----- Original Message -----
From: Kenneth O'Neil BLACKMAN <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 1999 9:08 AM
Subject: COTE D'IVOIRE: Military coup announced [19991224]


> COTE D'IVOIRE: Military coup announced
>
> ABIDJAN, 24 December 1999 (IRIN) - Soldiers in Cote d'Ivoire announced on
> radio and TV on Friday that  President Henri Konan Bedie had been deposed
> and  parliament  dissolved, and that a curfew would be imposed from 21.00
to
> 0500 Hrs starting on Friday night.
>
> According to radio reports, the soldiers, who had begun a mutiny on
> Thursday, also went to the MACA, the main penitentiary in Abidjan, and
freed
> the leaders of one of Cote d'Ivoire's main opposition parties.
>
> The mutineers' spokesman, General Robert Guehi - described by another
member
> of the military as the "new president of the republic" - said on radio
that
> the soldiers had met  Bedie  to discuss their grievances, which were both
> political and military, but the meeting ended abruptly after no common
> ground could be reached.
>
> "They consider that from now on President Henri Konan Bedie is no longer
> president of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire," he said. "A Comite de Salut
de
> la Republique (Committee for the Salvation of the Republic) will be set up
> and its composition will be communicated to you in the coming hours or
> days".
>
> Bedie became Cote d'Ivoire's second president in 1993, at the death of
> Felix Houphouet Boigny.
>
> The other member of the military read out a number of instructions for the
> public, including the imposition of the curfew "until further notice".
"All
> institutions of the republic are forthwith suspended," he said, adding:
> "This takeover has been done on behalf of the Ivoirian people and to
restore
> the dignity of the soldiers, which has been scorned for a long tme."
>
> The first signs that someting was afoot came on Thursday morning when
bands
> of soldiers drove around Abidjan shooting in the air. They took over state
> television and also the state-owned radio station, where equipment was
> reportedly damaged and which has been off  the air since early Thursday
> afternoon. They then commandered private vehicles and, according to
various
> reports,  pillaged at least one supermarket and seized food and gas from
> restaurants and service stations respectively.
>
> On Friday, abandoned cars, some of them damaged, could be seen here and
> there on the streets of Le Plateau, Abidjan's central business and
> administrative district. There was virtually no vehicular traffic in the
> normally bustling city centre except for cars driven by the military.
> Businesses were closed and the handful of passers-by on the deserted
> pavements were a far cry from the crowds of shoppers that usually grace Le
> Plateau's streets on Xmas Eve.
>
> Some reports had it that the protest had been staged by former
peacekeepers
> angered that they had not been paid after serving in the Central African
> Republic, although a usually reliable source told IRIN there had been a
> failed coup attempt in the early hours of Thursday morning.
>
> In his announcement, Guehi said the mutineers had two main grouses. "There
> are specifically military problems with regard to the restoration of their
> dignity, i.e.  improving their equipment, salary increases ... Other
> problems are political since they asked for the liberation of the people
who
> are now detained at the MACA  for reasons of a political nature."
>
> The secretary-general of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains
> (RDR), Henriette Diabate, and other senior members of the party were
> sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to two years in November, less
> than a year before presidential elections billed for October next year .
>
> They were convicted, by virtue of a law that renders organisers of
> demonstrations responsible for damage caused during such protests,
following
> a sit-in held in late October to protest against anti-opposition bias on
the
> state media.
>
> The sit-in was one of a series of protests organised by the RDR, whose
> leader - former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara - has been barred from
> contesting next year's election by the state, which maintains that he is
not
> of Ivoirian origin, a claim he has denied.
>
> The news of the overthrow was greeted with loud cheering on Abidjan's
> streets. In Le Plateau, a convoy of soldiers in about 15 to 20 vehicles
> could be seen driving through the streets firing into the air. In another
> neighbourhood, II Plateaux, young men jumped onto the bonnets and tops of
> the few 'woro woro' (collective taxis) on the streets, cheering and waving
> their arms.
>
> Guehi said  Bedie was at his residence which had been surrounded by the
> mutineers so as to "protect" the head of state, but a report on CNN had it
> that he had sought refuge in the residence of the French ambassador and
had
> ordered his loyalists to crush the rebels.
>
> [END]
>
>

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