Tag Archives: alassane ouattara

Mark Pack

Ivory Coast: three reasons for optimism

By Mark Pack | Wed 13th April 2011 - 2:25 pm

In both Rwanda and then, initially, in the former Yugoslavia, international peacekeeping troops were dispatched and then largely stood by as widespread, murderous violence took place around them. A mixture of weak mandates, limited military deployments and prioritising the safety of peacekeepers over those they were meant to be protecting meant little was achieved until – in the case of Yugoslavia – greater military force was deployed by the international community.

That lesson has strongly influenced many international interventions since – don’t intervene unless you are willing to do so with significant military firepower. The desire to minimise loss of lives …

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Mark Pack

“Everyone here has been targetting civilians to some extent” – BBC on Ivory Coast

By Mark Pack | Sun 3rd April 2011 - 9:50 pm

The BBC’s Andrew Harding reports from Ivory Coast:

I’m walking down the street here in Duekoue and there are bodies all around me. They’re being brought out by Red Cross workers, pulling them out of the bushes, they’re being wrapped in plastic.

I’ve seen 30-40 already, and that’s just a fraction of what they’ve collected over the past few days.

They’re taking the bodies to a mass grave that they’re just digging now nearby.

The situation in the town remains very unstable. It’s held now by Alassane Ouattara’s forces – we’ve been talking to a lot of them. They deny any role in

…

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Mark Pack

Ivory Coast debated in Parliament; Simon Hughes asks question

By Mark Pack | Sat 2nd April 2011 - 8:56 am

Having commented adversely previously about how little attention has been given to the spiralling humanitarian disaster in Ivory Coast by Parliament, it’s only fair to mention that it was the subject of an urgent question in Parliament this week and the previous lack of Parliamentary interest in the issue from Liberal Democrats was broken by Simon Hughes:

Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD): As well as encouraging Ministers to persist in their efforts to resolve the conflict, may I have an assurance that they are keeping in touch with the small but not insignificant community here in order

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Mark Pack

UN says attack on Ivory Coast civilians may have been a war crime

By Mark Pack | Mon 21st March 2011 - 10:25 am

So far, events in the Ivory Coast have received far less attention than those in Libya, even prior to the military intervention in the latter. Ivory Coast may not have the proximity to Europe of Libya, or a ruler to match the eye-catching nature of Colonel Gadaffi, but it has a President who has refused to leave office after losing an election and who has refused to cooperate fully with the UN.

UN troops have already been deployed to the country but a political stalemate has ensued as the UN has not been willing to authorise further steps, such as the …

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