COTE D'IVOIRE: Uneasy calm follows attack on president's home

ABIDJAN, 18 September (IRIN) - The streets of Le Plateau, Abidjan's central
administrative district, were deserted on Monday after a pre-dawn attack on
the
residence of Cote d'Ivoire's leader, General Robert Guei.

"It's calm for now", a humanitarian source told IRIN. There was a heavy
military presence in Le Plateau throughout the day and the few taxis to be
seen were loaded with gendarmes and members of the military, rather than
their usual civilian passengers.
Offices and businesses remained closed and the few civilians who tried to
reach the city centre were searched by security forces, the source said.

Monday's attack was staged by "a few isolated elements", Minister of
Communication and Culture Henri Sama said on state radio. The assailants
tried to take the residence of the president  but were repulsed, he said.
International media organisations reported that two people had died. Local
radio said a number of members of the military were detained and questioned.

Sources told IRIN the shooting began at about 03:00 GMT and that there was
"sustained firing" up to 05:30 GMT although shots could still be heard at
10.30 GMT. The streets in Le Plateau were deserted except for truckloads of
soldiers, the source told IRIN. There was a heavy military presence around
state radio, which was cordoned off by the armed forces. Security at the
state  television company in Cocody, a 10-minute drive from Le Plateau, was
also beefed up.

The attack came about two and a half months after a 4-5 July mutiny by
soldiers demanding allowances which, they claimed, had been promised them
when the military overthrew President Henri Konan Bedie on 24 December 1999.


It capped a tense week in Abidjan that began with the Ivoirian students'
union giving the ruling Conseil national de salut publique (CNSP) an
ultimatum to deal with a dissident faction whom it blamed for clashes that
left many students wounded, failing which the student union's members would
take things into their own hands. About two dozen students were reported to
have sustained machete wounds during the clashes that occurred on one of the
university campuses in the Abidjan area. The rival faction was said to be
linked to the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR).

On Sunday, Guei promised to crack down on student agitators and the
politicians behind them.

Two days before, hundreds of RDR supporters flocked to the residence of
party leader Alassane Ouattara in Cocody after reports that the military had
surrounded it and were about to arrest him. Some of the RDR youths vowed to
give their lives, if necessary, to protect him, a media source told IRIN.

Ouattara is considered one of the frontrunners in presidential elections
scheduled for 22 October. However, at the start of the week, lawyers
contracted by the government had presented what they said was proof that he
was ineligible because he had had Burkinabe citizenship. Ouattara's
opponents have long claimed that he is a Burkinabe national.

One of the conditions governing eligibility for the presidency is that
candidates must be able to prove that both of their parents are or were
Ivoirian and that they had never had any other nationality. Reacting to the
lawyers' claim, Ouattara had challenged Guei to prove his origins, stating
that he did not bear his father's name. The RDR leader had also charged that
Cote d'Ivoire was under a dictatorship.

Sama said  on Monday:  "Certain Ivoirians are developing a siege mentality,
a besieged-tribe mentality".  He said that, after many discussions and
attempts at dialogue,  the CNSP was no longer prepared to accept that "a few
adventurers, imbued with their persons and because of personal ambitions,
end the quietude that was the daily bread of Ivoirians".

The struggle Guei and the CNSP are waging today, he said, "is about the
sovereignty of Cote d'Ivoire, which we do not want to see made into a vassal
state by countries which it has always been our obligation to assist".

He did not mention Ouattara or any of Cote d'Ivoire's poorer neighbours,
such as Burkina Faso, by name.

[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 22-40-4440; Fax (Admin): +225 22-40-4435; Fax (Editorial
Desk): +225-22-41-9339; e-mail: [log in to unmask]]




[This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: [log in to unmask] or Web:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------