Killing Women
With yet another African 'democratic' leader stalwartly demurring at the final results at the ballot box, another emergency has erupted with Ivory Coast verging on civil war. Kenya and Zimbabwe and other African countries have paved the way in democratic contortions where the old guard feels entitled to remain on active call, rejecting the peoples' alternate choice.Ivorian women in Abidjan doubtless felt they would be safer than their men, in confronting forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo. They were women, after all, and perhaps a vestige of chivalry or the slightest concern that some of them were pregnant, might have been assumed to have cautioned that violence would not be in anyone's best interest. It was not to be.
Of the women fired upon by the first of the advancing tanks, six were shot dead, and the rest scattered in fear for their lives. One of the women described later how she had witnessed one woman's head being blasted open, and this was the first time she'd ever seen the interior of anyone's head. She described a pregnant woman's belly exploding in the assault.
Women on the Continent of Africa must be hardy souls to survive life there at the best of times. Their safety and security never seems quite assured. As frighteningly insecure a man's life can be under threat of violence, women's state is even more fraught with danger. With girls and women commonly raped, and in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, rape is a morbid war epidemic.
A top African envoy to the United Nations has cautioned UN peacekeeping elites that more time should be allotted to finding a solution between President Gbagbo and the presidential vote winner, Alassane Ouattara. That the African Union is hard at work trying to negotiate acceptable terms to both parties to effect a final agreement.
The UN Security Council as usual, deplores the situation, as they "condemn the threats, obstructions and acts of wanton violence perpetrated" by Gbagbo's loyal troops preying on the protesters who support his rival. Civilians and UN troops alike are in danger, but the African Union is prepared to bide its time.
The Ivory Coast ambassador himself insisted that the UN troops stationed in his country, 11,000-strong, must undertake "tougher" action to protect civilians. He is not prepared to accept condemnatory statements on the part of the Security Council, without adequate action to back them up.
Which effectively encourages Gbagbo to continue setting his armed forces in their tanks, machine-gunning women at his leisure.
Labels: Africa, Human Rights, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 04, 2011
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