The main issue:
"Immigration issue keys election debate
ABIDJAN — The debate over who is really Ivorian is at the heart of today’s election in this war-divided West African nation, where foreigners, mostly immigrants who work on cocoa and coffee plantations, make up more than a quarter of the population of 20 million. Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, whose official mandate expired in 2005, is facing 13 challengers, including opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, who is popular in the pro-rebel north.
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God, I hate politics (and the selective media coverage of such).
Why the Globe never got back to us is beyond me; must not have gone the way they wanted.
"Villagers in Ivory Coast attacked as election nears" by Artis Henderson, Associated Press | October 23, 2010
DAKAR, Senegal — Banditry, violence, and rape are widespread in Ivory Coast’s western provinces as the country prepares for historic national elections, Human Rights Watch said in a report released yesterday.
And the main issue is immigration?
No matter what country you are in politicians are all the same!
Armed gangs routinely attack people at roadblocks and in their homes, Human Rights Watch said in its report “Afraid and Forgotten: Lawlessness, Rape, and Impunity in Western Cote d’Ivoire.’’
“While politicians and foreign diplomats have wrangled over election preparations, residents in western [Ivory Coast] are consumed by fear of violent robbery or of being pulled from a bus and raped,’’ said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch.
According to the group, road bandits target people traveling on market days, when they know victims will be carrying money. The bandits build makeshift roadblocks, often out of tree branches, and surround stopped vehicles. They wear masks and carry Kalashnikovs. Some brandish knives or machetes. After robbing the passengers, they often pull the women from the trucks and rape them alongside the road.
One victim told Human Rights Watch interviewers she was sexually assaulted in front of her husband and father-in-law. Others reported witnessing gang rapes.
Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer, and banditry is at its highest during the cocoa harvest. Farmers come to town to sell their crops, and buyers circulate with cash. Armed gangs know this is a prime time to target villagers.
All over the chocolate, the food of love?
The report also said the same men commit violent home invasions in which they rob and rape their victims.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 80 witnesses and victims and documented cases of sexual assault against women as old as 80 and girls as young as 7 months....
The lawlessness that plagues western Ivory Coast — an area humanitarian organizations call the “Wild West’’ — can be traced to a coup launched in 2002. Several years of fighting followed. The country split into two distinct regions, with rebel forces controlling the north while the south remained under government command.
Just wondering which side the CIA was backing.
Of course, it's chocolate not energy reserves.
Not really well-positioned strategically, is it?
That and the chocolate make it not worth the effort.
Also CLICK on the MAP and see how the people have LITERALLY BEEN BURNED!
Doesn't make it in my paper; what routinely does is the savage rapers and crimes of Africa.
If I didn't know better I'd say my supremacist media is trying to give me a distorted view of an entire people and continent, but I know that can't be the case!
They are all about truth, good, and the public interest, right?
Isn't that what all the agenda-pushing, war-promoting, obfuscations and lies are for?
In the western portion of the country, especially the regions of Moyen Cavally and Dix-Huit Montagnes, the rule of law has all but disintegrated, according to Human Rights Watch.
Actually, I don't see a whole lot of governments adhering to any laws these days, so....
Moyen Cavally, with a territory the size of Connecticut and a population of 700,000, has no functioning trial court or prison. Human Rights Watch said victims must pay a bribe to file a complaint....
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Also see: Cutting Through the African Bush
What do you mean exploitative corporations of the West are behind all the mayhem for resource extraction purposes?
We bring those people prosperity and liberty! That's what I was told!
Btw, where is the UN Security Council meeting on thi.... oh, never mind with that hunk of s***.
