2006年VOA标准英语-Ivory Coast Protests Expose Ethnic Tension

By Joe Bavier
Abidjan
23 January 2006
 

UN troops enter their compound were protest took place this week in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Friday, Jan. 20, 2006  
  
Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, has returned to normal after violent demonstrations¹ paralyzed much of the country's south last week. But in one neighborhood residents are still picking up the pieces, after what supporters of the president said was a political protest that erupted into inter-ethnic fighting.

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A giant blue shipping² container sits in the middle of the four-lane highway that bisects the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan.

It has been sitting there since militant³ supporters of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo first took to the streets, erecting⁴ barricades⁵, and shutting down the city for four days last week.

The road serves as a physical boundary, separating Abobo's ethnic-northern, Dioula, community from the non-Dioula neighborhood.

Just a few meters from the edge of the road, Guinean immigrant, Kone, stands in front of the pile of concrete and charred⁶ tin roofing that two days earlier had been his shop. Nearby are the burned remains⁷ of a lumber⁸ yard, and a dozen smashed taxis and buses.

I sold coffee, meat, just about anything you can eat, he says. Yesterday morning, I came here and there was a crowd. They burned my shop down, he says. Then they went to my house and took everything.

Ivory Coast has been divided in two, with rebels occupying the north and government forces controlling the south since civil war broke out in late 2002. But many villages and neighborhoods are split between southerners and northerners who came to work in the more prosperous south.

Militant leaders of the pro-Gbagbo youth movements that organized the protests say they were political. And most of the violence targeted the country's U.N. peacekeeping mission.

But the close proximity⁹ of the two groups in Abobo has created an atmosphere of tension. Just across the road from Kone's burned down shop, is a football field that serves as the local meeting ground for pro-Gbagbo militants¹⁰. They have even set-up what they call a street parliament.

We do not have any problems mobilizing people, says the head of the body, known as the All-Powerful Congress of Abobo. Each evening we explain to the people what is happening in the country, he says. We have six- or seven-thousand people here every night.

He says Abobo's young supporters of the president met here before heading for the streets, but he denies the protesters targeted their Dioula neighbors.

At two in the morning, it was them who attacked us, he says. What we did was just a reply to their attack. We set fire to their lumber yards and their installations, he says.

But across the road, a young Dioula leader gives a different version of what happened.

In their congress, they said 'Why don't the young Dioula's take part in our demonstrations?', he says. We said, we do not want to be in your demonstrations. So, at their meeting they said we attacked some of their people at the train station, he explains.

They were armed and came after us, he adds. They wanted to attack the mosque¹¹. We had nothing, so we just threw rocks.

Both sides say police intervened to stop the violence and, though, there are claims of killings¹² in both communities, reports vary.

As for Kone, he says he is not yet sure how he is going to start rebuilding.

I do not have anything left, he says. I cannot work now. I do not have anything to eat, he says. They even took our clothes.

1 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

2 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

3 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

4 erecting   

v.使直立，竖起( erect的现在分词 )；建立

参考例句：

• Nations can restrict their foreign trade by erecting barriers to exports as well as imports. 象设置进口壁垒那样，各国可以通过设置出口壁垒来限制对外贸易。 来自辞典例句
• Could you tell me the specific lift-slab procedure for erecting buildings? 能否告之用升板法安装楼房的具体程序？ 来自互联网

5 barricades   

路障，障碍物( barricade的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The police stormed the barricades the demonstrators had put up. 警察冲破了示威者筑起的街垒。
• Others died young, in prison or on the barricades. 另一些人年轻时就死在监牢里或街垒旁。

6 charred   

v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦

参考例句：

• the charred remains of a burnt-out car 被烧焦的轿车残骸
• The intensity of the explosion is recorded on the charred tree trunks. 那些烧焦的树干表明爆炸的强烈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 lumber   

n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动

参考例句：

• The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
• They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。

9 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

10 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

11 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

12 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。