2000-10-25
COTE D'IVOIRE: "POWER-HUNGRY" WIFE THE RUIN OF IVORY COAST'S GUEI.

By Silvia Aloisi
ABIDJAN, Oct 25 (Reuters) - A former member of Ivory Coast's junta blamed the
wife of ousted army ruler General Robert Guei for the military chief's downfall
in a people's revolt on Wednesday.
"It's his wife who ruined him," Henri Cesar Sama, who was Guei's communication
minister before resigning in the face of unprecedented mass protests, told
reporters.
Rose Guei, in her mid-fifties, was often seen campaigning with Guei before
Sunday's presidential election, wearing expensive clothes and sophisticated make
up.
She even campaigned on Guei's behalf upcountry when he dropped plans to travel
across the country for security reasons.
"She is greedy for power. We tried to persuade her to let it go but she wouldn't
listen," he said.
When the wife of junta number two Mathias Doue asked Rose Guei to persuade her
husband to concede defeat after the election, Rose called her "vermin", Sama
said.
He was speaking at state radio headquarters in the main city Abidjan after two
days of protests drove Guei from power.
The protest started on Tuesday afternoon when the junta declared that Guei had
won Sunday's presidential election, despite early results putting socialist
Laurent Gbagbo ahead. Gbagbo is now deemed the winner and he has said he is
president.
"Guei asked us to fiddle with the results. He asked us to annul the election. I
told him we couldn't do that," Sama said.
"He didn't want to tell us what the true results were. But everybody knew that
Gbagbo had won with 67.42 percent. It was just a bluff."
Sama added that during a meeting with Guei on Tuesday morning, Gbagbo had given
Guei "all the guarantees he needed for himself, his family and even the people
working for him" if he conceded that he had lost the election.
But Guei had decided to hang on to power at all costs.
Guei, put in power by soldiers who staged a coup last December, had initially
said that he was not interested in power and only wanted to "sweep the house
clean".
"But there were all these civilians around him who led him to believe he had the
people's support," Sama said. "People who had privileges and who, yesterday
still, were telling him that he should stay on."

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