By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- When Cote d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara spoke Tuesday at the Council on Foreign Relations, one expected him to raise, or be asked, about accountability for killings by his supporters and those of Guillaume Soro, in Douekoue for example.
Ouattara had promised to take action against anyone found responsible; this was said to set him apart from Laurent Gbagbo.
But in a discussion led by an executive from ExxonMobil, Walter Kansteiner III, Ouattara neither mentioned accountability nor was asked about it.
Rather he was asked about his economy and the African Development Bank -- by a banker -- and what he thought of the African Union. The answer to the latter was, not much.
Ouattara said he is "disappointed" with the African Union's "lack of efficiency." As an example of this, he pointed to the AU not yet recognizing the Transitional National Council in Libya. He said if you just look at the television you see who is in power. The audience laughed.
ExxonMobil, one wag muttered, likes to do business with those who are in power. (It was by this same logic that Tony Blair, sometime UN official, pitched J.P. Morgan Chase's wares to Gaddafi, and now appears in the guise of convincing the Palestinians not to seek UN membership.)
Ouattara was accompanied by Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma, who Ouattara called his "brother," and the moderator's logic in the pairing quickly became clear.
"We have started oil exploration," Koroma said, "and the results have been very interesting." More interesting than the fate of underaged prisoners in Freetown's jails?
The Council on Foreign Relations has been in a frenzy the first two days this week, starting by hosting Alain Juppe on Monday. In that one, the first question was given to French state media; after that, the moderator asked about the Euro. CFR puts out good reports, but it is also interested in business, witness the ExxonMobil host for President Ouattara. An intellectual gloss on the great game for resources, in a venerable building on 68th and Park Avenue. Ouattara left at 2:30, and CFR pitched its 5:30 offering from Iran. Pump that oil!
