This Wednesday and Thursday in Abidjan, the capital of the country that was previously called the "Ivory Coast" in Russian and now "Côte d'Ivoire" in a French manner held a two-day summit of the African Union and the European Union. In fact, the main topic was the slave trade that's been flourishing for a couple of months in Libya.
Yes, Libya. The country that's 4,000 km away from the borders of the EU became the center of a new slave trade.
A couple of week ago, we had a report about the Libyan concentration camps. There, rebel militants, who don't answer to anyone, were holding refugees. The ones from Sub-Saharan Africa that had been fleeing through Libya to Europe.
An African:
- They were torturing us with electricity.
- There wasn't enough food so they forced us to eat food mixed with child feces.
Later, our CNN colleagues showed the same refugees being sold at slave markets: "Tough guys for sale! Come get some! 400. 700. Who'll give more? 800. Sold."
After what we've just seen the issue can't be ignored. But when Africa started blaming Europe, the French President, Macron, replied with nothing better than: "Europe has nothing to do with it. It's Africans that are enslaving other Africans".
Other high-ranking Europeans followed the same agenda when they arrived to Abidjan: Head of the Euro-commission, Juncker, Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Mogherini, and Europe's "Mama," Angela Merkel.
And what about the slaves? Well, they're sorry for them. They even tried to form some program for show. In reality, everything is so hypocritical that digging into this European pile of filth one can't help but feel disgust.
Arriving to Africa, the EU-leaders tried their best to ignore the elephant in the room. As if there were none. Meanwhile, it was standing there, snorting and stinking, stomping his foot and rubbing his back against the meeting table. Alas, all the Europeans pretended that everything was fine and that nothing was happening. That it wasn’t their elephant to deal with.
The elephant is clearly a metaphorical way to point out the obvious. It's obvious that it was Europe that dragged Libya back to the Middle Ages and pushed it into the slave trade.
Yes, there was slave trade in Libya in the past, but Muammar Gaddafi managed to build a state and an economy that made the slave trade disappear for good.
Libya was a flourishing and a quickly developing state. It was a stable and an autonomous system that had neither refugees nor radical Islamists. Then, the West provoked the so-called "Arab Spring" in the region, a series of colored revolutions and then started actively bombing Libya and supporting the belligerent opposition.
Nicolas Sarkozy, French President 2007-2012: "The participants of the summit decided to use all means including military ones in order to execute the plan of the UN Security Council. That's why our air force will be fighting against Gaddafi's".
France became the main military power, but Britain was bombing Libya as well. The other NATO-states were providing their political and media cover.
The project of Libya's ‘democratization’ resulted in the destruction of a state and its modern ways. It devolved into mass murder, a degradation of the economy, and regression to the savagery of the Middle Ages, including the slave trade.
And now Macron says, I'd like to repeat the quote: "Europe has nothing to do with it because Africans are enslaving other Africans." Isn't it cynical? Purely cynical. Just like in 2011 when the West tried to persuade Russia to support the creation of a no-fly zone over Libya. Of course, it was done to protect the civilians, to keep them safe. Otherwise Gaddafi would have bombed his own people".
Just listen to what the European leaders were saying. Here's an extract from the joint statement of EU-Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, and Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton. Both have already disgracefully retired. But then, they were shaping the future of whole nations.
"We fully support the UN demands to stop the violence against civilians and find a way to resolve the crisis".
They made it sound so noble. "Stop the violence, resolve the crisis." How can anyone oppose that?
And here's a quote from Sarkozy right before the UN Security Council adopted the resolution on the no-fly zone in Libya.
"France urges all members of the UN Security Council to be responsible and support the initiative. Together we'll save the people of Libya".
So they started saving them. The price of these words has only now become clear.
And here's one from Sir Mark Lyall Grant the UK Representative to the UN.
"The main goal of the resolution is to stop the violence, to protect the civilians and to let the people of Libya decide their own fate when they are free from Gaddafi's tyranny".
As a result, Muammar Gaddafi was murdered, a civil war was provoked, and the violence still hasn't been stopped. They protected no one. They fostered radical Islamic terrorism in Libya. They reduced Libya to anarchy, concentration camps, and slave trading. And now they are threatening it with sanctions. Are they insane?
How should one interpret the same empty talk about the need to protect the civilians in Syria, to stop violence in the region, and to let the people of Syria decide their own fate?
If Russia had fallen for it this time there would have been an ISIS flag flying over Damascus.
But then, in the case of Libya, Russia trusted the West somehow and abstained from voting against the no-fly zone in the UN Security Council. All in order to protect the civilians. Out of humanitarian considerations.
On the same day, the perfidious French sent their fighter jets to Libya: dozens of Mirage jets followed by bombers. That's it.
Moreover, they started dropping ammunition supply crates to Gaddafi's enemies. In secret, despite the resolution of the Security Council.
The country was destroyed. But it wasn't enough. Unwilling to accommodate the refugees from Libya and the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa like Niger, Mali Nigeria or Burkina Faso the EU is paying someone in Libya hundreds of millions of euro. Libya has no single authority, but the EU is still paying the militant groupings to contain the refugees within the borders of Libya and the African continent to prevent them from coming to Europe.
The EU is practically financing the concentration camps and is propping up the slave trade. That's how the system works: the Sub-Saharan refugees reach Libya hoping it's just a transit point on their way to Europe. There, they get trapped, robbed and beaten up, dragged into some basements or simply caged behind a razor wire, beaten up again and forced to work for free. Women get raped and forced into prostitution and become sex-slaves. Those who resist get beaten up and receive no food. Slave traders extort ransom money from their relatives. Some people are sold both retail and wholesale. There's demand. Some Arabs are ready to pay good money for slaves.
An average slave costs 300-500 dollars. A tough guy to work on a farm will cost a thousand.
The lucky escapees describe the horrors in detail: "All slaves look the same. They are beaten. Mutilated. They even castrate them. You understand?"
Europe is not impressed. Not only does it not feel guilty, it's not even ashamed. Macron's just sorry that Africans like enslaving other Africans. Perhaps they are all simply waiting for a Christmas miracle.
Not a word about the French colonial exploits in Africa. Not a word about the French bombing Libya in 2011. Not a word about the EU plan to finance the concentration camps in Libya. Europe and the West at their hypocritical best.
Now it's clear why they dislike what's now happening in Syria. They would have happily democratized it the way they did with Libya.
No such luck this time around though.
