Gbagbo and Outtarra Share Responsibility, So Does the UN

It’s all over in the Ivory Coast. Laurent Gbagbo’s gamble didn’t pay off. One might wonder what would have been the outcome if the international community had seriously tried to negotiate a settlement between Gbagbo and Outtarra. Certainly, there would have been many fewer lives lost and less damage to the already feeble infrastructure of the Ivory Coast. One might also wonder what the outcome would have been if the UN forces, mainly French, had not begun a bombardment of Gbagbo’s presidential compound yesterday.

But, that’s a what-if tale. The facts are that Gbagbo has been driven out of power and Outtarra has been ushered in by the international community. However, the ethnic, religious and tribal issues have not even been addressed, let alone resolved.

On a French television program last night, experts debated the results of the recent “war.” The president of an association of African newspapers, the only African on the panel, said that no matter who is president, the Ivory Coast is badly split along tribal and religious lines - the northern Muslim tribes supporting Outtarra, and the southern Christian tribes supporting Gbagbo. His analysis is that civil war is inevitable and a settlement, however just, will make little difference.

Today, French commentators are calling for an exile for Gbagbo and his family, in an attempt to prevent his supporters from exacting revenge for his arrest. France knows something about the Ivory Coast because it was a French colony until its independence in 1960. French is the official language in the country, which has numerous local languages.

The United Nations and its overly zealous leaders have made one big mistake in letting Outtarra and Gbagbo fight it out. Let’s hope they don’t make a second big mistake in their attempts to assess guilt.

If, as is being discussed, Laurent Gbagbo is tried for war crimes, there will be real justice only if Outtarra is sitting in the dock with him.