Re: "Israeli mercenaries assisting the Ivory Coast army operated unmanned aircraft that aided the aerial bombing of a French base in the country on Nov.9," France's TF-1 television station reported Wednesday.
I think the Israeli mercenaries are merely playing the hatchet men for the US... I'm afraid President Gbagbo miscalculated: he's merely manipulated by the Bush administration... an expendable chessman on the African chessboard... I expect the endgame of the whole Ivorian mess will be a tradeoff of sorts: more cooperation from France as regards Iraq in exchange for... patsy Gbagbo --LOL.
Somehow, Gbagbo should have kept in mind what happened to Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Kuwait --both have been screwed by the US.
Below is an excerpt that accurately sums up the French-Ivorian ties:
Broadly speaking, France is indifferent towards who is in power as long as the economy continues to function, for France’s economic interests are considerable. Two hundred French enterprises are present in Ivory Coast, the principal recipient of French investment in the zone Franc of West Africa. They are involved in telecommunications, energy, water, transport, banking, construction and public works, and agriculture.
The French commercial group, Bouygues, recently won the contract to construct the third bridge over the Abidjan lagoon. It is also the Ivorian electrical operator and supplier of Abidjan’s drinking water. Air France is the controlling interest of Air Ivoire, [Total] controls 38% of gas distribution in the country, and the French group Bolloré is involved in a bit of everything: transport, tobacco, rubber, coffee, and cocoa. In addition, semi-private, semi-public enterprises such as France Télécom control Côte d’Ivoire Télécom and the cell phone operator.
This economic attachment spills over into the political realm. Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, an economist at the United Nations Organisation for Industrial Development, remarks:
These post colonial multinationals put themselves in control of the productive and commercial sectors of the developing countries. They have built, in little time, capacities of influence, as much with politicians as with certain national company directors who come from the countries in question. How? Principally by financing electoral campaigns and other services…
Militarily, France is the key player in Ivory Coast. It maintains a permanent base 10 kilometres from Abidjan (43rd Bataillon d'infanterie de marine) and permits itself recourse to military intervention if Ivory Coast is threatened by a foreign aggressor. Houphouet-Boigny, during his thirty year dictatorship, agreed to maintain the Ivory Coast army in skeletal form. His adage: no army, no coup d’état.
Considering this configuration, France is intrinsically linked to Ivory Coast. Whether one calls this neo-colonialism or not, there exists a substantial economic stake for French business, as well as for the French state.
France was thus in a quagmire when the crisis hit on 19 September, 2002. Between the 1960s and the 1990s, it had intervened on the African continent over 20 times to protect its allies. But in the mid-1990s, as a result of international pressure and changing economic realities, the regime of Lionel Jospin took on a more cautious approach known as not interference, not indifference.
Paris could no longer afford to be involved in catastrophes such as the Rwandan genocide, nor was it profitable to support failed economies.
In 1999, Ivory Coast was rocked by its first coup d’état when General Robert Guei overthrew the crooked President Henri Konan Bédié. Jospin refused to dispatch his troops from the 43rd BIMA, which drew the consternation of conservative business interests in Abidjan. In 2002, with Jospin gone, replaced by the conservative [Jean-Pierre Raffarin], Jacques Chirac [...] opted for a more active role. According to Philippe Leymarie, journalist for Radio France Internationale, the justification for French deployment of troops and subsequent engagement in hostilities with rebel factions in the west is fourfold. First, France’s involvement may prevent Ivory Coast from imploding into a bloody ethnic war. Second, it counterbalances the United State’s presence in the region which is seen as a geopolitical threat to French de facto hegemony. Third, it checks and tempers the involvement of African states such as Nigeria and Angola that have the military might to join the fray if the price is right. Fourth, it impedes the profusion of mercenaries and arms.
Paris pledged to stay neutral, evacuate foreigners, support the ECOWAS peace negotiations and respect its accords with Ivory Coast. It officially calls the crisis a domestic dispute, even though foreign mercenaries (and probably foreign money) buffer rebel forces.
[...]
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