POLITICS-IVORY COAST: Coup Threat Elicits Varying Responses

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Fulgence Zamble

ABIDJAN, Aug 22 2005 (IPS) - A mixed reaction has greeted this weekend’s threat by a former head of the Ivorian army to depose President Laurent Gbagbo. General Mathias Doue made the announcement in a letter printed by various Ivorian publications on Friday, and during an interview with Radio France Internationale, Saturday.

“At a time when we’re in the process of mediation to help us end the war, this is an inopportune moment to make these kinds of remarks,” Dje Bi Mointi, who heads a youth wing in the opposition Union for Democracy and Peace in Ivory Coast, told IPS. “Right now, the appropriate way to get out of this crisis is to hold elections.”

Bakoroba Kone, president of the Ivorian chapter of the non-governmental organisation Lawyers without Borders, also sounded a sceptical note: “No one knows what his intentions are. Let’s wait until we can see things more clearly.”

Ivory Coast is currently divided between the rebel-held north and government-controlled south, the two areas separated by a buffer zone which is patrolled by international peacekeepers. Rebels, known as the New Forces, have held the north of the country since staging a failed coup in September 2002.

Several peace initiatives have been launched for the Ivory Coast, most recently through the mediation of South Africa, and a presidential election is scheduled to take place on Oct. 30 to restore order to the West African state. However, continued delays with disarmament have cast doubt on the success of these efforts.

“I’ve chosen to break my silence because I think this situation has gone on too long, and that Gbagbo’s departure alone would bring peace to the Ivory Coast,” said Doue. “And if the international community doesn’t want to make him go peacefully, I’m going to do it by any means necessary.”

For the past eight months, Doue has been living abroad in a secret location. Appointed armed forces chief in 2000, he was dismissed by Gbagbo in November last year after the failure of an operation codenamed “Dignity” – staged in a bid to recapture the north.

Doue also formed part of the military junta under the late General Robert Guei which toppled President Henri Konan Bedie in 1999, and continued in power until October 2000 when popular discontent at Guei’s alleged meddling in a presidential election forced him out of office.

“If the international community gets him (Gbagbo) to leave in the next few days, we will have dodged a civil war,” said Doue. “Be assured that the personality of President Gbagbo and the entire system that surrounds him are not forces for peace and reconciliation.”

The former army chief also pledged to put an end to the activities of death squads alleged to have ties with Gbagbo’s administration, which are accused of assassinating several government opponents.

This came after former military spokesman Jules Yao Yao, who has also broken with Gbagbo, published a list of alleged death squad members and those they reported to – saying these persons were close associates of the president and his wife, Simone Gbagbo. Over the past two years, authorities have repeatedly rejected the accusations concerning death squads.

An army officer interviewed by IPS dismissed both Doue and Yao as traitors, saying the military was “hardly bothered by their statements” – while current army chief Philippe Mangou said his troops continued “to serve their mission of safeguarding the republic against any form of threat or aggression.”

However, any complacency about the loyalties of the armed forces may be misplaced.

A military analyst has told IPS that government opponents are “testing the waters with messages designed, initially, to create a campaign to seduce the troops.”

“If the campaign manages to solidify part of the army around its cause, then the opponents will quickly move to the offensive phase,” he added.

Bertin Kadet, Gbagbo’s defense advisor, also sought to downplay Doue’s statements, describing them as a “nonevent”. In addition, the Saturday edition of a pro-government daily, ‘Fraternite-Matin’, compared Doue to Central African Republic President Francois Bozize, who overthrew Ange-Felix Patasse in 2003.

But New Forces leader Guillaume Soro said he was “happy that General Mathias Doue (was) assuming his responsibilities. Our country’s interests depend on it.”

“In order for there to be democratic and transparent elections that are open to all, the main obstacle – in the first instance to peace and in the second to reconciliation – is the removal of Laurent Gbagbo,” added Soro, who was in South Africa this weekend for talks with President Thabo Mbeki.

Once viewed as a beacon of success in West Africa, the Ivory Coast has become embroiled in ethnic and religious tensions over recent years. People living in the north of the country, which is mostly Muslim, allege discrimination at the hands of those living in the south.

Foreign workers who moved to Ivory Coast during the economic boom which followed independence have also become the target of increasing xenophobia, as the prices of key export commodities such as cocoa and coffee have dropped.

Former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, a Muslim from the north, was barred from competing in the October 2000 presidential poll subsequently won by Gbagbo – this on the grounds that his parents were not Ivorian.

Under a now defunct constitutional amendment introduced by Bedie, only people with both Ivorian mothers and fathers could contest the election.