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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22047-2002Sep30.html [The fact that the United States currently imports 15% of its petroleum from Northwest Africa - Nigeria, Senegal, the recently discovered bonanza off the coasts of Sao Tome and Principe, third only to the Persian Gulf and Colombia-Venezuela, would of course have absolutely nothing to do with the dispatching of US, French and British assault troops to Cote d'Ivoire. It's strictly a Save The Children humanitarian endeavor. And in charge of this noble, selfless crusade is none other than general-cum-president Obasanjo of Nigeria, who has recently murdered thousands of his own citizens in deference to US and British petroleum interests in *his* country. (Compare President-General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.) This is the fourth 'humanitarian intervention' in Northwestern Africa in recent years - with Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia being prototypes. But succeeding each one of them the map of that region - as with those of the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Asia - appears frightenlingly familiar to those of, say, the Congress of Berlin.] French Troops Search Ivory Coast By Alexandra Zavis Associated Press Writer Monday, September 30, 2002; 10:32 AM YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast �� French troops fanned out Monday to locate rebel positions and search for Americans and other Westerners still trapped in Ivory Coast's deadliest uprising, a day after U.S. and French forces plucked expatriates from a second rebel-held city. Rebels and loyalist forces were fighting across the north, with a front-line around Tiebissou, 25 miles north of Yamoussoukro, the capital and the staging area Western troops used for their evacuation mission, Western military sources said. French jeeps with mounted guns, some with French flags, set out after sunrise Monday for the west, looking for U.S. Peace Corps workers and other isolated Westerners missed in four days of road and air evacuations. The French mission was headed for cocoa-growing, pro-government regions around Daloa and Bouafle, French Lt. Col. Ange-Antoine Leccia said. With recent reports of rebels capturing the northwestern town of Odienne, and advancing toward the key western city of Man, French forces also were on a reconnaissance mission to establish the extent of the rebel advance. France's Foreign Minister announced over the weekend Paris would lend logistical support to Ivory Coast's embattled government, but has refused to detail what that might be. The French and U.S. rescue missions have scrambled to extract foreigners as Ivory Coast's government repeatedly threatened an all-out attack to retake two cities � Bouake and Korhogo � in rebel hands since a bloody failed coup attempt on Sept. 19. The uprising killed 270 people in the first days alone. Western military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Ivorian army had been thrown into some disarray by the mutiny of several hundred soldiers and was also grappling with poor communications and outdated materiel. "They are going to fight. It's just a question of when," one high-ranking military official said Monday, on condition of anonymity. West African leaders grappled with how to support the embattled government of Ivory Coast, in dread of more harm to the region's stability and its economy from the latest troubles in once-peaceful and prosperous Ivory Coast. Meeting in Ghana on Sunday, West African presidents expressed support for Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo, but did not approve an immediate deployment of regional peacekeepers. "A threat to Ivory Coast is a threat to all of us," declared President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, which has dispatched fighter jets to Ivory Coast for the expected showdown between government and rebel forces. Gbagbo, who was in Italy when the attempted coup took place, returned to Abidjan on Sunday night from Ghana, reassuring citizens who had feared he might not come back. "When one is right, there is no need to hide," he told reporters. Western diplomats say the rebels are well-armed, well-disciplined and motivated. Some diplomats privately say a West African deployment would be decisive � and suggest Ivory Coast loyalist forces, hesitating still to counterattack, may be outgunned. At the meeting in Ghana, presidents of nine West African nations assigned six among them � from Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo � to open talks with rebels for an immediate cease-fire and negotiations. They also ordered their regional bloc's defense commission to start work on putting a joint West African military force on standby. "We must send a clear message ... that those days of illegitimate governments are gone. There must be zero tolerance for coups in West Africa," said Mohammed Chambas, the secretary-general of the West African leaders' bloc. French troops led an evacuation of more than 2,000 Westerners from Bouake on Thursday and Friday � leaving thousands of Bouake's half-million local residents trying to flee on foot, only to be turned back by rebel forces at checkpoints, who insist civilians must stay. At Korhogo, helicopters swooped in before dawn Sunday to airlift foreign and some Ivory Coast nationals trapped by sporadic gunfire for 10 days and nights. The daylong evacuation brought some 400 people � including 55 Americans � out of Korhogo and surrounding areas. "There was firing, firing all the time," said an Ivory Coast worker at a Spanish Catholic orphanage evacuated with her 14 charges, most babies and toddlers. She gave her name only as Cecile. The helicopters dropped the evacuees at a secured airport 10 miles outside Korhogo where they were put on French and U.S. C-130 military cargo planes and ferried to an airfield in Yamoussoukro. Both French and U.S. troops took part in the operation. The U.S. forces were under French command, a highly unusual occurrence. "It's really hard to leave," said Carrie Brunger of Knoxville, Tenn., who holed up with other Peace Corps volunteers in a Baptist mission. "I didn't get to say goodbye. I really don't want to leave it like that." � 2002 The Associated Press __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? 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