Inhofe calls for cease-fire in Ivory Coast: Senator cites potential for genocide in West African nation

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim Inhofe said Monday that the United States should call for an immediate cease-fire in the Ivory Coast because the West African country is at risk of genocide on the scale of that in Rwanda.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Inhofe, R-Tulsa, said “the potential for having large numbers of people tortured, murdered in Cote d’Ivoire is taking place.”
Inhofe has been supporting the position of Laurent Gbagbo, the president who lost an election last November to Alassane Ouattara. The United States, the United Nations and the African Union are backing Ouattara.
Inhofe, who has visited the country several times and knows Gbagbo and his wife, said Monday that he’s convinced the election was stolen from Gbagbo and that the U.S. State Department has given an “inadequate response” to his letters about election fraud in the country.
Inhofe’s speech on Monday followed reports that a U.N. helicopter had opened fire on Gbagbo’s forces to prevent them from using heavy weapons on the civilian population.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the French helicopter attack was necessary because Gbagbo forces had “intensified and escalated their use of heavy weapons such as mortars, rocket- propelled grenades and heavy machine guns against the civilian population in Abidjan.”

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Slaughter reported

But Inhofe cited reports from a London newspaper that Ouattara’s forces had slaughtered hundreds of people in one town. The paper said the U.N. had blamed Ouattara’s rebels for killing at least 330 people.
Despite Inhofe’s entreaties for a cease-fire and a new election, the administration has continued to call for Gbagbo to leave. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Saturday that Gbagbo’s refusal to cede power was pushing the country into “lawlessness,” though she also called on Ouattara’s forces to stop attacking civilians.

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BY CHRIS CASTEEL