Real-politik Meets Real-ethics

There have been two elections in the world this past week - one in Belarus and one in Ivory Coast - both meant to elect new presidents.

The Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won a fourth term in a one-sided battle that ended with one of his opponents and more than 600 others in jail in the protests that developed after the election results were announced. Lukashenko called them “vandals and thugs.” Three defeated presidential candidates were injured, some said by police, some said by protesters. They were hospitalized but were removed from hospital and interrogated by “authorities.” The Belarus Central Election Commission said that voter turnout was 90% and that the Commission has received no complaints. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe cautioned that the election was an improvement over past elections, but “Belarus still has a considerable way to go in meeting its OSCE commitments.”

The OSCE has often expressed concern about the status of civil and political rights in Belarus. In its statement Monday it remarked on the detention of candidates as well as activists, journalists and others.

"While voting on election day was overall assessed positively, the process deteriorated significantly during the vote count, with observers assessing almost half of vote counts monitored as bad or very bad," the OCSE said. "This undermined the steps that had been taken to improve the election." "This election failed to give Belarus the new start it needed," said Tony Lloyd, the leader of a short-term OSCE mission. "The counting process lacked transparency. The people of Belarus deserved better. And, in particular, I now expect the government to account for the arrests of presidential candidates, journalists and human rights activists."

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once called Lukashenko "the last dictator in Europe."

Russian President Medvedev, speaking on Russian state television Monday, said that Moscow expects Belarus to continue "to develop as a modern state based on democracy" after the election. "No matter who the leader is, Belarus will always be one of the states closest to us," Medvedev said.

I give all this detail to show the extent to which the Belarus election was a “fraud” on its citizens, and to compare it to the recent presidential election in Ivory Coast. The vote there was very close, and Mr.Outtara was declared the winner by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission before the Constitutional Council, closely aligned with Gbagbo, tossed out votes from Ouattara’s stronghold in the northern areas, because of what it called "flagrant irregularities."

UN peacekeepers have been in Ivory Coast for several years, trying to keep separate the two main political factions in the country. Mr. Gbabgo asked them to leave after he accused them, mostly French, of helping and arming the other faction. It might be added that France has economic ties to the country and would certainly not want the election to endanger them or the French citizens living and working in Ivory Coast.

Gbagbo’s refusal to step down has brought down the wrath of Europe, the UN, and just last night, the White House. All have asked the outgoing President Gbagbo to step down immediately and turn over the government to his opponent, who has declared himself president. But, Gbagbo has also been sworn in, so we have two presidents in Ivory Coast. To give Gbabgo his due, he has denounced street violence and has offered to permit an independent outsider to review the election results and give an opinion. Meanwhile, Mr. Gbabgo, should he want to leave the country, will find that he cannot get a European visa.

Ban-Ki-Moon, Un Secretary General, said Friday that Gbagbo's efforts to stay in power "cannot be allowed to stand," adding that anything other than his removal from office "would make a mockery of democracy... There will be consequences for those who have perpetrated or orchestrated any such actions, or (who) do so in the future," Ban said. "The results of the election are known. There was a clear winner. There is no other option," Ban said.

The situations in Belarus and Ivory Coast are both troubling and tragic. They are also perhaps the best current examples of the impossibility of exporting European-American democracy into areas neither culturally nor politically prepared to accept it.

But, I have only one question  - why would the world let Belarus pass by with only the barest of criticisms while Ivory Coast is feeling the full weight of Western muscle over its very similar situation?

I don’t know the answer, but I cannot help but wonder if it has everything to do with the West’s need to keep Russia happy, while Ivory Coast is a very small player on the world scene. That people are being bullied and killed in both countries surely ought to override any real-politik issues. There are times when "real-ethics" surely must take precedence.