Violent Death by Assassination Still Haunts Ivory Coast

The gunshot death two nights ago of Michel Niacel, EU officer in charge of staff security in the southern zone of Côte d'Ivoire, has turned into a civil police investigation and not an international affair involving political recriminations.

Staff writer Emmanuel Akani for the Abidjan Matin, however, exaggerates when he implies that it is typical Western paranoia and prejudice that tries to make more of a domestic murder or suicide than is warranted simply because it happens to occur in Africa. Only three days prior to the death of Niacel, there was an attempt on the life of the Ivorian commander Captain Kipré, at the headquarters of the militarised demarcation-line between northern and southern zones. His adjoint, Lieutenant Drihé, was seriously injured by a grenade rigged to explode when anyone opened a bureau drawer in Kirpé's office.

Given recent Ivorian history of violent politico-military reprisals, assassination, and even death squads controlled remotely by Ivory Coast's highest officials, every violent death of a prominent figure in the multinational peacekeeping operation becomes cause for suspicion and alarm.

We, living peaceful lives in industrially advanced countries, like to get our African Realities in movie theatres and suspence-filled novels. We give prizes to the creative authors and directors of the sort of drama that lets us shed a tear for our imaginary Africa. For us, politics goes on in Ottawa, Washington, D.C., London and Paris while what happens in African capitals is intrigue and conspiracy (frequently genocidal).

Given the shroud of doubt about the death of Michel Niaucel at age 53, while serving 'our' West in 'some part of' Africa, while he sleeps with a Western wife in his Western bedclothes . . Given the joint police investigation being closely supervised by French officials, I guess the rest of us can get back to literature and the seven arts.

We still have a raging debate to engage over which is better cinema: "Babel" or last year's "The Constant Gardener". (But first I'll have to rent one and go out to see the other.)

Breaking News: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire: EU Diplomat Murdered

06 to 07 February 2007
Last Night
Tuesday to Wednesday

A diplomatic representative of the European Union residing in Abidjan, Michel Niaucel (aged 53) was murdered by gunshot in his home last night. Police in the Ivorian capital did not offer a motive for the attack. The murder was officially confirmed by the foreign office in Paris overnight.

Neither Niaucel's wife nor his 13-year-old daughter were physically harmed, although both were present in the family's residence when the murder occurred.

M. Niaucel, a former commander in the French armed forces (gendarmerie), worked with the European Union commission in Abidjan and was charged with the security of staff and officials posted in that civil war torn West African nation.

Background (provided by the Agence Français de Presse) and details are quoted in French below. For the Internet source, click on this post's title.

As of 5:00 AM Atlantic Time, there were no other news releases available via Internet, not even from reliable French-language media in Abidjan.

Michel Niaucel, un ancien commandant de gendarmerie de 53 ans, était notamment chargé des questions de sécurité à la délégation de l'UE à Abidjan, selon des sources diplomatiques concordantes.

M. Niaucel a été tué par balles à son domicile, situé dans une résidence de l'UE au Plateau, le quartier des affaires d'Abidjan, dans des circonstances qui restaient obscures mercredi matin, selon ces sources.

A Paris, le ministère français des Affaires étrangères a confirmé la mort d'un ressortissant français travaillant pour la Commission européenne à Abidjan.

L'épouse et la fille de M. Niaucel, âgée de 13 ans, étaient présentes au moment des faits, selon plusieurs sources diplomatiques à Abidjan.

Aucune hypothèse -- assassinat pour des raisons politiques ou crime crapuleux ordinaire -- n'était privilégiée mercredi matin, selon plusieurs diplomates.

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06 - 07 February 2007

The assassination of Ivorian civil and military officials has a 'long tradition' in Ivory Coast. So do attacks against French officials. Given this West African nations present situation, divided between national forces loyal to Pres Gbagbo and the New Force 'rebels' in the northern third of the territory, all ears will be to the ground listening for rumblings of a heightened level of state or rebel-sponsored violence directed at the Gbagbo or rebel leadership.

The background below relates how French civilians were already evacuated over the past 4 years following the outbreak and fallout from the civil war. Peacekeeping military forces in Ivory Coast have reinforced a cordon sanitaire between the opposing sides, further dividing the territory geographically between a more Christian and developped south and a depressed agricultural north, where Muslims and adherents of indigenous religions are in the majority. Class, caste and revolt against French neo-colonial control are big factors that fuel violence and incidents such as the assassination of Michel Niaucel have potential to precipitate or figure into new outbreaks and fresh attempts to precipitate such outbreaks deliberately.

Les relations entre Paris et Abidjan, autrefois partenaire privilégié de la France en Afrique, se sont détériorées à la suite de la tentative de coup d'Etat des FN contre M. Gbagbo en septembre 2002. La France est depuis régulièrement accusée par les partisans du président de soutenir la rébellion.

Elles sont devenus glaciales à partir de novembre 2004, lorsqu'un bombardement de l'aviation ivoirienne a tué neuf soldat français à Bouaké (centre). En représailles, l'armée française avait détruit l'aviation ivoirienne, provoquant une série de violentes manifestations antifrançaises à Abidjan et des affrontements meurtriers entre soldats français et manifestants ivoiriens.

Près de 8.000 expatriés français avaient alors été évacués en catastrophe par l'armée française et rapatriés en France.

Environ 3.000 civils français (hors binationaux) vivent encore aujourd'hui à Abidjan, contre 50.000 dans les années 1980.

L'armée française, par l'intermédiaire de sa force Licorne, compte de son côté quelque 3.500 soldats, chargés de faire respecter le cessez-le-feu entre les FN et le camp présidentiel, qui contrôle toujours le sud du pays.

Helen Hill Memorial Website Media Mention

Family, friends and fellow community and cinema activists have been contributing to the pages on the webpage that links to this post's title.

The number of articles, website references and bloggers who have had something to say about the murder of Hill more than 3 weeks ago in NOLA is astounding. That someone makes the effort to pull those links together is commendable. Helen herself, I'll bet, if in her lifetime all that news coverage had highlighted her volunteer work teaching and feeding and offering support to pre- and post-Katrina residents of the Delta Region and New Orleans . . well people like Helen tend to just throw that stuff away so they can get on to the next challenge.

One focus of her impact on other people doing good volunteer work was in encouraging people in Halifax to pitch in after the flooding of NOLA. And when she lived there she influenced cinematographers to find community themes for creative experimentation with documentary film. If we started with the tens of blog posts listed on the HelenHill Org 'articles' page, it would be possible to document what it takes to pull one small community together. Was it Food Not Bombs that helped mobilize Halifax volunteers? Was it the filmmakers? Was it one individual?

In any case, thanks to the people who pulled those links together. Hopefully there will be some follow-up study and help us remember the motto: 'Don't Mourn, Organize!'

More Info Plus More Comment About a Mindless Murder in New Orleans

After Helen Hill, a 36-year-old animator and filmmaker, was murdered in her New Orleans home last Thursday, it was picked up as news by the major mass media in both the US and Canada.

“I'm so aggravated and angry,” said Helen Gillet, an experimental cellist who gathered with about two dozen other friends of the couple outside their modest frame house in New Orleans's Faubourg Marigny neighbourhood late yesterday afternoon. “I'm outraged at what's going on in the community.”

With the above quote, The Globe & Mail (Toronto, ONT, Canada) ran the story -- about Canadian-Americans: a murdered mother and a seriously injured father and a two-year-old son, Francis, who was unhurt -- by emphasizing his and her Canada connection as well as their activist commitments toward saving the NOLA community post-Katrina:

(Both) family doctor Paul Gailiunas, who grew up in Edmonton and trained in medicine in Halifax (and) Ms. Hill — who was born in the United States but took Canadian citizenship . . . were part of the community of artists, poets and other creative types, refugees from the rest of the United States and elsewhere, who have been drawn to New Orleans because of its singular history and culture. -- emphasis added by Blogaulaire

North of the border, it seems, this sort of story generates more comment on an Internet news website than in Louisiana, where it happened. On the G & M comment thread you find this example of cross-over posting in a 'comment-on-the-news' thread:

Carly MacKay from United States writes: Some of you posters make me sick. This was an article about a horrific tragedy suffered by a Canadian family who came to New Orleans to make a difference. Yet so many turn this into an opportunity to bash every American south of the border. Here is a newsflash, Americans don't think you live in igloos, we know you have electricity, the vast majority of us see the problems we face with a bozo in the White House, 3000 soldiers dead in Iraq, huge gaps between the rich and the middle class and the poor, AND yes for what ever reason Ray Nagin was re-elected in NO. So when one American makes a statement or asks a question like 'Is there electricity in Canada?' don't jump to the conclusion that all Americans are ignorant. Sometimes the only way some people can feel good about themselves is by degrading and insulting others. I wish some of the posters on this comment board had one speck of the intelligence, compassion and understanding that this couple had. I just wish that they had not gone to New Orleans. They will be in my thoughts and prayers. God bless Canada.
Posted 06/01/07 at 10:15 AM EST

Continuing to read the story in the the major mass media coverage from the US:

The Associated Press coverage (picked up by The Times of Shreveport (Louisiana, USA) did not make the Canada connection but gives greater depth to murder victim Helen Hill's cinematographic credits and the medical practise profile of injured physician-husband-father Paul Gailiunas. The Times also added an appeal that anyone with information come forward to help find the criminals responsible:

They had moved to the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood near the French Quarter about a year after Hurricane Katrina wiped out their home in the Mid-City neighborhood.

Police said both were shot at their front door about 5:30 a.m. Thursday. No other details were available. A friend said family members from Columbia, S.C., were on their way to New Orleans on Thursday after learning of the shooting.

“They were wonderful people. Two bright spots in New Orleans. They gave us hope that people could live together. And they’d do anything for anybody,” said Sheri Branch, who was taking care of the couple’s 2-year-old son while Gailiunas was hospitalized.

Hill made short films; her experimental animation shorts had been shown at a number of festivals in the United States and Canada.

She won a $35,000 fellowship in 2004 from the Rockefeller Foundation’s Program for Media Artists for her film “The Florestine Collection.” That film was described by the program as “reflecting on handcrafted work and race in New Orleans, through the personal story of a woman who made hand-sewn dresses.” She also taught filmmaking and animation to grade school through college students, the foundation’s news release said.

A Harvard graduate, she earned her master of fine arts in experimental animation from the California Institute of the Arts in 1995.

Gailiunas, who was in stable condition Thursday, opened a clinic for poor people in the Treme neighborhood in 2004. It was flooded by Katrina a year later.

The state Board of Medical Examiners lists him as working for Excelth Inc., a community-based group providing health care to poor people.

No witnesses to any of the killings has come forward, police said Thursday, begging for help to solve the most recent homicides.

A captioned photo gives the hard news:

New Orleans police investigate a shooting Thursday. Officers arriving on the scene at 5:20 a.m. discovered a man kneeling at the front door holding a 2-year-old boy in his arms. The man had been shot in his right hand, right cheek and left forearm. The boy was not injured. A woman who died at the scene had been shot in the neck. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

Friends of Helen Hill should go to this Internet address for more information or to participate in local memorial services, which will be organised in various spots across the continent.

A PHOTO IMAGE OF THE GAILIUNAS-HILL FAMILY

Donations in memorium of Hill to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) are suggested.