The Ivory Coast Massacre
by Jeffrey Miron on April 2nd, 2011
3 Comments
DAKAR, Senegal — As rebels swept across Ivory Coast in a rapid advance to oust the nation’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, hundreds of people were killed in a single town last week, by far the worst episode of violence reported in the four-month political crisis that has plunged the country back into civil war.
The exact number of dead was unclear. The United Nations said Saturday that 330 people had been killed, while the International Committee of the Red Cross put the death toll at 800 or more.
So, why are we intervening in Libya but not Ivory Coast? I wonder if it’s the “O” word.
Categories: My Blog
Harvard student
I would like to remind Prof. Miron that there are UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast.
bob
The US is intervening in Libya because it’s an Arab country. This is part of the US-Iran cold war. The US government would lose influence to Iran if the message is that only US-allied Arab dictators lost power following protests.
pat toche
but we are, have been and will, the Ivory Coast has been in a state of civil war for several years now, the UN and the French: we’re there big time.