Opinions of Friday, 20 May 2011

Columnist: Transient Justice

Atta Mills must not go to Ouattara's inauguration

It has been over 5 months since the Ivorian crisis started. A controversial election occurred and there was uncertainty about the result.The international community rushed to recognize Ouattara but, Gbagbo believing in his countries Constitution held on to power fighting for it. Western forces all essentially called the Constitution toilet paper and it all culminated in French special forces and "Peace Keepers" bombing Gbagbo out of his bunker and permitting Alassane Ouattara to become the president. Eventually the Constitutional council after Gbagbo had been "bombed out" decided to confirm the constitutional was toilet paper by changing their initial ruling! On Saturday, May 21, 2011 Ouattara will be sworn in as the president of Ivory Coast amidst instability. I am of the opinion that Atta Mills should not go.

Atta Mills should not go because, he was right. When the military solution was used, numerous people were massacred simply due to where they lived. In the western town of Duekoue over 1000 unarmed civilians were massacred. The International Colonial Court(ICC) has been talking looking into crimes committed by Gbagbo yet, the massacres of Duekoue are only now being vaguely mentioned. I doubt much will be done for the people! Why? Simply put, the area was viewed as pro-Gbagbo thus, the people were deemed not worthy of protection thus, how can those not worth of protection be worthy of justice? They can't be!

Atta Mills should not go because Guillaume Kigbafori Soro insulted our dignity by accusing us of supporting a coup! How dare he? Does he think if we wanted to interfere in his countries internal affairs we could not push all the way to his village in Diawala? He obviously lacks the ability to speak diplomatically and his utterances are not befitting of a senior government official. If he had common sense he would realize that the government of Atta Mills even though it gave an opinion stayed neutral. The clearest example is the fact that no Ivoiran produced Cocoa was exported through Ghana. Surely if we did not have the Ivoiran best interest in mind we would have exported their cocoa. In the bigger picture Ghanaian peacekeepers were sent and protected many civilians and important officials thus, the talk is infantile and frankly sophomoric and embarrassing!

Atta Mills should not go because some media men in Ivory Coast are promoting dirty propaganda and lies.

For example an article by Ivorian journalist Paul Kudu calls our 700 KM coastline with Ivory Coast, 700 KM of permanent danger! Translated Source: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.abidjan.net%2Fh%2F399415.html

Such vile propaganda in this age must be taken seriously thus, honoring an invitation in a very disrespectful media culture is not a good idea. Instead of taking responsibility and fixing the situation some journalist have instead chosen to play the blame game and promote propaganda.

There are even some who are accusing Mills of being funded by Gbagbo for his last election

Translated Source: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.abidjan.net%2Fh%2F399410.html

This is part of the culture of believing that there are no men of integrity left in Africa who stand for JUSTICE! Well there are and Atta Mills is one!

Atta Mills should not go to the event because of the immoral presence which will saturate the environment. The event is going to be filled with many killers or those who promoted the violent solution which failed. That solution failed because, over 1000 people died when careless soldiers decided to massacre unarmed citizens. Even today the citizens of Duekoue fear leaving their homes due to what happened to them when their cries for help were ignored. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13451533

Thus, why go to an event when your great advice was not followed and the results were failure? Why go when the Prime Minister insulted our dignity by accusing us of criminal acts? Your pretense there will only be a source of humiliation for the war mongers in the crowd. Your presence there will only be a source of humiliation for all those who have been in power for longer than 10 years and promoted the violent solution which failed! Your presence is going to be a source of humiliation for those who invited and sought to attack another African nation! If you insist on going make sure you smile because in the end you got the last laugh but, don't smile too much because everyone ended up a loser and many dangerous precedents were set.