❊ Why The Lebanese In Côte D’ivoire Are In Trouble

Now Lebanon:

Lebanese citizens in Cote d’Ivoire reportedly came under threat after Lebanon’s ambassador attended the swearing-in of Laurent Gbagbo, the controversial strongman who has refused to step down despite rival Alassane Ouattara being internationally recognized as having won elections. Lebanese Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire Ali al-Ajami was the only foreign envoy to show up, aside from Angola’s ambassador.

Laurent Gbagbo is as bad as dictators come. He’s a blood thirsty ultra nationalist and demagogue who has been clinging to power for 10 years. The whole world was rooting for him to fall. Heck even other Africans hated him because he was setting a bad example. Here in Ghana the worse insult you could tell a politician is that he’s behaving like Gbagbo.

Then finally, an election took place under the supervision of the United Nations. Gbagbo lost fair and square to Alhassan Ouattara, a soft-spoken international banker. But Gbagbo refused to let go of power and clang on. It was Gbagbo versus the world in the same way that Gaddafi is today. He was isolated by the international community, but more importantly, by all of his African neighbors who threatened military action to unseat him.

In the entire world, only two countries stood by Gbagbo: Angola and Lebanon. The decision by our ambassador in Cote D’ivoire to attend Gbagbo’s sham swearing in is at the heart of why the Lebanese community is being harassed today in Cote D’ivoire. We were the Hugo Chavez to their Gaddafi, the obnoxious outsider who supported their hated dictator. Make no mistake about it, whoever gave our ambassador the order to attend Mr. Gbagbo’s swearing in knew exactly how controversial that would be.

The Lebanese community in Ghana is whispering that it’s all Nabih Berri’s fault. That he and his allies have significant economic interests in Cote D’ivoire and strong ties to the Gbagbo regime, and that it was his foreign minister who told the ambassador to attend Gbagbo’s swearing in.

Today Mr. Berri in a move that can only be described as political theatre, declared that he has cancelled all of his appointments to follow up on the Cote D’ivoire issue. I hope he succeeds in bringing safety to the community there, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hold a detailed investigation into who gave the orders to ambassador Ali al-Ajami to attend Gbagbo’s swearing in.