In a message dated 12/27/99 7:04:34 AM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< CoteIvoire-coup
Cote d'Ivoire's biggest city bustles after coup
ABIDJAN, Dec 27 (AFP) - Cote d'Ivoire's biggest city returned to its normal
bustle Monday, three days after President Henri Konan Bedie was overthrown
in a coup led by a former army chief of staff, General Robert Guei.
The new junta headed by Guei, the National Comittee of Public Salvation,
said a third night of a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Abidjan had been respected.
The 10-member junta committee was expected to decide Monday whether to
prolong the curfew.
On Friday night, after army mutineers toppled Bedie and his government,
uncontrollable elements of the rebellious military and hooligans had
rampaged through the city, burning and pillaging stores in commercial
districts.
But as calm returned, the international airport reopened at 7:00 a.m. (0700
GMT) Monday for the first time since the military uprising broke out on
Thursday.
After taking refuge in a French military base adjacent to the airport on
Friday, Bedie, his family and close entourage fled the country aboard a
French helicopter on Sunday.
They arrived in Lome where they were met by Togo's President Gnassingbe
Eyadema.
Cote d'Ivoire's unseated prime minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, the
ex-security minister Marcel Dibonan Kone, and former defence minister
Bandama N'Gatta were also taken by French helicopters to Lome along with
their family members, officials in Togo's capital said.
The departure of the prime minister and the defence minister will not please
new strongman Guei, a longtime political foe of the deposed president.
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".
Guei's junta was expected to begin meeting with political leaders on Monday
for discussions on the country's future.
On Sunday, the junta permitted the the opposition Rally of Republicans (RDR)
party to issue a statement over television in which the group noted that the
coup leaders had pledged to prepare conditions for fair elections.
One of the military's first actions last week was to free several RDR
leaders who had been jailed in November.
The opposition party is led by Alassane Ouattara, who had planned to run for
president in elections scheduled for October 2000. Ouattara is currently in
France but was expected to return to Cote d'Ivoire in coming days.
sa-jlr/dm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
