Ouattara Passing Troops in Review

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Ouattara Passing Troops in Review

Authorities in Ivory Coast arrested 57 soldiers from the government of former president Laurent Gbagbo under accusations ranging from murder and kidnapping to buying illegal arms, the prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.

At least 24 members of the Gbagbo’s government have been detained after the president-elect Alassane Ouattara took office in April. They stand accused of the same crimes as the 57 soldiers.

Some of the ministers have even been charges, but critics complain that those who were fighting for Ouattara have not been indicted though they also committed abuses. The UN mission has documented 26 extrajudicial killings committed by the presidential troops since Ouattara took office.

Former president Laurent Gbagbo was arrested and is awaiting for the trial to begin. He is accused of the fact that he clung to power after losing elections in November 2010, and that the crisis he created brought the death of 3,000 people killed in the unrest that followed and the economy was ruined.

Ivory Coast went through presidential elections in November 2010, and their result was undecided because the then president Laurent Gbagbo pretended he won after the national election commission annulled enough votes cast for Ouattara so that Gbagbo may be declared winner.

Ouattara was arrested and placed under house surveillance at a hotel in the centre of the country. The international community recognized Ouattara as the winner of the elections, and demanded Gbagbo to recognize the result and step down.

Gbagbo continued to claim he was the winner and refused to stand down even when the African Union presented him with a proposition to stand down and go into exile.

Gbagbo's Arrest

At a certain point, in January, the military option of ousting him was tabled by Ecowas, the economic cooperation body in West Africa. The proposition was met with disapproval by Ghana, the most influential member of the continental organization.

Ghana and South Africa contended that irregularities had been committed by both sides, but that Gbagbo was the president of Ivory Coast.

Once the military option postponed, the Ecowas approved a plan to cut Gbagbo off the funds in hopes that his army will leave him soon after he ran out of money. The plan did not work because the subsidiaries of the West African bank could not refuse to give him money even after his signatory right was revoked.

At that moment, the president-elect demanded the cocoa traders all over the world to refuse trading with Gbagbo’s regime, a plan that did not work either because there was possible to smuggle enough production through Ghana and sell it.

At the same time these measures were being applied fighting broke out in the neighborhoods of the capital where Ouattara had supporters.

Almost a million people were displaced and the prospect of the country sinking into a new civil war determined a swift military operation that ended in the ousting of Gbagbo and in his arrest.

The French troops said their implication in this episode was minimum but it is believed that they were the ones to smoke Gbagbo out of his bunker. Alassane Ouattara became the next president of Ivory Coast soon after this military action.

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