The next Rwanda? ‘In all districts of Abidjan there is gunfire’

[nalnn]

Source: heraldscotland

A massacre in a Roman Catholic mission compound in the heart of the Ivory Coast’s cocoa-producing region could come to be seen as a crucial moment in the West African state’s escalating civil war.

Reports are mounting of atrocities by both sides in the conflict − those loyal to head of state Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his presidential residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, and those who follow northern leader and president-elect Allasane Ouattara.

Events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.

Read more: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/the-next-rwanda-in-all-districts-of-abidjan-there-is-gunfire-1.1094251

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Not good. More and more this is turning into a Crusade of Apocalyptic proportions. How long until this happens in North America?

[Name removed]

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[nalnn]

3. Exactly

It's spreading. And I don't think it will end with Libya.

I am beginning to think that this misguided pastor in Florida may be one of the catalysts that does one of two things:

1. We finally decide that the middle east et al is not worth it and leave.
2. U.S. Administration permitting, we go all out and win.

I have no idea how this will turn out.

[Name removed]

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[Adsos Letter]

11. The arms make a difference, certainly, but the lack of discipline and training

make the crucial difference.

[atreides1]

4. What's the difference?

People are being slaughtered in both places...why is Libya more important the the Ivory Coast?

[nalnn]

8. If

If that's to me, I agree with you. "What's the difference" these 'wars for oil' if we're going to have them should instead be 'wars for salvation'.

If we're going to get involved in wars we should do so in places where it actually matters to the human race as a whole, not just the rich.

Wherever people are being slaughtered like in Libya and in Côte d'Ivoire, we should be stopping it. If we want to be in wars so badly.

[Adsos Letter]

10. UN peacekeepers are already in Ivory Coast...

I don't know how heavily they are armed, or what their mandate is, but they didn't seem to make any difference according to witnesses cited in the article linked in the OP:

"The mission killings began the day after Outarra’s fighters overwhelmed the town. A thousand UN peacekeeping soldiers, mainly from Pakistan and Vietnam and based in Duekoue, did nothing to stop the killing, according to aid workers."

[atreides1]

2. And we know how Rwanda ended

With over 900,000 dead and the Western powers doing very little to prevent it....like now! But, the situation in Libya seems to be more important.

After all we can't run our cars on cocoa, can we?

[Renew Deal]

5. France has ties to the Ivory Coast.

What are they doing?

[AtheistCrusader]

7. France is busy in Libya.

Where their oil and gas interests are.

[Adsos Letter]

9. UN peacekeepers are already in Ivory Coast...

Not sure how heavily they are armed, or what their mandate is, but their presence didn't seem to make any difference in the case of this massacre; from the article linked in the OP:

"The mission killings began the day after Outarra’s fighters overwhelmed the town. A thousand UN peacekeeping soldiers, mainly from Pakistan and Vietnam and based in Duekoue, did nothing to stop the killing, according to aid workers."

[progressoid]

12. Do they have anything we need?

:shrug:

[nalnn]

13. Nope!

Just bloodshed.

[progressoid]

14. Ah,

which means WE have something THEY need: weapons.

Exports will help our economy!






btw: :sarcasm:

[Turborama]

15. The Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer n/t

[AllTooEasy]

16. Kucinich would prefer that we do nothing and let them all die.

...or spend weeks in Congressional hearings debating the issue while people are slaughtered by the truckloads.

[Adsos Letter]

17. But the UN had ground forces in Doukoue and they apparently did nothing

to stop the massacre: "The mission killings began the day after Outarra’s fighters overwhelmed the town. A thousand UN peacekeeping soldiers, mainly from Pakistan and Vietnam and based in Duekoue, did nothing to stop the killing, according to aid workers."

and

"...early evidence reported by Italian media from Duekoue suggests the Saint Teresa mission massacre was carried out by Outtara’s NF forces. “The incident is particularly shocking by its size and its brutality,” said Dominique Liengme, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Ivory Coast."

“Red Cross representatives themselves have seen a huge number of bodies ,” said ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas in Geneva. “There is no doubt that something on a large scale took place in this city, on which the ICRC is continuing to gather information. Everything indicates that this was inter-ethnic violence.”

LINK: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/the-next-rwanda-in-all-districts-of-abidjan-there-is-gunfire-1.1094251

I know the UN wants Gbagbo out because he is not the officially elected leader, but this is extremely disturbing to me.

[nalnn]

18. It disturbs me also

Even though they only have around 1000 boots on the ground, supposedly, they have the backing of the whole of the U.N. Doesn't that mean anything to anybody? It sure doesn't seem to be helping the Ivorians at all.