Charles Blé Goudé

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Blé Goudé (seated, center) with supporters of the COJEP after their storming of RTI studios in Abidjan, 2006.
Charles Blé Goudé (seated, center) with supporters of the COJEP after their storming of RTI studios in Abidjan, 2006.
Côte d'Ivoire

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Côte d'Ivoire
Other countries · Atlas
 Politics Portal
view • talk • edit

Charles Blé Goudé is an Ivoirien political leader, born in 1972 at Guibéroua, in the center west of the country.

Contents

[edit] Creator of the Young Patriots

Blé Goudé studied English at the University of Cocody (Cocody is a section of Abidjan), where he began his political career leading strikes and violent demonstrations of the Student Federation of Cote d’Ivoire (FESCI), allied with the FPI during the 1990s. He secceded Guillaume Soro as the Secretary General of FESCI from 1998 to 2000. He later founded the Coordination des jeunes patriotes in 2001, and the Congrès Panafricaine des Jeunes Patriotes (COJEP) in the same year. He had completed a university degree in English by this time, and later began a masters degree in Conflict Resolution Studies from Manchester University. Having gotten news of the coup d'État on 19 September 2002, he left England for Côte d'Ivoire, where he founded the Alliance des jeunes patriotes pour le sursaut national, which he directed with Serge Kuyo, an organization which he described as a mouvement de combat.

[edit] Agitator-propagandist

He has since played an important role in Ivoirian politics as a supporter of the policies of Laurent Gbagbo. He has organized protests and demonstrations in support of the president and in protest against the rebellion in the north of Côte d'Ivoire. He has also lent support to the police, for example in helping break up protests backing the Kléber Peace Accords on 25 March 2004, which resulted in 120 dead and 20 missing. His organisation, which has become an armed militia, is infamous for violence and looting, but is seen as protected by the government.

[edit] 2004: Civil war resumes

Main article: Ivorian Civil War

At the beginning of 2004, Blé Goudé called for the expulsion of French peacekeeping troops from Côte d'Ivoire, and during June he organized a sit-in outside the headquarters of the French 43e bataillon d'infanterie de marine in Port-Bouët in Abidjan.

Early in November 2004, after the peace agreement had effectively collapsed following the rebels' refusal to disarm, Gbagbo ordered airstrikes against the rebels. During one of these airstrikes in Bouaké, French soldiers were hit and nine of them were killed; the Ivorian government has said it was a mistake, but the French have claimed it was deliberate. They responded by destroying most Ivoirian military aircraft, and violent retaliatory riots against the French broke out in Abidjan.

During the week from 31 October to 5 November 2004, Blé Goudé and his supporters intensified their recruitment and training of armed supporters. On 6 November, amidst an upsurge of anti-Western propaganda from the government controlled Radio télévision ivoirienne and newspapers like Le Courrier d'Abidjan, the jeunes patriotes came out into the streets, attacking targets they thought supported European interests, especially the French Military and civilians. Attempts by these nationalist groups to seize the airport and the city center failed. Charles Blé Goudé, claiming the French Military was attempting a coup against the Ivoirien government, urged his supporters to srround Abidjan airport, and to form a human chain around the residence of president Gbagbo, near the hôtel Ivoire. In the demonstrations that followed attacks on foreigners, Muslims, and on anyone perceived as not fully Ivorian (or fully supporting the government) culminated in a French led evacuation of western and middle eastern civilians from the country.

[edit] January 2006 events

Main article: Congrès Panafricaine des Jeunes Patriotes

January 16, 2006, the Young Patriots were involved in violent demonstrations against the UN, and in one incident, at least four were killed after an exchange of fire at a UN peacekeeper's camp. UN peacekeepers are allowed to shoot if they come under violent attack. The crisis began after UN mediators called for the National Assembly of Côte d'Ivoire to be dissolved and for Gbagbo's mandate to end.

During the days that followed, two thousand youths clashed with UN peacekeepers. The Young Patriots seized control of the offices of Cote d'Ivoire's state-owned television channel, RTI, and broadcast repeated messages to attack the UN base in Daloa, as well as French targets. They also reportedly ransacked a community radio station, Radio Tchrato-Daloa which had refused to let them in, as well as besieging a UN base and the French embassy for two days, until on 20 January, Ble Goude called for them to go home and "clean up the streets".

[edit] Currently

Since 2006, despite president Gbagbo's support for reconciliation with former rebels, Blé Goudé has continued to play a leading role in nationalist politics. His public conflicts with other nationalists and members of Gbagbo's FPI, as well as continued attacks on opposition supporters by the jeunes patriotes, has kept him in the public eye.

In May 2007, Blé Goudé accepted the government title of "Ivorian peace ambassador" and will travel around the country preaching reconciliation.

Blé Goudé has said that he models himself on Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and Thomas Sankara.

[edit] Quotes

  • France will come to know a Second Algerian War.

Le Courrier d'Abidjan, 23 April 2004 ;

  • « I don't want to see Le Patriote, Le Libéral and the papers of the RDR in newsstands beginning Monday. I will assume all the consequences. »

TF1, May 2004 ;

  • On Adolf Hitler: « I've gotten to the point today where I don't believe anymore that Hitler was bad, or that Milosevic is bad. Because these same sources that present Hitler and Milosevic as criminals, that tell me today that we Ivoiriens patriots who are suffering in the rebellion, who are torturers, they say that it's really the rebels who are our victims. » Le Patriote (Newspaper of the RDR), 12 may 2004
  • On Kofi Annan "A shame for Africa" AFP - 23/04/2004
  • On rebel leader Guillaume Soro : « Je me rends compte qu'il est proche de sa tombe. » Le Temps, 27 July 2004;
  • In response to the question :Quelles sont les sanctions que vous allez prendre contre les jeunes patriotes coupables de viols d'Européennes ?:
    • Les jeunes patriotes ne sont pas coupables des viols ni des pillages subis par les Français. L'armée française a organisé les pillages en collaboration aves les prisonniers qui ont été libérés.

Forum du Nouvel-Observateur, 1 December 2004;

  • On the UN :
    • « Avec les casques bleus, c'est la guerre »

L'Intelligent d'Abidjan, 23 avril 2004 ;

    • « Si les Casques bleus ne clarifient pas leur position, nous allons les chasser. On va leur faire connaître leur Algérie. »

L'Inter, 23 avril 2004 ;

    • « Nous, jeunes de Côte d'Ivoire, réunis ce jour-ci, demandons à tous les jeunes Ivoiriens partout où ils se trouvent d'offrir à l'ONU la plus grande révolte qu'elle n'a jamais connue.»

24 Heures, 11 May 2004 ;

  • "Je vous appelle tous à aller libérer notre aéroport. Si vous dormez, réveillez-vous. Si vous mangez, déposez votre fourchette. Je ne vous demande pas d'aller attaquer les Français qui sont venus vivre avec vous. Beaucoup de Français ont défilé avec nous contre la rébellion. Venez libérer l'aéroport. Abidjan n'est pas un quartier de Paris".

Public statement, November 6, 2004

[edit] References