Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara prepare for battle in Abidjan, where French troops have taken over the airport. (Legnan Koula, EPA / April 4, 2011)Reports of Abidjan, C?te d'Ivoire-Two months ago, the American had a quiet suburban life, in New Jersey with his three children a car nice and his own company. It is now in the war.
But his finger caresses a computer mouse, not a trigger. And instead of belts loosely bandoliers of ammunition, he wields a full email inbox of the atrocities.
The native of C?te d'Ivoire returned to his homeland for democracy. He wound up in the war between militias loyal to the two men who claim to power in this West African country: holders of President Laurent Gbagbo and opposition leader former Alassane Ouattara, the winner internationally recognized in the last presidential election in the fall.
Many people in C?te d'Ivoire know how to fight. Ouattara forces launched an offensive to push power Gbagbo and Sunday, battles intensified in Abidjan, commercial centre of the country, with people in many areas, unable to leave their homes. Fierce fighting continued around the Presidential Palace, the State RTI television station and a military base. French troops have resumed Abidjan airport.
But a handful of technical experts here know the modern tools of a war of propaganda: how to place a string of television of zero, the jam the signal of television of the enemy, jam its radio signal or create a link of TV satellite. And most of them working for Gbagbo.
If the American, who is the owner of a high-tech communications company to United States which does business in Africa, has received the appeal. He would return to ivory coast to fight a war of information that he was losing the Ouattara?
The U.S. insists on anonymity for fear of violence against his family, some are in Abidjan, which has seen its streets narrow dirt became a killing field.
"They are trying to actually know which helps" Ouattara, said the American, 45, who left Ivory Coast 30 years and is a friend of the elected President.
Before the Americans arrived on board, Ouattara had no presence on television, while the television station belonging to the State of Gbagbo accused rebel killings and claimed that the United Nations was guilty of a genocidal with the France conspiracy to kill Ivorians and install a stranger to govern the country. Veterans of the Ouattara were briefly hold the station Thursday but fighters of Gbagbo will return, and were used to call the youth militia to fight to the death for Gbagbo.
Gbagbo also blocked pro-Ouattara newspaper distribution and is arrested cellular phone text messages - the more often means in Africa to reach people and hold rallies.
Television station, broadcasting television Ivoirienne, "helped stimulate abuse through frequent incentives for violence against United Nations peacekeepers, the West African nationals and Ouattara supporters," officer of a March 15 by Human Rights Watch report.
"Television," the American said, "is more dangerous than a weapon."
With Ouattara and his Government trapped by the forces of Gbagbo in Golf Hotel of Abidjan since December, the American took a restaurant of the hotel and transformed into a pro-Ouattara television station.
The American has also implemented a radio FM studio and created a satellite link, more difficult for Gbagbo to scramble as the terrestrial channel.
It is a daily battle of wits, try expert of Gbagbo to the signals of the Ouattara scramble by broadcasting on the same frequency. "I try to anticipate their next move," he said.
The American flicks from Inbox of the email, his finger tapping the down and arrows impatiently, until he finds a message sent to him with cell phone video of two men charged by tires and burned bright as police stand by and watch.
"When this guy was dying, he wanted out." "They give him in the fire," said the American, showing the scene. Then he released video of another atrocity, militias pro-Gbagbo interrogate a terrified dealer to the idea of Northern Ivory Coast and then breaking the head with a brick. (Human Rights Watch said that both parties have committed atrocities, but most were by pro-Gbagbo forces).
It scroll down through hundreds of messages, including many with these macabre attachments.
"It's terrifying." "It is without mercy," he said. "I left here when I was 15 and I have never given it before.".
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