Another 52 killed in the Ivory Coast

By Mark Pack | Fri 25th March 2011 - 12:55 pm

With a depressing predictability, my post at the start of the week about how the Ivory Coast’s violent political tragedy is being largely ignored has been one of the least well read posts on The Voice during this week.

But The Voice’s readers are pretty typical of the wider world in this respect at least. Until the end of yesterday, for example, Libya had got 54 mentions in Parliament so far this year, the Ivory Coast only six.

Yet this week has been another bloody one as defeated President Gbagbo refuses to leave office. The UN says 52 more people were murdered and Gbagbo has ignored a deadline set for him to leave office by the African Union. Now there are calls from African governments for the UN force in the country to be given greater powers.

This is one of those rare occasions were other countries in the region, not to mention many in the country itself, are wanting more intervention, not warning or campaigning against it.

And for a party that has often rightly prided itself in its interests in foreign affairs and its concerns for upholding human rights around the globe, what an unwelcome omission that none of those six mentions of a country where the UN has warned about possible war crimes came from a Liberal Democrat.

One Comment

mpg 25th Mar '11 - 9:44pm

Thanks for posting this Mark. Lets hope the LDs step up and start mobilising around this tragedy.

Keep up the good work.

Don’t take Democracy for granted

Vince Cable writes: The endless hunt for painless taxes

Jane Dodds to step down as Welsh Lib Dem Leader

Vince Cable writes: Drill, baby, drill…or not