French and US Embassies Mobbed...

Cohen · Jan 29, 2003

...the French one was attacked, and the US one was sung to ...the 'Star Spangled Banner'.

Apparently, the French brokered a peace treaty in the Ivory Coast between the government and rebels, and the citizens are quite angry with the French. (I saw video on BBC news last night with posters like 'USA is Better'. I bet the French cannot stand that. )

The crowds appear to believe that we can/are doing something different than the French, although the State Dept says we support the French-sponsored accord. Here we have a country that is saying things like "Our freedom is in your hands, U.S.A." , and we don't even hear about it on our news. Why is that?

I hope all of the French are able to evacuate unharmed. The situation sounds rather unstable.

Mobs Outside U.S. Embassy in Ivory Coast
Tue Jan 28, 9:51 AM ET

By AUSTIN MERRILL, Associated Press Writer

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Thousands of government loyalists surrounded the U.S Embassy in Ivory Coast Tuesday to demand that Washington oppose a peace deal they say concedes too much to rebel forces.

Ivory Coast Protests Urge U.S Intervention
Gbagbo Appeals For Calm in Ivory Coast

Waving U.S. flags, the 6,000 people appealed to Washington to block the French-brokered power-sharing accord with rebels who control about half of Ivory Coast, once the economic engine of West Africa.

Cheering crowds mobbed the car of a few Americans who ventured out, chanting, "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" and pleading for American support. Heavily armed U.S. soldiers looked on.

Organizers passed out lyrics of the "Star-Spangled Banner" for the crowd to sing. One protester carried a sign that read, "Our freedom is in your hands, U.S.A."

The U.S. State Department already has said it supports the accord and has urged both sides to comply with it. That stance appears not to have sunk in with the loyalists.

An e-mail sent out overnight to Americans in Ivory Coast told them to consider taking steps to prepare for a possible U.S. evacuation, such as packing bags.

The U.S. Embassy closed Monday and Tuesday. Embassy officials called it a precaution despite expectations any protests there would be peaceful.

The march came after President Laurent Gbagbo appealed to his supporters to stop rioting against the peace deal that seeks to end Ivory Coast's 4-month-old civil war. The deal was announced Friday, and since Saturday, mobs have beaten westerners and attacked the French Embassy and other French targets.

On Tuesday, the French military sent soldiers to escort about 250 foreigners into Abidjan from their weekend retreats on outlying beaches.

The move did not signal the start of an evacuation, French army spokesman Lt. Col. Ange-Antoine Leccia said.

Storefronts in downtown Abidjan were gated and bolted shut on Tuesday. Sidewalks and streets were covered in broken glass and the rocks

Gbagbo has urged loyalists to accept the power-sharing deal with the rebels, saying over the weekend that the government had not won the civil war and thus could not impose its own terms.

Rebels claim that the deal gives them control of the ministries that oversee the army and other security forces. Government loyalists say that gives the rebels too much power, and even the military has called the deal "humiliating."

Late Monday, Gbagbo gave signs his own support for the deal could be wavering.

Speaking to crowds of people gathered outside his home Monday, Gbagbo called the peace deal terms "propositions."

"In all cases, even if we take what was drawn up, we are obligated to ask the people" for approval, he said.

At Tuesday's rally, protesters said they would pay close attention to Gbagbo's much-anticipated address to the nation, expected in the next few days.

The president "told us he'd signed nothing in Paris," said Dominique Flan, his face covered in traditional mud paint. "If he ends up telling us different, we'll take him out."

In Paris, Ivory Coast's former colonial rulers urged Gbagbo to hold the line.

"It is up to President Gbagbo to explain to his militants, to explain to the extremists of his camp the spirit in which (the agreement) was made," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told France-2 television.

France has 2,500 troops in Ivory Coast, deployed to protect foreigners and try to enforce a frequently violated cease-fire in Ivory Coast's war.

Rebels took up arms Sept. 19, accusing Gbagbo and his southern-based government of fanning ethnic tensions. Rebels since have seized the northern half of Ivory Coast and parts of the cocoa- and coffee-rich west.

The French-brokered accord reached last week calls upon the government, rebels and political opposition to share power in a transitional government until 2005 elections.

Violence has targeted African immigrants as well, along with people from Ivory Coast who come from outside the government base in the south.

Ethnic fighting flared Tuesday in Agboville, 30 miles north of Abidjan, with six reported killed in the first hours, army spokesman Lt. Co. Jules Yao Yao said.

The Christian Abbey majority ethnic group there was said to be attacking the Dioula Muslim minority.

Click to expand...

RocketMan Tex · Jan 29, 2003

C'mon Junior, can't we fight three wars on three continents simultaneously AND fix the economy???

Let's Roll...right down the crapper!

MadMax · Jan 29, 2003

Originally posted by RocketMan Tex
C'mon Junior, can't we fight three wars on three continents simultaneously AND fix the economy???

Let's Roll...right down the crapper!
Click to expand...

your glass is half-empty

Cohen · Jan 29, 2003

Originally posted by RocketMan Tex
C'mon Junior, can't we fight three wars on three continents simultaneously AND fix the economy???

Let's Roll...right down the crapper!
Click to expand...

I don't think this is an issue of war for us, but it should at least make our news if so many people are relying on us to do something. Some foreigners apparently believe that we still stand for something good.

RocketMan Tex · Jan 29, 2003

Originally posted by MadMax
your glass is half-empty
Click to expand...

That's easily fixable.

Now where's that dadburned bottle of George Dickel when I need it?????

robbie380 · Jan 29, 2003

haha...this is great. i love how they are sticking it to the frenchies. the frenchies are a bunch of jerks anyways. plus they are right when they say the usa is better. france is everything that it says the usa is, except for the fat part...we are just fat. the french are full of themselves, uncaring, and lazy.

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