In a message dated 12/27/99 7:04:44 AM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< CoteIvoire-coup,lead
New Cote d'Ivoire regime consolidates power as Bedie flees
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ATTENTION - RECASTS, ADDS PM report ///
ABIDJAN, Dec 27 (AFP) - The new regime in Cote d'Ivoire on Monday began the
task of consolidating power and restoring normality after president Henri
Konan Bedie, ousted in a coup, fled to Togo with family and supporters.
Bedie, his wife, children, and political associates flew out on Sunday
aboard a French military helicopter. They were later met at Lome airport by
Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema.
Two days after General Robert Guei surprised the world and ousted a party
that had ruled the country for four decades, the streets here returned to
normal Sunday with markets reopening, and buses and taxis circulating.
Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital quietened down after the successful
overthrow of Bedie, but resentment at regional French troop redeployments
here grew.
France at the weekend reinforced its 550-strong garrison with a further 40
men to protect its 20,000 nationals in Cote d'Ivoire, which became
independent in 1960 and has just seen its only coup since then.
The mutineers launched their uprising on Thursday, initially to demand
unpaid bonuses and better living conditions, but on Friday it turned into a
full-fledged coup, accompanied by looting throughout Abidjan, the west
African country's biggest city.
Bedie in the end was abandoned by Cote d'Ivoire's paratroopers, marines,
infantry, armoured units, gendarmes and police, who all pledged allegiance
to the new junta, along with leading politicians.
By Friday morning, Bedie's own guard had quit the presidential mansion, and
four straight decades of rule by the Cote d'Ivoire Democratic Party (PDCI)
had come to a quick, humiliating end.
Accused of being increasingly nepotistic and authoritarian, Bedie's
unpopularity grew even within ruling circles, amid criticism that one of
west Africa's flagship economies and democracies was really a one-party
state.
His fall from grace has so far elicited no emotion or signs of regret among
civilians or in military circles.
A French military source described the ousted president as "a lonely, lost
man."
The French government has indicated he is welcome to settle in France if he
wishes.
Abidjan's Felix Houphouet-Boigny international airport was set to reopen
Monday following its closure during the coup, the junta which seized power
announced.
Activities at the airport, which had been shut down overnight Thursday, were
set to resume at 7:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) Monday, the new regime, the National
Salvation Committee, told AFP.
According to French diplomatic sources, the country's prime
minister Daniel
Kablan Duncan and several other ousted ministers were among the Bedie
entourage which fled to Lome,
The French Foreign ministry said Monday that all the Bedie group had arrived
safely in the Togolese capital overnight.
General Guei had insisted Saturday that neither the prime minister nor the
defence minister should leave the country so as to "ensure the smooth
passage of the administraton to the successors which we will name".
However French sources said that Bedie had insisted that the two ministers
be allowed to leave with him, a request which, they said, had delayed his
departure.
Appearing on television on Saturday evening, surrounded by armed soldiers,
the old regime's remaining ex-ministers expressed their support for the new
junta.
Laurent Dona Fologo, the PDCI's secretary general, pledged support for Guei,
as did unseated foreign minister Essy Amara.
Fologo, who had also been minister of national solidarity, appealed for
unity and said he hoped that the changes "in the interests of the
population" would succeed.
A haggard-looking Constant Emile Bombet, the former interior minister,
appeared on television after being held hostage by mutineers. He said the
junta had "acted in the interest" of the west African nation.
The Cote d'Ivoire opposition Rally of Republicans (RDR) party led by
Alassane Ouattara on Sunday officially acknowledged the change of power in
the west African country.
In a televised statement, RDR secretary general Henriette Diabate took note
of commitments by the National Salvation Committee set up by General Robert
Guei after Friday's coup to ensure security, restore state authority, create
conditions for fair and transparent elections, and engage in wide
consultation to form a government of consensus.
bur/pvh
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