8/3/2019 La Monde Ivory Coast Conflict Isn't Over

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8NOVEMBER 2011LMDLe Monde diplomatique LMDLe Monde diplomatique NOVE

Early in the morning in Solo refugeecamp in eastern Liberia, a teenagegirl stands against a rubber tree, armsclamped around her protruding belly.

Setiches voice is calm but her eyes are alwayson the horizon. We heard people screamingand could smell houses burning, she says,remembering the day rebels appeared in hervillage of Bilique, in the west of Ivory Coast. Iwas in school. The rebels were firing guns. Ourteacher told us to run.

Setiche doesnt know anyone in the refugeecamp, a sea of white tents just put up for peoplewho have fled Ivory Coast (1). The only clothesshe has are those she was wearing when shefled her village. I ran into the forest and stayedthere for four days, hiding. I moved by nightso the rebels wouldnt find me. It took her aweek to reach the relative safety of Liberia. Sheis desperate to leave the camp, but has no wayof getting home: I dont know if my family isalive. I need someone to help me find them.

Half a million people displaced by the post-electoral violence in Ivory Coast are still afraidto return to their homes for fear of reprisals,and the country remains fragile and unstable(2). United Nations investigators have foundevidence that crimes against humanity murder,rape, and persecution of individuals and groupson political, ethnic, and national grounds have been committed by forces loyal to the WestAfrican countrys ex-president, Laurent Gbagbo,and by forces loyal to his opponent and successor,Alassane Ouattara (3). Both sides also committedwar crimes, including intentional attacks againstcivilians and the murder of people not taking anactive part in hostilities (4). At least 3,000 havebeen killed and hundreds of thousands displaced both within Ivory Coast and in neighbouringcountries. More than 170,000 people fled fromwestern Ivory Coast into Liberia.

A 12 October report by Oxfam, Care andthe Danish Refugee Council warns that ahumanitarian crisis of significant proportionsis still unfolding in Ivory Coast, threateningefforts to ensure peace, reconciliation and theability of people to return home and rebuild theirlives. Displaced people in Ivory Coast continue toexperience reprisals, violence and intimidation.The situation is still highly precarious andpeople affected by the conflict, particularly in thewest of the country, still have specific assistanceand protection needs, says Philippe Conraud,Oxfams regional humanitarian coordinator forWest Africa. The climate of fear and insecurityis not conducive to sustainable returns. Thearrest of Gbagbo on 11 April 2011 marked theend of the post-electoral violence but not of theethnic divisions and land disputes that have torncommunities apart in the west. The installationof the new government in Abidjan has not putan end to the insecurity in the region. Waves ofreprisal attacks, arbitrary arrests, killings, sexualviolence, verbal harassment and illegal taxationare keeping people in fear in a region awash withweapons.

Land disputes have been exacerbated by theconflict, the resulting displacement, and nowthe return of displaced people. It is feared thatdisputes will multiply as more people return totheir place of origin (5).

Despite the need for large-scale humanitariansupport, the UNs international emergencyappeal remains just 29% funded. The shortageof food is the overwhelming priority and lack ofshelter a major challenge. Transitional shelteris urgently needed for the displaced, particularly

for those who want to return to their homevillages but cant because their homes weredestroyed, says David Coomber, IOM chief ofmission in Ivory Coast.

In Zleh, a rural hamlet 30km from Solo camp,which at the peak of the conflict doubled its population of 1,300, Ivorians have started tocreate normality in their childrens lives. Helped by the childrens humanitarian agency, PlanLiberia, primary education is being provided,taught by Ivorian teachers who also escaped thefighting. Many of the children are traumatised they have seen their homes burnt and membersof their families raped or killed, before makingthe journey through the jungle to Liberia.

Oliver, 13, was shot in the foot when rebelsstormed into his house, looking for his father:I dont know why they wanted my father. Theydidnt ask him anything. They just took out theirguns and fired them into his head.

Mohamed Bah, country director of PlanLiberia, believes that there are many challengesfor children who have fled, but particularlythose who have witnessed violence first-hand.The children who have arrived unaccompaniedare especially vulnerable, and some could beexploited, sexually, or by being dragged intofurther conflict as child soldiers. Many ofthese children are deeply troubled by what

they have gone through, he says. Some havenightmares, others show signs of agitation orextreme emotion.

Child psychologist Paul Doykevee, whoworks in the camps along the border, believesthere are many challenges for children whoveexperienced war trauma. They are sometimesunable to concentrate. It is difficult for them.Some express themselves through violentgestures, or by becoming very frustrated.Others who may have lost contact with family

and friends may simply become withdrawnand silent. It all depends on the individual child.We try and offer support in different ways bykeeping children busy at school and also settingup recreational activities for children outsideof school hours to keep them as occupied aspossible. Since some of the children have noway of describing what they have gone through,we have been getting them to draw theirexperiences, using art therapy. Counselling isalso helping them to come to terms with eventsthey have gone through.

Ivory Coasts recent descent into violencecould have huge repercussions for a regionwhere roving militia are abundant. The situationis worrying on the border with Liberia, wherethere are hidden caches of arms and members ofthe former pro-Gbagbo militia in hiding, togetherwith Liberian mercenaries. Not enough is being done to protect the very many vulnerablechildren in the border regions, says MohamedBah from Plan. Though primary schooleducation has started there is no funding as yetfor secondary schools. This leaves teenagerswith little to do and vulnerable to being sucked back into fighting. Some of these young peopleare desperate, without food or livelihoods. Theyare bored and restless. If they are offered $50 totake up arms, it can be very tempting.

Angela Robson is a writer and BBC broadcasterand winner of the European Commissions LorenzoNatali Prize for Journalism for her article for LeMonde diplomatique,Sierra Leone:revenge andreconciliation(March 2008)

There are many challenges forchildren who have fled, butparticularly those who havewitnessed violence first-hand.Some could be exploited,sexually or by being dragged intofurther conflict as child soldiers.

Many of these children aredeeply troubled by what theyhave gone through

A Transitional Federal Government army recruit drills with a wooden stick in place of a rifle at the African Unions al-Jazira trainin

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Ivory Coast conflict isnt overHalf a million people who fled Ivory Coast during the post-election violence are afraid to return to their homes; many are in Liberia

where rival Ivorian militia are hiding and arms are plentiful. This could have consequences for the region

BY ANGELA ROBSON

AFRICA AWASH WITH CONFLICTS AND WEAPONS

Abdullahi walked slowly past makeshiftstalls in a crowded Mogadishumarket, dragging his right leg. Hes inhis fifties and unemployed, and relies

on overseas remittances sent by his daughterto survive. In 2007 he was shot by Somaliasincreasingly powerful Islamist militia, al-Shabab (Youth). The bullet blew a hole throughhis right leg, just below his groin.

Like many Somalis, Abdullahi is a casualtyof the conflict between Somalias TransitionalFederal Government (TFG) and al-Shabab. Hesays he supports the TFG but doesnt knowwhether it can succeed. But it has to, he said.Look at the roads, look at the rubbish: thisis what 20 years of no government does. Wecannot have another 20 years of war.

With renewed violence in October, the uneasypeace that has hung over Mogadishu since al-Shabab withdrew in early August may be over.Most analysts explain the withdrawal from thecapital city by pointing to rifts that emergedwithin the organisation when it attempted todefine who it should be fighting. Should it fightthe near enemyor the far enemy? Should itbe national in its focus, or international? Partof the global jihad or not? Pressure from othermilitia notably the Sufi-oriented Ahlu SunnaWal Jamaa compounded the organisationsproblems; so did the drying up of remittancesfrom the Somali diaspora.

According to William Reno, of NorthwesternUniversity in the US, al-Shabab placedemphasis on ideology at the expense ofpolitical pragmatism, and fought on too manyfronts at once. Theyve overplayed theirideological hand and annoyed enough peopleso that, in the end, the communities theycontrol are turning against them and starting tolook to other people. Reno, who has extensiveexperience throughout Africa, thinks that insome ways al-Shabab has pursued the sensiblealternative when trying to figure out how tounite communities to use religion. But, headded, in trying to articulate a religious ideathey are too ideological. So they are insensitiveto the political calculations and compromisesthey have to make. (Al-Shababs ideological persuasion is Takfiri, an ultra-conservativeinterpretation in which the killing of apostatesforms the core conceptual basis. Un-Islamiccultural practice is banned and a strict versionof sharia enforced.)

In 2008, for example, a 13-year-old girl,Asho Duhulow, was raped by three militiamen.

She took her case to a Kismayo courtadministered by al-Shabab and identified herassailants. The men were released, but Ashowas charged with adultery (1). She was takento a local sports ground, buried up to her neckand stoned to death. According to reports, al-Shabab militiamen opened fire on people whoattempted to intervene, killing one.

Yet, Somalia does not have a historydominated by Islamic extremism and mostanalysts note that al-Shababs ideology is anodd fit for Somalis. Political Islam emergedin the 1960s as Muslim Brotherhood ideologyspread through the Horn of Africa and Egyptsal-Azhar University funded religious schoolsin Mogadishu.

In the mid-1970s "former president SiadBarre introduced a new family law, ostensibly promoting gender equality as part of hisagenda of Scientific Socialism; this grantedwomen equal rights in the area of inheritance.Abdurahman M Abdullahi wrote in an essayentitled Women, Islamists and the Military Regime in Somalia, that the law enragedSomalias religious leaders who saw it as asecular assault on Islam at the level of the family.An Islamist movement began to crystallise.

Saudi Arabian Wahabbism was importedinto Somalia in the 1980s, via Saudi charities.By 1984 al-Ittihad al-Islamiya had emergedas a composite of two other radical groups.It morphed into a militant group in 1991, butsuffered a series of stinging defeats in the mid-1990s.

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) wasformed in the early 2000s; its basis is an ad hoccollection of Islamic courts that had administeredjustice in Somalia following the collapse of SiadBarres regime. By 2006 the UIC was seriouslychallenging Mogadishus warlords and tookcontrol of the capital in June, bringing stability but enforcing a strict form of sharia. The UICwas unacceptable to both Ethiopia and the UnitedStates, for geopolitical reasons. In December2006 Ethiopia, acting as a crude proxy for the US,formally launched strikes against the movementand quickly overwhelmed it. Al-Shabab, theUICs youth wing, emerged. Led by SheikhAden Hashi Ayro, who is said to have receivedtraining in insurgency tactics and explosives inAfghanistan in the 1990s, the organisation beganwaging war against the TFG and soon controlledmuch of south and central Somalia (2).

Some of the people perched behindstalls were from Bakara market, wclosed by the TFG as it sought Mogadishu after al-Shababs withdrstorekeeper said he felt as if he was obut did not think the peace wouldShabab was making problems for tIt was better they leave us. [But] thare from Bakara. By day they comesell, at night they fight with the gov

Others claim al-Shabab cannobut express concerns about whethewill act responsibly: the TFG is kncorrupt and there are doubts over western-style centralised system of gis relevant or can be effective in a cSomalia. But everyone agrees that involvement in the country would temporary peace. As Abdullahi pneed help now, but then they [the intcommunity] should leave.

But recent reports that the US is its capabilities throughout the Hornwhile unsurprising, do not bode could threaten Mogadishus shawhile strengthening al-Shababs infactions.

It is clear the US is at war in botand Somalia. How it manages thwill determine the damage to thWashingtons Somalia and Yemeseems similar to its Pakistan strtargeting leadership figures normdrone strikes operational ineemerge over time and hinder the abilnetworks to carry out attacks. Thethen fragment as disagreements ovcounter US tactics emerge, amid environment of rotating leadershipcharacterised by competition betweeleadership figures. Efficacy is lowerthreat becomes localised, rather than

But this strategy lacks an end gamcivilian casualties mount, the likeordinary people aligning themselveUSs targets increase. And so the USin a pointless rut. Expanded US enin Somalia gives al-Shababs intfactions a propaganda boost and cothe balance in its favour while hearifts within the group.

LMD ENGLISH EDITION EX

(1)Amnesty International, Somalia:AmputaPublicKillings MustStop, 15 May 2009.(2)MedhaneTadesse, ShariaCourts and Milin Stateless SomaliaHotspotHorn of Africa R

Approaches to MakeSenseof Conflict, LIT, B

Somalias uneasy peace

BY GLEN JOHNSON

Glen Johnson is a New Zealand journalist

ANDREWM

CCONNELL/PANOS

While some Ivorians have started returninghome from Liberia, hundreds, according toMedica Mondiale Liberia, which supportswomen and girls in crisis zones, are still arrivingin Liberia each week.

In the small village of Pouh Town, in easternLiberia, Josephine, 70, points to the forestsurrounding her small, borrowed hut and saysthe dense jungle saved her life when she fledher village of Toulepleu in western Ivory Coast.Josephine arrived in Pouh Town in July afteralmost three months hiding in the jungle. FromApril to July, the population of Pouh Town,around 15km from the border with Ivory Coast,doubled from 1,500 people to 3,000 with thehuge exodus of refugees.

It was the first time Id heard gunshots, saysJosephine. The village was overrun with rebels.They were wearing military uniforms. Whenthey started to fire, I started to run. They were burning down houses, locking people insidefirst. The rebels grabbed one man and shot himin the head. Then they cut out his intestines.

Josephine believes her village was attackedbecause people in the area have traditionallysupported ex-president Gbagbo. She said themajority of the people attacking Toulople weredozos, traditional hunters who have given theirbacking to Alassane Ouattara. When I reachedthe border with Liberia, rebels loyal to Ouattaramet us, saying it was safe to return home. So wewent back. There were only two places to go the school and the hospital. When we got closer,we realised it was a trick. We heard gunshotsand cries.

Josephines sister, her brother in law andher nephew were rounded up and killed. Shebelieves scores of people from her village werekilled that day. Ivory Coast is not secure. Therehas been all this talk of disarmament but therebels are still holding the arms. There has beenno reconciliation. Our homes have been burnt,our crops have gone. We are too afraid to goback.

Anu Pillay, head of Medica Mondiale, saysthat in Liberia an estimated two out of threewomen were raped during the civil war from1989 to 2003 around a million women. Despitesevere legislation against sexualised violence,rape is still among the most frequent crimes andthe majority of offenders are unpunished.

In April 2011, as Ivorian refugees started pouring over the border, Medica Mondiale became aware that many women and girlshad been raped or sexually assaulted. In onecase, a woman was raped by rebels, who thendecapitated her husband, says Anu Pillay. Shewas then forced, at gunpoint, to carry his headon her head until she reached the border withLiberia. We are also receiving reports of tortureand rape of women and girls, including the gangrape of a two year old girl.

Medica Mondiale believes that far morewomen and girls have been raped in Ivory Coastthan has been reported. This sexual violenceis going under the radar because women fearbeing stigmatised and rejected by communitiesand family members, and so rarely report whathas happened to them. Many of those targetedhave been done so because of their political orethnic affiliation. This kind of discriminationmust end, as well as impunity for such crimes.

The International Crisis Group believes thatthe government seems to be focusing more onpunishing the defeated rather than on bringingcharges against supporters of the new presidentwho also committed serious crimes. Distrust andfear have led to multiple rumours and violence,which in turn leads to further displacement andhinders freedom of movement. It warns that,without efforts at reconciliation in Ivory Coast,resentment could once again lead to inter-ethnic violence. The next months are crucial.The new government must avoid the narcoticof power that has caused so many disastrousdecisions over recent decades Reconciliationand justice are imperative.

LMD ENGLISH EDITION EXCLUSIVE

(1)For agood analysis, seeVladimirCagnolari, IvoryCoasts struggle forsuccession,LeMonde dipomatique,English edition, February 2011.(2)A CriticalPeriod forEnsuring Stability in CtedIvoire, InternationalCrisis Group, 1 August 2011;Theykilled themlike itwas nothing:the need forjusticeforCtedIvoires post-election crimes,Human Rights Watch ,5 October2011.(3)Towards durablesolutions for displaced Ivoirians,Care, Danish RefugeeCounciland Oxfam, 12 October2011.(4)Cte dIvoire:rebranding thearmy, IntegratedRegionalInformation Networks, 5 October2011.(5)InternationalCrisis Group, op.cit.

The village of Janzon has 10,400 refugees,far outnumbering the 1,800local Liberians who are providing food and shelter,despite their ownlimited means.Conditions for both refugees and villagers are bad, andonly set to worsen as more displaced people arrive every day

Ivorian refugee children have begun attendingschool in Nimba County:a regular routineoffers a semblance of normal life,helping toreduce the trauma of their displacement

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