COLONIAL LEGACY: The French leader emphasized the cooperation between his country and the UK, but warned against imposing Western democracy on the world
mmmm fuzzy
In the speech, Chirac reiterated his view that Europe should form a bloc as a counterbalance to the US. He called for the revival of multilateralism, mainly through the UN, rather than a world based on the "logic of power," namely the US.
hmmm really
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast and French forces traded gunfire at Ivory Coast's international airport in Abidjan on Saturday in mayhem that erupted following a deadly earlier clash between their two militaries that killed eight French soldiers and an American civilian.
A French spokesman, Jacques Combarieu, said one French soldier was lightly injured in the fighting near the Abidjan airport. ``There has been fighting at the airport ... at the tarmac,'' Combarieu said.
As loyalist mobs tried to overrun a French military base near the airport, Ivory Coast soldiers tried to destroy French aircraft at the airport itself, Combarieu said.
Combarieu said the clash between the two militaries at the airport ended after an hour, with one airport lightly damaged.
Thousands of loyalist young people, some armed with machetes, axes or chunks of wood, took to the streets Saturday looking for French targets. Smoke rose from a French school set on fire by the mobs.
From the Guardian UK
ABIDJAN, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's government said on Thursday that soldiers from former colonial power France had shot dead 63 people and injured more than 1,300 during several days of unrest in the world's top cocoa grower.
France destroyed most of Ivory Coast's air force this month after a bombing raid killed nine French peacekeepers in the rebel-held north, and French troops deployed in the main city Abidjan to protect French nationals from days of rioting.
"This retaliation ... killed 63 soldiers and civilians and injured more than 1,300 with bullets fired by the French army as they brought their troops back to Abidjan and during the demonstrations ... " the Ivorian government said in a statement after its first cabinet meeting since the crisis began.
A spokesman for the roughly 5,000 French soldiers deployed in Ivory Coast declined to comment.
Almost 7,000 expatriates fled the West African country after the mob violence broke out.
The Ivorian army's assault on the north, held by rebels since September 2002, shattered an 18-month ceasefire. The unrest raised fears of a full-blown civil war that could drag in neighbouring states in a volatile region.
Al-Reuters
Thus, onward go Chirac and Bush with the bludgeoning of Cote D’Ivoire and Fallujah. Four thousand French troops are currently stationed in the tiny West African country, largely leftover from the three centuries of colonial rule. When nine of these military officers were killed in an attempt by President Gbagbo to quell rebel uprising on November 6th (perhaps accidentally), Chirac responded by destroying the entire Ivorian air force in Yamoussoukro the following day. The result of this action has been widespread anti-French rioting, looting, and violence, adding further turmoil to a country that has been plagued by civil war and northern resistance for much of the last decade.
Some Peacenicks
Chirac reiterated his view that Europe should form a bloc as a counterbalance to the US. He called for the revival of multilateralism, mainly through the UN, rather than a world based on the "logic of power," namely the US.
Logic... a word i would not use for that
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