RIGHTS: More Foreigners Flee Cote D'Ivoire

by Brahima Ouedraogo

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso, Nov 22 (IPS) - More than 2,000 Burkinabes have fled the unrest in Cote d'Ivoire since last week, according to government officials.

The Burkinabes are fleeing the ‘'bayiri'', an organised attempt to rid the country off foreigners.

‘'Bayiri'' means ‘'fatherland'' in the local Ivorian language.

The returnees have been arriving in buses hired by the Burkinabe government, which is picking up the costs of transport to their town or village of origin. They travelled via Ghana since Burkina Faso closed its border with Cote d'Ivoire on Sep 20, the day after an army mutiny broke out there.

Most of the returnees fled Abidjan, the economic capital of Cote d' Ivoire. Others came from the country's central regions of Daloa and Tiebissou.

‘'We've arranged to help those who wish to return home,'' says Mariam Lamizana, the Burkinabe minister of social affairs.

‘'If things go according to programme, the returnees will feel happy to be in their own country. The government wants all the Burkinabes who've come home from Cote d'Ivoire to feel comfortable by the way how we welcome and assist them,'' she says.

Under the programme, costing 450 million CFA (about 692,307 U.S. dollars), the government will repatriate some 7,000 Burkinabes home.

The returnees, who signed up at the embassy of Burkina Faso in Cote d'Ivoire, have lost everything. ‘'I found my house destroyed when I came back from town,'' says Albert Konto, 24, a cook in one of Abidjan's run-down neighbourhoods.

Ivorian authorities, suspecting that some of the mutineers might have taken refuge in the shantytowns, burned down all the houses there.

‘'Thank God that we're here (in Burkina Faso) today. Our food and clothing - for the past two weeks - has been provided by Caritas, a non-governmental organisation,'' says Konto, who swears that he will never set foot in Cote d'Ivoire again.

The animals on Eric Belembaogo's pig farm were slaughtered during the 1999 military coup. And, since the beginning of the Sep 19 unrest, Belembaogo, who is 50, and the father of six children, also saw his house destroyed along with his dreams of the past 23 years in Cote d'Ivoire.

‘'Here (in Burkina Faso), at least, my children will be safe, even if they can't go to school anymore,'' Belmbaogo says. ‘'My 12-year-old son was doing my shopping (in Cote d'Ivoire) because I was afraid that if I left the house, I would not come back alive.''

More than 40,000 people have been made homeless in Cote d'Ivoire since Sep 19, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And, some 40 shantytowns have been earmarked for demolition in Abidjan. Eleven others, mostly inhabited by nationals of neighbouring countries, have been destroyed.

‘'The violence in Cote d'Ivoire threatens the peace in the sub-region. It constitutes a retreat from human rights and democracy,'' says Halidou Ouedraogo, president of the Burkinabe Movement for Human and Peoples Rights.

Ouedraogo has criticised the ‘'heavy human toll'' paid by foreign nationals, mostly from Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, since the beginning of the rebellion. ‘'Foreigners were also subjected to extortion and humiliations.''

‘'The crisis in Cote d'Ivoire has been exacerbated by xenophobia,'' he says.

The Burkinabe Movement for Human and Peoples Rights has appealed to the African Union (AU) and the Banjul-based African Commission for Human and Peoples Rights to intervene and end the ‘'massive and recurrent human rights abuses'' in Cote d'Ivoire.

Ivorian authorities have accused Burkina Faso of granting asylum to renegade soldiers, whose colleagues today control northern half of the country. Burkina Faso has denied the allegations, although acknowledges that it does take in Ivorian army deserters on humanitarian grounds.

On Monday, the Burkinabe Foreign Minister, Youssouf Ouedraogo, reaffirmed his country's commitment to receiving ‘'any African in trouble''.

‘'As long as our African brothers who come to Burkina Faso do not seek to destabilise other countries while using our country as a base, we will continue to do our duty toward them and welcome them as brothers,'' he said.

Burkina Faso also has been accused of supporting former Ivorian Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, who was banned from running in the 2000 presidential election because his parents trace their roots in Burkina Faso.

Some 30,000 Burkinabes have returned home since Sep 19. The government says it is seeking 5 billion CFA (around 7.692 million U.S. dollars) to repatriate its citizens from Cote d'Ivoire.

The first Ivorian crisis, which erupted in 1999, forced 20,000 Burkinabes home.

Around 2.2 million Burkinabes live in Cote d'Ivoire, where they provide labour for the cocoa and coffee plantations. Cote d'Ivoire is the world's biggest cocoa producer, and the second coffee producer.

Cote d'Ivoire's 16 million people include 2.2 million Burkinabe, 800,000 Malians and 230,000 Guineans, according to official statistics.

The anti-immigrant feelings in Cote d'Ivoire, once a bastion of stability in West Africa, began after the economic boom, which attracted millions of workers from poorer neighbours. (END/2002)