How many civil wars and massacres can the world deal with, at one time? The situation in Ivory Coast now threatens to rival Libya for bloodshed, mayhem and human-rights abuses. Descriptions of the situation in Abidjan, once one of Africa’s most cosmopolitan cities, sound desperate. There are also reports of massacres and mass atrocities in fighting outside the capital. All this raises the obvious question. If the UN and western military forces are prepared to intervene so forcefully in Libya, why has the response to Ivory Coast been so relatively feeble?
The question of precedent is one reason why all “humanitarian interventions” are so tricky. Another is that the world is harder to divide into “goodies” and “baddies” than the West often likes to think.
That point is underlined by the fact that the forces accused of a massacre in the Ivorian town of Duekoue are those loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the former IMF official who is widely regarded as the legitimate winner of the Ivorian presidential election last year, and therefore as the “goodie” in this story. It is Mr Ouattara who enjoys the backing of the UN, the African Union and the major western powers. So reports of massacres by his forces, complicate matters massively.
I wonder how long before the Libyan rebels do something really terrible?
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