denny Ethnic & National book

Interview with Richard Kodjo, Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire, November 2012. Since April 2011 there is a severely deteriorating political and security situation throughout the country, concentrated in the western part of Côte d'Ivoire where there is a full-out genocide, targeting the Wê ethnic group. After contested elections in December 2010 President Laurent Gbagbo called for a ballot recount. Instead of this peaceful option to overcome the post-electora crisis, a French-UN coup d'etat followed, according to anthropologist and political scientist Michel Galy, and Alassane Ouattara was subsequently sworn is as the new President, breaching the Ivorian constitution. Daily reports of summary and extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearances, extortion, looting of public and privately-owned property of civilians have been recorded by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and local civil-rights watchdogs. A system of predation and racketeering, essentially carried out by the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire, (FRCI), the national army, is weakening the official structures of the state security. The country's police is unarmed to protect the population. A recent Amnesty report denouces a « situation of lawlessness » even in Abidjan, the country's capital. The FPI said in an open statement that, despite embracing non-violence, it has been unable to exercise its function as an opposition party. On August 18, the headquarters of the FPI was looted ...