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11/11/2004:

"In Ivory Coast's unrest, resentment isn't only against the French"

DAKAR, Senegal The news reports streaming out of Abidjan, Ivory Coast's once-shining metropolis, seem like a throwback to a bygone era: white men and women cowering in their homes, black men and women rampaging through the streets, European soldiers swooping down in helicopters and plucking Europeans to safety.

It could have been Congo, circa 1964, when Belgian paratroopers swooped down on the Congo River town of Stanleyville, now Kisangani, to evacuate terrified Europeans during a nationalist rebellion.

There has never been any Algeria-like struggle against French colonialism in Ivory Coast, nothing even approaching the nationalist movements in Congo to shake off Belgian rule. In any case, the so-called Young Patriots who have led the violent demonstrations against the French in Abidjan this week were, for the most part, born well after independence from France more than 40 years ago.

Full Article : iht.com