| I don't share the Schadenfreud that everybody else seems to be feeling on the Frenchies' predicament. I don't like it when the women and kiddies are subjected to abuse and atrocity. Most of them are merely running businesses and trying to make a go of things. When they got there, Ivory Coast was a mostly civilized place and now the ground's fallen out from under them. On the other hand, I'm feeling more and more contempt for Chirac's subtle strategy of taking sides in the country's internal problems, backing the rebels, and then flexing his Francomuscles by banging the country's air force and besieging Gbagbo's house. They're leaving with their tails between their legs and they've totally screwed up their citizens' interests within Ivory Coast. Brilliant. Just brilliant. |
Frightened foreigners kept packing into Ivory Coast's international airport Saturday to be evacuated home, despite promises by President Laurent Gbagbo's government to protect them after a surge of anti-Western violence. France, the West African nation's colonial ruler, and other countries have flown out more than 3,300 foreigners — including Americans — since Wednesday, embassy officials said, in what they expect will be one of the largest evacuations from Africa in post-independence times. Gbagbo's office issued a statement late Friday urging foreigners to stay, saying it was taking steps to assure their safety. But after more than two years of intermittent civil war, many Westerners were skeptical of Gbagbo's assurances. "This is the lull before the storm," said a French businessman working in Ivory Coast's lucrative cocoa industry, who gave his name only as Olivier. He spoke by telephone from the coastal town of Bassam, where he said just 25 of 175 expatriates remained.Busloads of Westerners continued to pull up to Abidjan's airport, under heavy French guard, to catch flights home. Most were French, but the evacuees also included hundreds of Britons and scores of people from the United States, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries. The mayhem erupted Nov. 6 when Ivory Coast warplanes struck a French position, killing nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker, amid a series of government bombardments on the rebel-held north. The attacks broke a cease-fire that was more than a year old. France retaliated by wiping out the country's tiny air force, sparking an uprising by loyalist youths in the south who took to the streets of Abidjan and other cities armed with machetes, iron bars and clubs.
| Yep. That worked well. |