If ECOWAS Sends 1000 Ivorian Troops to Mali, Screening for Duekoue?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 -- As ECOWAS moves to send 3000 soldiers to Mali, it's reported that up to 1000 of them will be from Cote d'Ivoire, whose Alassane Ouattara is heading up ECOWAS. 

 

  Less than a year ago, Ouattara's fighters supported by the French Force Licorne and the UN captured and then sent former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

  But during that fight and subsequent process, there was talk of an investigation of and accountability for massacres including that at Duekoue, which is attributed to pro-Ouattara (and pro Guillaume Soro) fighters. 

 

  So what safeguards are in place that individuals and commanders involved and implicated in Duekoue are not sent as supposed peacekeepers to Mali?

  Already at the UN, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has accepted without protest as one of his Senior Advisers on Peacekeeping a Sri Lankan commander, Shavendra Silva, whose 58th Division is depicted in Ban's own report as engaged in war crimes -- recently upgraded to include the use of cluster bombs, which Inner City Press asked the UN about on April 27, so far without response.

  Nor has the UN responded to a request earlier in the week by Inner City Press that it describe what screening is done of peacekeepers before they are deployed across borders, compared even to UN Volunteers and particularly in light of the UN's essentially proved introduction of cholera to Haiti?

We will have more on all these questions -- and the planned deployment and threatened sanctions on Guinea Bissau -- in the coming days. Watch this site.

At UN, Ouattara Says Jailed Journalist Aboa “Paid by Gbagbo to Buy Arms”

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 27, updated -- When Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire offered thanks to the press at the UN on Wednesday, it raised questions about media freedom since he has been in power. Inner City Press asked Ouattara about the case of Hermann Aboa, a pro-Gbagbo journalist now facing life in prison for, among other things, “endangering state security.”

Ouattara began by referring to the precedent of Radio Mille Collines in Rwanda, saying that Aboa “called on hate, hatred.” Video here, from Minute 13:56. But press freedom experts have rejected this analogy, after viewing RTI footage like this.

Ouattara went on to say Aboa got money from Gbagbo “to buy arms, to distribute arms to mercenaries.” Then why focus on Aboa's speech?

Inner City Press asked about the FRCI, under Guillaume Soro, taking over pro-Gbagbo media organizations in Abidjan, and also reportedly shaking down miners and others.

Ouattara said Soro's Forces Nouvelles are being “merged” with “Mister Gbagbo's Army” and that commanders will be held responsible. So what about Douekoue?

Inner City Press asked the spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who met with Ouattara on Wednesday morning, if as requested he had raise the case of Hermann Aboa. Spokesman Martin Nesirky said he didn't know, even if the request had been received. We will continue on this.

Update of 3:20 pm - Ban's acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq has just "squawked" that Ban "was made aware" of the letter about Hermann Aboa and press freedom. But still not answered: did Ban raise the issues to Ouattara? There's only a read out that doesn't mention the issue, click here to view.