Mystery surrounds identities of I. Coast coup masterminds
ABIDJAN, Sept 21 (AFP) - The identities of the masterminds of Ivory Coast's
carefully-planned coup bid remained shrouded in mystery Saturday, with a
presidential aide fingering foreign mercenaries backed by an unnamed regional
"rogue" country.
Confusion prevailed two days after the coup broke out simultaneously in the
economic capital Abidjan and two other key cities, with the attempt to oust
socialist President Laurent Gbagbo immediately blamed by his government on
former military ruler Robert Guei.
Guei, who led the West African country's first coup in December 1999, died
in Abidjan on Thursday. His supporters claim he was shot down in cold blood.
Although the army uprising, which rebels say is led by troops facing
demobilisation in coming months, was suppressed in Abidjan, the mutineers
still hold Ivory Coast's second city Bouake, in the centre, and the northern
town of Korhogo.
President Gbagbo's aide Toussaint Alain Saturday told AFP in Rome that the
plot was backed by a west African "rogue state".
"External forces are backing the terrorists," he said. "We have
confirmation that there are foreign mercenaries. This action was hatched in a
foreign country," he said, evoking an unnamed "rogue state in the sub-region."
The coup bid, clearly meticulously planned, leads to several questions.
Who is the mastermind? How was it possible to mount simultaneous pre-dawn
attacks with heavy arms on the homes of heavyweights such as the interior
minister, the defence minister and the chief of army staff?
Is the coup really backed by external forces as the government alleges? Are
there really Angolan mercenaries on Ivorian soil as the rebels claim?
The coup bid came when Gbagbo was in Italy on a state visit.
It shattered a common perception that he had finally managed to put the lid
on more than two years of ethnic and political tensions through national peace
talks between four estranged leaders.
Things were looking up on the economic front also, with international
donors resuming cooperation suspended earlier for bad governance. And Gbagbo
was assiduosly wooing back foreign investors by promising stability in the
former French colony, the world's leading cocoa producer.
The coup claimed the lives of interior minister Emile Boga Doudou and
former military leader Guei on the first day. Guei's wife and aide-de-camp
were also killed in the violence.
Rumours abounded that Guei, the alleged mastermind, had been on his way to
the national television and radio station to make an announcement.
Instead, his body was found near a hospital in Abidjan's upmarket Cocody
quarter. He was wearing a T-shirt and track-suit pants -- and the sort of
shoes normally worn with a suit.
"They were not involved in the coup, neither from near nor from far," said
the mother of Captain Fabien Coulibaly, Guei's deceased aide.
The Notre Voie daily, close the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FRP), pinned
the blame on Guei and former prime minister and opposition leader Alassane
Dramane Ouattara popularly referred to by his acronym ADO.
"The deadly folly of Guei and ADO," it screamed.
Ouattara, who was barred from standing in the last presidential elections
in 2000 on the ground that he hailed from neighbouring Burkina Faso has denied
any involvement and was said to be "deeply shocked" by the allegation.
He is currently sheltered at the house of the French ambassador.
Former president Henri Konan Bedie, overthrown by Guei on Christmas Day,
1999, has meanwhile taken refuge with the Canadian ambassador, and has not
said a word in public since Thursday. He is due to make a statement Sunday.
Gbagbo in a televised address Friday that the rebels had heavy weaponry
that did not belong to the former French colony's army.
"The arms and the targets show that they want to change the regime of the
Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast has been attacked. The hour of battle is here!"
Gbagbo said.
"This is not some display of anger by a few soldiers, this is an attempted
coup d'etat," he said.
A French businessman, stuck in rebel-held Bouake since the start of the
coup, said he had seen Liberian mercenaries, adding: "It's full of
Anglophones. There are many mercenaries ... Liberians, no doubt about that."
The rebels, for their part, claim that Angolan troops have arrived to back
the loyalist forces -- a claim impossible to verify Saturday.
Gbagbo had in the past blamed neighbouring Burkina Faso for trying to
destabilise Ivory Coast, a charge steadfastly denied by his Burkinabe
counterpart Blaise Compaire.
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