The presidency of Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast is over. Backed primarily by French forces, with an assist from United Nations “peacekeepers,” forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara have seized the presidential palace and arrested Gbagbo. Welcoming this turn of events, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton postured and preened, playing tough guy in her official statement, saying in part:
“This transition sends a strong signal to dictators and tyrants throughout the region and around the world: they may not disregard the voice of their own people in free and fair elections and there will be consequences for those who cling to power.”
First and foremost one has to ask how a “dictator” can organize a “free and fair election?” U.S. imperialist phraseology is transparently ridiculous. Gbagbo went from being a legitimate part of an election to being a “dictator,” in order to dress-up blatant Western neo-colonialist meddling as a righteous mission of justice.
One has to wonder where the consequences are for the Saudi royal family? The Saudi royals do not even hold elections, and brutally enforce a social system where, among other things, women can not even drive cars! Yet Saudi sheikhs are feted at the highest levels in Washington, New York, Paris, and London. Their money buys huge office towers and luxury hotels, endows chairs at major universities and fattens the pockets of U.S. and British military contractors. Women’s rights, human rights, democracy and elections are non-factors in imperialist-Saudi relations. Obviously to the U.S. and European imperialists, “freedom” means the freedom to oppress your people as much as you want, as long as you stay close to the warm bosom of international capitalism.
Even more ludicrously French imperialism, and their helpmates at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, have attempted to claim their intervention is motivated by “humanitarian concerns.” However, reports have emerged this week about the conduct of the forces loyal to Ouattara. Human Rights Watch, the world’s most notable bourgeois humanitarians, report that Ouattara’s supporters “summarily executed and raped perceived Gbagbo supporters in their homes, as they worked in the fields, as they fled, or as they tried to hide in the bush.”
Furthermore South African newspaper the Mail & Guardian summarized one section of the report: “The report said that many were targeted for their ethnicity and Ouattara’s Republican forces have killed, raped, and pillaged the predominantly Guere population, who largely supported Gbagbo in the election.”
The French claim that they have based their intervention on “humanitarian” concern for civilians is clearly a lie. France, the United States and the U.N. obviously have no compunction about using military force to install a government that was more than willing to use the most brutal methods to secure power. Even more cynically Ouattara’s government is now expressing their desire to try Gbagbo for his “crimes.”
The lesson to draw from this is that from the point of view of imperialism, there is no such thing as African sovereignty, despite the formal end of colonialism. All reasons given for intervening in Ivory Coast are outright lies, half-truths, or massive distortions. What actually took place? The preferred government of the imperialist nations was denied power, so France, fronting for the imperialist camp, deployed nearly two thousand troops and high-tech attack helicopters to make sure the desired outcome took place.
This is fully in line with the history of imperialist policy towards Africa in the post-colonial era. Governments who fall in with imperialism can be as oppressive as they like. Those who do not go along with imperialism are labeled as undemocratic dictators. Imperialist nations use everything from sanctions to military intervention to attempts to manipulate the policies of a particular country until they can bring to power a government more to their liking.
Gbagbo is no saint. In fact he represents another clique of nationalist bourgeois types, who in their decade in power did little for average Ivorians. That being said the removal of Gbagbo makes a complete mockery of the idea of “democracy.” Imagine how the U.S. government would have reacted if China gave support to an armed uprising of citizens in West Palm Beach attempting to unseat George Bush after he stole the 2000 election!
Anyone who believes that those who plundered and exploited Africa should not have a veto over the political systems in African nations, must oppose this intervention by France and the U.N. and condemn the moral support given by the United States.
