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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D'IVOIRE: Two more generals detained in wave of arrests
ABIDJAN, 29 August 2003 (IRIN) - Two more army generals have been arrested as part of a round-up of more than 50 people suspected of involvement in a plot to assassinate President Laurent Gbagbo, military sources said on Friday.
General Abdoulaye Coulibaly, who had been sidelined from active service for the past three years, was detained at Abidjan airport on Thursday night as he stepped off a plane from Paris where he had been on a six-week private visit, the sources told IRIN.
General Soumaila Diabakate was arrested at his office in the defence ministry earlier in the day, they added.
Both men were prominent figures in the military junta which seized power in 1999 and ruled this former French colony until elections in 2000 which were won by Gbagbo.
The military sources said more than 50 people had been detained in Cote d'Ivoire for questioning in connection with the alleged assassination plot and further arrests were still being made. Those picked up include a third general, Alain Mouandou, the controller-general of police, who was detained on Wednesday.
France also arrested 11 people last weekend in connection with the conspiracy. They included Master Sargent Ibrahim Coulibaly, another prominent figure in the 1999 coup led by Colonel Robert Guei, and several suspected mercenaries. One of those detained in Paris, the chauffeur of the Ivorian embassy, has since been released.
Cote d'Ivoire, which produces 40 percent of the world's cocoa, slid into civil war on September 19 last year after what appeared to be another attempted coup by Guei, who was killed in the initial outbreak of fighting.
Rebel forces now occupy the north of the country, but despite the signing of a peace agreement in January and the establishment of a broad-based government of national reconciliation in March, there is still deep distrust between Gbagbo and his supporters on one hand and the rebel forces and the parliamentary opposition parties on the other.
Plans for the rebels to start demobilising and disarming on August 1 have been put on ice.
Earlier this week, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, a leading figure in Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, accused the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MCPI) rebel movement, independent Prime Minister Seydou Diarra and the Rally of the Republicans (RDR) opposition party of former prime minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara of all being party to the assassination plan.
In recent weeks, the MPCI, Diarra and all the main opposition parties have accused Gbagbo of blocking the peace process by his refusal to appoint consensus figures to the vacant ministries of defence and internal security and his reluctance to implement other aspects of the French-brokered peace accord.
Although the rebels, who are now officially known as "The New Forces," have nine ministers in the government, Gbagbo has made sure they have virtually no authority in the government departments they are supposed to control.
The MPCI has publicly denied being party to any assassination plan and has reiterated its support for the peace agreement. But it has also called loudly for the release of Master Sargent Coulibaly, who is widely believed to have close links to the rebel movement.
Diarra, a former civil servant and diplomat brought in as a politically neutral figure to run the government until fresh elections are held in 2005, has so far remained silent. Sources in the prime minister's office said his advisers were split over whether to issue a public denial or remain silent. Some feared that if Diarra made a public statement, it would simply provoke more mud-slinging from the FPI.
A senior aide of Ouattara, who was banned from standing against Gbagbo in the 2000 presidential election after his right to Ivorian nationality was questioned, said categorically that neither he nor his party had nothing to do with the alleged plot. Cisse Bacongo Ouattara, who heads the Abidjan office of the exiled RDR leader, said: "This is just a false plot by the FPI to allow it to turn away from the Marcoussis (peace agreement).
The wave of the arrests and the strident accusations of treason emmanating from the FPI have heightened tension in the commercial capital Abidjan, where many people are looking to the president to adopt a more conciliatory stance to defuse the situation.
"Everything depends on Gbagbo. He alone has the power to pacify or aggravate the situation," said N'guessan Yao, a civil servant as he bought a lottery ticket from a stall in the street. He told IRIN the head of state should calm down.
One university lecturer warned there was a real danger that the peace process might break down if Gbagbo's hardline stance provoked the rebel ministers into withdrawing from the government. He said the rebels would be the main losers if that happened, but he added: "My fear is that the New Forces may carry out terrorist actions which could destabilise everybody."
Many passers by consulted by IRIN in Abidjan's working class suburb of Yopogoun simply expressed disgust with the political struggles of the past year that have tipped the economy into recession.
"We are tired of the crisis," said Arthur Boga, a pensioner. "This is just a squabble between politicians. They dump us all in the shit and we would live better here without them."
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance
[ENDS]
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