Ivory Coast and French interference

The level of French meddling in the affairs of Ivory Coast doesn't cease to amaze and appall:

French news media are reporting a colonel says he was ordered to kill an Ivorian from the former head of France's peacekeeping operations in Ivory Coast. The colonel is among four soldiers under investigation in the death of the man last May in the West African country (background). According to reports by French news agencies and radio, Colonel Eric Burgaud says he received implicit orders to kill an Ivorian by Henri Poncet, the former head of France's peacekeeping mission in the Ivory Coast.

The leader of Ivory Coast's rebel movement has asked U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to help end a political impasse by drafting a new peace plan in which the two warring sides would share power.The world's top cocoa grower, split into a government-held south and rebel-controlled north by a 2002 civil war, is searching for a new prime minister to organize a presidential election by next October, as required by a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last month. Rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who has been clamoring for the post, wrote to Annan saying the plan had failed because not all political parties had been consulted and because it was open to wide interpretation.

Probably Chirac is pulling Annan's jacket to favor Soro while everyone is trying his hand at resolving the situation, with very little success:

Three African presidents -- Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Niger's Mamadou Tandja -- visited Ivory Coast last week but failed to broker an agreement on who should be the new prime minister.

The truth might be found in the words of Charles Blé Goudé, leader of the Ivorian Young Patriots: ''J'accuse le Pre'sident de la France de financier la rebellion en Cote d'Ivoire'' (I accuse France President of financing the revolt in Ivory Coast); he went on to warn that all information reaching Europe from the country is filtered by France.

This partition of the country (that's what it is) will continue for a long time and might even end up being the only practical solution to the country's irreconcilable factions.

France, Chirac, Ivory Coast