Gbagbo, originally elected President of Ivory Coast, and deposed by the French Army with the backing of the United States and the rebel forces loyal to Allasane Ouattara, who now serves as President by international fiat, has been held in a detention camp in The Hague since last year.
The International Criminal Court has charged Gbagbo with crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, crimes which he never did himself nor ordered to be done to others. We believe that it is true that the Ivorian people were brutalized in the sectarian strife and conflict that resulted from the attempt to overturn the legitimate systems of government in Ivory Coast. We also believe that the commercial and business interests of the French nation as promoted by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy emboldened the northern forces in the country and created chaos that resulted in Gbagbo and the nation’s military seeking to stabilize the nation during a time of intense outside military pressure, including the dropping of bombs, missile attacks, the destruction of war materiel, and the terrorizing of citizens who supported the government. The hands of the West are not clean in this situation. Any attempt to smear Gbagbo without calling attention to the legitimate interest of a ruling government to protect itself from assault will show the evil intentions of the ICC.
The 3000 people who were killed and the hundreds of thousands who were displaced during the strife were not a result of any action arbitrarily taken by Laurent Gbagbo. As Afrocentricity International reported before, the election in Ivory Coast was initially declared in favor of Gbagbo by the top juridical body for elections in the country. The election of Gbagbo was disputed by those who supported Alassane Ouattara although there had been verified reports of election irregularities in the north. Rebels in the north who had never agreed to the authority of Gbagbo seized upon this situation to undermine the government. Gbagbo’s response to the challenge was as any government would have done to seek to stabilize the nation in order to have a rational discourse on the way forward. France, Ouattara, and the rebels would not have any of this.
Gbagbo remains a powerfully unifying symbol of Ivorian independence and nothing this court can do will take that status away from him. This action by the ICC is another attempt to undermine and destroy African independence.
No former president of any European nation has been dragged before the ICC and yet we know that the hands of European and American leaders are not clean of the blood of thousands of dead civilians in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ivory Coast.
Afrocentricity International, a global African organization, states categorically that this is a Western-inspired witch-hunt against a Pan African leaning African leader. Like other leaders, Gbagbo was not perfect, but there is nothing that he has done that should provoke anyone to bring him before the International Criminal Court. If he is tried it will further divide Ivory Coast and bring the ICC into greater disrepute among African people. How it is that one man, Laurent Gbagbo, is considered responsible for abuses but not Ouattara or those who fought to sit him in the Presidency of the country. Afrocentricity International calls for an immediate release of President Gbagbo to his family!
Per-aat Dr. Ama Mazama, Afrocentricity International; International Organizer, Dr. Molefi Kete Asante
