More wog politics

Adam Nossiter has an article in The New York Times about the situation in the Ivory Coast:

African leaders came to Abidjan, the capital of this West African nation, for the second time in less than a week, pressing Laurent Gbagbo to cede power after losing an election in November, and hoping to settle a political crisis that threatens to reignite civil war. But the day ended with no apparent resolution. A diplomat close to the negotiations commented on the attempt: “Nothing. Nothing. You can call this failure Number Two.”
After a day spent shuttling between Mr. Gbagbo, who has rebuffed international calls to step down, and the man foreign powers say defeated him at the polls, Alassane Ouattara, there was no change in the potentially explosive standoff. Mr. Gbagbo was still in his presidential palace in this steamy, once-prosperous economic hub, and Mr. Ouattara was still blockaded in a lagoon-side hotel with his shadow government, the roads leading to him guarded by Mr. Gbagbo’s well-armed security forces.
The discussions with the African leaders— President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin; President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone; President Pedro Pires of Cape Verde, and Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga— continued late into the night. Participants largely refused to characterize the talks as they departed in a motorcade for a final meeting with Mr. Gbagbo.
But the diplomat said the leaders had asked Mr. Gbagbo to step aside, with amnesty, to set a good example for democracy in Africa. Mr. Gbagbo refused. “He responded that he was the democratically elected president,” the diplomat said on the condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak for the group. “He said he was the legitimate president of Côte d’Ivoire, and that was not negotiable.”
During the talks, Mr. Gbagbo repeated his earlier proposal to hold an international commission of inquiry into the election, a move the visiting leaders rejected, the diplomat said.
The United Nations has certified election results, which gave Mr. Ouattara a nearly nine-point winning margin, and virtually all foreign governments have accepted them. The United Nations has recognized a new ambassador from Ivory Coast, appointed by Mr. Ouattara. Mr. Gbagbo, however, has insisted that hundreds of thousands of votes in the north of this divided country were fraudulent. A close ally of his on Ivory Coast’s constitutional council declared Mr. Gbagbo the winner.
Perhaps reflecting the lack of movement, those who took part in the discussions were unusually tight-lipped. “We’re shuttling between the two leaders,” said James Victor Gbeho, president of the Ecowas Commission, a regional grouping of West African states, on Monday night. “We’re traveling from one to the other. I can’t say anything about them.”
“Later, later,” said Mr. Boni, the Benin president, as he prepared for yet another visit to Mr. Gbagbo. The president of Sierra Leone, Mr. Koroma, also refused all comment. Ecowas has threatened to use military force to remove Mr. Gbagbo if he did not relent. Last week, defense chiefs from some of the fifteen nations in the group held a planning session in Nigeria.
There has been no sign that diplomacy would change Mr. Gbagbo’s mind. On Monday night, state television broadcast an extensive interview with him in which he dismissed United Nations declarations chastising him, playing on an anti-French, nationalist note that has benefited him politically. “All the U.N. resolutions, it’s France that wrote the drafts,” Mr. Gbagbo told the interviewer. He has tried to kick out the United Nations peacekeeping force here, and mobs supporting him have attacked United Nations patrols. On Monday night, Mr. Gbagbo refused to allow United Nations soldiers to escort the visiting heads of state as they came to see him for a last, unsuccessful discussion.
Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to budge has placed the burden of action on the international community, which risks a loss of credibility if Mr. Gbagbo remains in place. But diplomats are also worried about causing more conflict in the country, which remains divided after a 2002 civil war.
“The stalemate continues,” said a senior Western official here. “Gbagbo seems insistent on staying on, regardless of the consequences for him and his country.”

Rico says you can put Western clothing on them, you can even teach them to speak French, but you can't make them European...