FRANCE PROBES ANTI-FRENCH VIOLENCE IN IVORY COAST

Paris prosecutors said Thursday they had opened a preliminary inquiry into anti-French violence committed in Ivory Coast last year, including alleged attempted murder, rapes, robberies and looting.

Prosecutors say their investigation of 136 complaints filed by French citizens who returned home after the spate of anti-foreigner violence in the west African state in November 2004 will take several months.

Some 8,000 foreign civilians fled the country, once a model of calm and stability in west Africa.

Now that's all well and good, malefactors of any stripe should be brought to justice. But will the French ever look into this and this? And who in M. Perben's office is looking into this:

FRENCH DENY ATTEMPT TO KILL IVORY COAST LEADER

French peacekeepers in Ivory Coast denounced Monday as a "crude rumour without any base in truth" information in the pro-government media that their troops had attempted to kill President Laurent Gbagbo.

The Notre Voie (Our Path) daily linked to Gbagbo's ruling Ivorian Popular Front party charged that French troops tried to assassinate Gbagbo on Saturday [January 29] at Abidjan's airport by shooting down his plane when he was leaving for the African Union summit in Nigeria.

The French peacekeeping contingent said the paper had turned a small misunderstanding into a "fantasy".

Gbagbo, has repeatedly accused the French, who helped broker a peace deal to end a rebellion two years ago, of working against his regime.

Hhmmm, in the space of a paragraph the French telling goes from "crude rumour without any base in truth" to "a small misunderstanding". What might that small misunderstanding -- a misunderstanding being something with at least a toe-hold in truth -- be?

Circulez, il n'y a rien à voir.

Damian,

Would you at least take the time to really find out what kind of guy Bgagbo is and what he has done, or do you have a weakness for this well-known ethnic-cleanser, self-professed Marxist? On a bright note and this should make you very proud, he has accused Chirac of being another "Bin Laden".

France has welcomed a UN enquiry into last year's shootings (interesting how Kalashikoff rounds were found littered around Ivorian corpses). Note that no-one, not the US, not the African Congress, has objected to France intervention and arm embargo against Bgagbo.

Only Pave, bien entendu , and mister Kaddafi.

M. Zmx,

This is a fair request.

It will come as a surprise to you, but we are clued to the fact that Mr. Gbagbo is not an angel. We also know that the New Forces rebel group is not a bunch of Boy Scouts on jamboree.

But, of course, our argument isn't with Mr. Gbagbo.

We struggle here to understand French hand-wringing over America toppling Saddam and restoring Iraq to the people of Iraq while France thinks nothing of stomping around Côte d'Ivoire like she owned it.

So here is a fair request in turn.

At least take the time to really find out what kind of guy Saddam is and what he has done, or do you have a weakness for this well-known ethnic-cleanser and self-professed fascist?

DGB

The difference, Damian, is while Saddam regime was an odious one (and I suppose Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are stellar examples of Freedom and Democracy), the war was illegal and unnecessary (many Americans including top military officials such as Mr. Zinni agree). Bagbo asked France for protection first, before breaking a peace accord and resuming his thugish tactics and blowing off nine French peacekeepers (and lying about it before acknowledging the fact). Bgagbo got what he deserved and he should be lucky the situation has stabilized quickly. France has intervened many times in Africa at the request of former colonies (evacuating Americans too), where was your outrage?

We also know that the New Forces rebel group is not a bunch of Boy Scouts on jamboree.

And why is that? France tried to include them in Bgagbo's government, same as the US welcoming Sunnis and other ethnic groups into the new Iraki government? Maybe we should have let Mr Bgagbo and his party pursue his politics of terror against minorities?