The general, who had declared himself winner of the election after canceling the count, fled Abidjan, though his whereabouts was still unclear tonight.
Immediately after the general's downfall, Mr. Gbagbo declared himself president, called for national reconciliation and lifted the state of emergency and curfew. But tonight, after it became clear that Mr. Ouattara's supporters were unwilling to accept Mr. Gbagbo's terms, the state of emergency and the curfew were reimposed.
Today, supporters of both men fought one another with machetes and clubs, and mosques and churches were attacked in clashes that have increasingly taken an ethnic and religious cast in a country that until recent years was an unusual model of unity in Africa. General Guei and the unpopular president he overthrew last year, Henri Konan Bedie, had each tried to exploit the ethnic and religious divisions, and hence inflamed them. A court controlled by the general excluded Mr. Ouattara, a Muslim, from the vote Sunday, provoking a boycott by his party and many Muslims, who make up 40 percent of the population in this West African nation. The court also barred the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast, which had governed for most of the country's post-independence history.
In the face of many Muslims' calls for a new election, supporters of Mr. Gbagbo, who like 30 percent of the population is Christian, have vented their anger. His supporters and their gendarme backers seemed to overwhelm Mr. Ouattara's supporters, who began the day with vast demonstrations, and most of those killed today were Muslims. In Abobo, a sprawling working-class neighborhood that suffered the heaviest violence, three mosques were attacked and half a dozen people were reported dead. The neighborhood remained on edge after the morning's riots, with fires smoldering on deserted streets. At one mosque, the imam, Traore Yaya, nervously answered the door when a reporter knocked this morning. Muslim neighbors came quietly out of their houses as he showed two palm-sized tear-gas canisters. ''We were praying on the street in front of the mosque when gendarmes came by and threw tear gas at us,'' the imam said. A jeep filled with gendarmes suddenly passed as he was talking, and the crowd scattered.
On a main street not far away, where a wounded old woman was trying to find help, Muslims also said the gendarmes had backed Mr. Gbagbo's supporters. ''All the gendarmes we saw were from one ethnic group -- Gbagbo's,'' said Sekou Kone, 35, a merchant who had been hiding in his shop. ''This means we are heading into a civil war.'' ''Since the general is gone, the people must now have fair elections,'' he said. ''One-third of the Ivoirian population cannot choose a president,'' a reference to the 37 percent turnout.
By tonight the violence appeared to have died down after two high-ranking officials from Mr. Ouattara's and Mr. Gbagbo's parties appeared together on state television and urged their followers to stop fighting. They announced that the two political leaders would meet, but did not say when. The call for a new election was endorsed by several prominent outsiders, including Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Gnassingbe Eyadema, the president of Togo and the current head of the Organization for African Unity. The United States echoed these calls. ''It's going to be very important for the voices of the disenfranchised Ivoirians to be heard and, in that sense, the holding of free, fair and inclusive elections will be needed,'' said Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman.
Significantly, however, France, the former colonial power and the biggest foreign power broker here, said it was satisfied with the results of Sunday's election and called for legislative elections to be held as scheduled in December. Mr. Gbagbo, a socialist, has close ties with the Socialist Party in France. According to the final results of the National Electoral Commission, which General Guei dissolved after preliminary figures showed he was trailing, Mr. Gbagbo received 59 percent of the votes, compared with 33 percent for the general. Because of the boycott, only 2 million voted in this country of 15 million people.
Voting was especially light in the Muslim north. In addition to Mr. Ouattara's call for a boycott, the largest Islamic organization told Muslims to stay home. The Ivory Coast was for decades an African anomaly: a country where people of different religions and ethnic groups co-existed peacefully, under policies enacted by President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who led the country for three decades.
But President Bedie, who took over in the early 1990's, stirred up xenophobia aimed at Muslim northerners in an attempt to sideline his main rival, Mr. Ouattara, who was deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund until last year. As Mr. Bedie spoke of ''pure Ivoirians'' and ''foreigners,'' northerners and immigrants became targets of the authorities. Among ordinary Ivoirians, the cleavages widened between Muslims and Christians. General Guei, who seized power last year, adopted a similar anti-northern position. What is more, Mr. Gbagbo, who had been allied with Mr. Ouattara, broke off their union and also inserted ethnocentric language in his political messages.
Source: new York Times
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)