Thursday, March 25, 2004
RDR and New Forces React - Revised Comment
The ex-rebel New Forces have now decided to withdraw from the Reconciliation Government of Prime Minister Seydou Diarra as a result of the bloodshed. It was decided earlier that they would not march in Abidjan, so that a march in favour of the National Reconciliation agreements would not be misconstrued. The NF spokesman told BBC, "We cannot be part of a government where the army is in the service of a dictator. There will be military consequences. The New Forces are now on maximum full alert."
The RDR has just announced that it also is withdrawing its ministers from the National Reconciliation Government. If my memory serves me right, the Minister of Defence is RDR. Does that mean he will abandon running of his department? Perhaps that is logical if President Gbagbo went over his head in requisitioning the troops.
The ex-rebel New Forces have now decided to withdraw from the Reconciliation Government of Prime Minister Seydou Diarra as a result of the bloodshed. It was decided earlier that they would not march in Abidjan, so that a march in favour of the National Reconciliation agreements would not be misconstrued. The NF spokesman told BBC, "We cannot be part of a government where the army is in the service of a dictator. There will be military consequences. The New Forces are now on maximum full alert."
The RDR has just announced that it also is withdrawing its ministers from the National Reconciliation Government. If my memory serves me right, the Minister of Defence is RDR. Does that mean he will abandon running of his department? Perhaps that is logical if President Gbagbo went over his head in requisitioning the troops.
The Attempted March by the Marcoussistes
A sad day in Abidjan with some 30 marchers dead, according to the RDR spokesman, and several injured, shot as they apparently tried to gather for a peaceful march in favour of the full implementation by President Gbagbo of the peace and national reconciliation process in accord with the Linas-Marcoussis and Accra II agreements.
The official figure was earlier six dead including a couple of policemen, one incident said to have occurred after a child was supposed to have been killed, another when a policeman was supposedly isolated, beaten and finished off with a gun after police had shot into a crowd. The RDR gives 3 police dead and one missing.
The march of the PDCI of ex-President Bédié, RDR of Alassane Ouattara and the UDPCI of assassinated ex-Head of State Guéi has been called off. France has asked for restraint.
A bit late, after the military was requisitioned by the President and set free on the marchers, according to one report on AP, killing two from their Mig Hind helicopters. Shades of Afghanistan or Wilbur Smith. The BBC account says these helicopters were used to launch tear gas against the marchers.
President Kufuor of Ghana, who tried to intervene yesterday so sanity might prevail, has said the coming of the United Nations troops and the 2005 elections may now be delayed.
Meanwhile, by coincidence, or perhaps to prevent people hearing international news on FM, the BBC, RFI and Africa No 1 are said to be off the air in RCI. And, of course, Air Chance has suspended its flights. Schools will remain closed tomorrow.
A sad day in Abidjan with some 30 marchers dead, according to the RDR spokesman, and several injured, shot as they apparently tried to gather for a peaceful march in favour of the full implementation by President Gbagbo of the peace and national reconciliation process in accord with the Linas-Marcoussis and Accra II agreements.
The official figure was earlier six dead including a couple of policemen, one incident said to have occurred after a child was supposed to have been killed, another when a policeman was supposedly isolated, beaten and finished off with a gun after police had shot into a crowd. The RDR gives 3 police dead and one missing.
The march of the PDCI of ex-President Bédié, RDR of Alassane Ouattara and the UDPCI of assassinated ex-Head of State Guéi has been called off. France has asked for restraint.
A bit late, after the military was requisitioned by the President and set free on the marchers, according to one report on AP, killing two from their Mig Hind helicopters. Shades of Afghanistan or Wilbur Smith. The BBC account says these helicopters were used to launch tear gas against the marchers.
President Kufuor of Ghana, who tried to intervene yesterday so sanity might prevail, has said the coming of the United Nations troops and the 2005 elections may now be delayed.
Meanwhile, by coincidence, or perhaps to prevent people hearing international news on FM, the BBC, RFI and Africa No 1 are said to be off the air in RCI. And, of course, Air Chance has suspended its flights. Schools will remain closed tomorrow.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Coups and Rumours of Coups - Comment Revised
What the PDCI-RDA opposition leader and former President Bédié has done to President Gbagbo is a blow and it is hard for Gbagbo to disengage without losing face. If he and the pro-Gbagbo lackeys and “patriot” thugs overreact, Gbagbo could well lose the next elections as, up to the present, he has benefited from a lot of even Baoulé support from the rebel-held territories as well as Abidjan. (Now even somewhat chameleon-like Tapé Koulou, the godfather of the “Patriots”, is prepared to say that Bédié is still his presidential candidate in 2005.) Only a month ago Bédié seemed like a spent force, trying to orchestrate a split and discordant party. Who said the dead do not come back to life? Now he has the support of everybody who is anybody who participated at the Marcoussis meetings, except of course Gbagbo’s party, the FPI.
In fact, the RDR, Ouattara’s party, and the ex-rebel New Forces, may also pull out of the Reconciliation Government, and there is talk of an RDR-PDCI coalition against Gbagbo. The Government Council meeting this past week only had a half of its proper number.
It is difficult to see how Gbagbo can win this one and it is for this reason that some people think he will have to organise a mock coup d’état attempt, à la Guéi, what has been called in the press an “auto-coup”. The parallel of the current situation with the recent removal of the RTI director is fairly obvious, and Guillaume Soro of the Forces Nouvelles, Minister of Communication in the Reconciliation Government, won that one, after the Director’s being dismissed, reinstated, then dismissed again, in spite of the pro-Gbagbo “Patriots’” being unhappy about it.
It really is just a power struggle, and Gbagbo, because of this matter of the management of the container Port of Abidjan, given by the FPI Finance Minister (and NOT the more appropriate PDCI Infrastructure Minister) to the French company Bolloré (which already has Sitarail and Saga interests in RCI) in a sweetheart deal, without calling for competing offers, has given to Bédié the opportunity to show his political clout. The opposition PDCI newspaper is calling Gbagbo’s government and actions “fascist”, which sounds good coming from them. (Many peaceful years ago, at the time of the benevolent and utterly ambiguous President Houphouët, the US Secretary of State visited Abidjan and, not ashamed of showing his ignorance, he asked at the Embassy here what the leadership of the government of the country was like. One attaché, who shall remain nameless, said: “Think of the Soviet Union”; a very astute assessment.)
The FPI is desperate to keep control of the Port of Abidjan and its finances, and probably to cover up a hole of some 40 million dollars US, according to one report. The PDCI minister, Patrick Achi, should be able to name the Director General, just like the FPI ministers name theirs, and he and his President Bédié are just as determined to get hold of the petty cash that floats around there. Minister Achi has also indicated to Balloré that the special deal for the container port with the FPI Finance Minister is not legally valid.
So the pro-Marcoussistes say that they will march on Thursday 25th in favour of the implementation of the year-old Marcoussis agreements, and that includes at least the PDCI, the RDR and the Forces Nouvelles. Sending his attack Hind helicopters to overfly Daoukro, where Bédié is a the moment, may show that Gbagbo has control of the mercenaries said to fly them, but will it prevent the march? Does it show that he and his Patriots have the heart of the majority of the population? That is what Bédié is calling into question. And Gbagbo has to be careful of aggravating the situation. Even the expected arrest by the gendarmes on Monday of the outspoken Assistant Secretary-General of the PDCI, in charge of that party’s mobilisation, Maurice Guikahué, whose arrest is said to have been ordered by Gbagbo during the government council meeting, is likely to complicate matters.
The young and older patriots and pillagers have been able to march and demonstrate with impunity in order to show support for Gbagbo and the FPI and their own idea of what is good for the country (anti-rebels, anti-Marcoussis, anti-French, anti-Ouattara, anti-Diarra, anti-magistrates, anti-opposition marches, but pro-American!). Now the pro-Marcoussistes want to show popular support for the honest and complete implementation of the Marcoussis-Accra agreements, in spirit and letter, as President Gbagbo promised, and Bédié hopes to get some considerable kudos out of this.
Will they be able to march on Thursday as intended? On one report, the “Patriots” have said the pro-Marcoussistes will be blocked and prevented as of Wednesday 24th, so they cannot take to the streets. The Presidential security detachments say the Presidential Palace area in the downtown Plateau is a Red Zone, and so opposition forces cannot assemble at the Place de la République, as they intend doing. Gbagbo says that they cannot march, but can meet in an enclosed area such as a stadium (but that would limit them to a meeting of only about 40,000 people). Anyway, Thursday will be a good day for us to stay inside, keep our heads down, and continue our reading of that great novel “War and Peace”.
As for the BBC’s Friday report of a threatened or intended coup d’état by the Opposition ("French backed", of course, according to the FPI newspapers), and of military blockades around Abidjan, it makes good press, no doubt, à la CNN. However, the reality on the ground has always been quite different from what is depicted by the British and American press. I came by taxi from Koumassi area about 8 pm Friday, saw no sign of police or of soldiers, not even on the CDG bridge, till I got to 2 Plateaux where there was one group of police ripping off the poor wôrô-wôrô drivers for 500 F each. You sometimes wonder how the BBC can make the spectacular out of what is normal. My guess is that their correspondent probably saw soldiers posted on the road for Gbagbo’s protection as he went home from his office, and that became, in their report, a military blockade over 48 hours. As for the clinching BBC statement by an unnamed politician, “We are 50% closer to war and 50% closer to peace”, they should wake up. That has been the situation for 15 months: not peace, not war. What else is new? British expats are still at the present time no doubt safer in Ivory Coast than in Spain or the USA and, as for most of Asia, forget about it!
Meanwhile, Abidjan is quiet and peaceful, Americans stateside marched yesterday, at times violently, against the Iraqi war (shades of Vietnam), and there is violence in Gaza, Taiwan, Pakistan, Nepal, and elsewhere, you name it. Abidjan is waiting for the 6200 UN peacekeeping forces which should start arriving April 4 to carry forward the peace process -- but that arrival is likely to be delayed if there is a deterioration of the political situation in the country.
What the PDCI-RDA opposition leader and former President Bédié has done to President Gbagbo is a blow and it is hard for Gbagbo to disengage without losing face. If he and the pro-Gbagbo lackeys and “patriot” thugs overreact, Gbagbo could well lose the next elections as, up to the present, he has benefited from a lot of even Baoulé support from the rebel-held territories as well as Abidjan. (Now even somewhat chameleon-like Tapé Koulou, the godfather of the “Patriots”, is prepared to say that Bédié is still his presidential candidate in 2005.) Only a month ago Bédié seemed like a spent force, trying to orchestrate a split and discordant party. Who said the dead do not come back to life? Now he has the support of everybody who is anybody who participated at the Marcoussis meetings, except of course Gbagbo’s party, the FPI.
In fact, the RDR, Ouattara’s party, and the ex-rebel New Forces, may also pull out of the Reconciliation Government, and there is talk of an RDR-PDCI coalition against Gbagbo. The Government Council meeting this past week only had a half of its proper number.
It is difficult to see how Gbagbo can win this one and it is for this reason that some people think he will have to organise a mock coup d’état attempt, à la Guéi, what has been called in the press an “auto-coup”. The parallel of the current situation with the recent removal of the RTI director is fairly obvious, and Guillaume Soro of the Forces Nouvelles, Minister of Communication in the Reconciliation Government, won that one, after the Director’s being dismissed, reinstated, then dismissed again, in spite of the pro-Gbagbo “Patriots’” being unhappy about it.
It really is just a power struggle, and Gbagbo, because of this matter of the management of the container Port of Abidjan, given by the FPI Finance Minister (and NOT the more appropriate PDCI Infrastructure Minister) to the French company Bolloré (which already has Sitarail and Saga interests in RCI) in a sweetheart deal, without calling for competing offers, has given to Bédié the opportunity to show his political clout. The opposition PDCI newspaper is calling Gbagbo’s government and actions “fascist”, which sounds good coming from them. (Many peaceful years ago, at the time of the benevolent and utterly ambiguous President Houphouët, the US Secretary of State visited Abidjan and, not ashamed of showing his ignorance, he asked at the Embassy here what the leadership of the government of the country was like. One attaché, who shall remain nameless, said: “Think of the Soviet Union”; a very astute assessment.)
The FPI is desperate to keep control of the Port of Abidjan and its finances, and probably to cover up a hole of some 40 million dollars US, according to one report. The PDCI minister, Patrick Achi, should be able to name the Director General, just like the FPI ministers name theirs, and he and his President Bédié are just as determined to get hold of the petty cash that floats around there. Minister Achi has also indicated to Balloré that the special deal for the container port with the FPI Finance Minister is not legally valid.
So the pro-Marcoussistes say that they will march on Thursday 25th in favour of the implementation of the year-old Marcoussis agreements, and that includes at least the PDCI, the RDR and the Forces Nouvelles. Sending his attack Hind helicopters to overfly Daoukro, where Bédié is a the moment, may show that Gbagbo has control of the mercenaries said to fly them, but will it prevent the march? Does it show that he and his Patriots have the heart of the majority of the population? That is what Bédié is calling into question. And Gbagbo has to be careful of aggravating the situation. Even the expected arrest by the gendarmes on Monday of the outspoken Assistant Secretary-General of the PDCI, in charge of that party’s mobilisation, Maurice Guikahué, whose arrest is said to have been ordered by Gbagbo during the government council meeting, is likely to complicate matters.
The young and older patriots and pillagers have been able to march and demonstrate with impunity in order to show support for Gbagbo and the FPI and their own idea of what is good for the country (anti-rebels, anti-Marcoussis, anti-French, anti-Ouattara, anti-Diarra, anti-magistrates, anti-opposition marches, but pro-American!). Now the pro-Marcoussistes want to show popular support for the honest and complete implementation of the Marcoussis-Accra agreements, in spirit and letter, as President Gbagbo promised, and Bédié hopes to get some considerable kudos out of this.
Will they be able to march on Thursday as intended? On one report, the “Patriots” have said the pro-Marcoussistes will be blocked and prevented as of Wednesday 24th, so they cannot take to the streets. The Presidential security detachments say the Presidential Palace area in the downtown Plateau is a Red Zone, and so opposition forces cannot assemble at the Place de la République, as they intend doing. Gbagbo says that they cannot march, but can meet in an enclosed area such as a stadium (but that would limit them to a meeting of only about 40,000 people). Anyway, Thursday will be a good day for us to stay inside, keep our heads down, and continue our reading of that great novel “War and Peace”.
As for the BBC’s Friday report of a threatened or intended coup d’état by the Opposition ("French backed", of course, according to the FPI newspapers), and of military blockades around Abidjan, it makes good press, no doubt, à la CNN. However, the reality on the ground has always been quite different from what is depicted by the British and American press. I came by taxi from Koumassi area about 8 pm Friday, saw no sign of police or of soldiers, not even on the CDG bridge, till I got to 2 Plateaux where there was one group of police ripping off the poor wôrô-wôrô drivers for 500 F each. You sometimes wonder how the BBC can make the spectacular out of what is normal. My guess is that their correspondent probably saw soldiers posted on the road for Gbagbo’s protection as he went home from his office, and that became, in their report, a military blockade over 48 hours. As for the clinching BBC statement by an unnamed politician, “We are 50% closer to war and 50% closer to peace”, they should wake up. That has been the situation for 15 months: not peace, not war. What else is new? British expats are still at the present time no doubt safer in Ivory Coast than in Spain or the USA and, as for most of Asia, forget about it!
Meanwhile, Abidjan is quiet and peaceful, Americans stateside marched yesterday, at times violently, against the Iraqi war (shades of Vietnam), and there is violence in Gaza, Taiwan, Pakistan, Nepal, and elsewhere, you name it. Abidjan is waiting for the 6200 UN peacekeeping forces which should start arriving April 4 to carry forward the peace process -- but that arrival is likely to be delayed if there is a deterioration of the political situation in the country.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Everything is Stalled
Briefly, the former party in power, the PDCI-RDA, has suspended for the time being its participation in the government of national reconciliation. Some of the ministers named as a result of the Marcoussis agreements have been prevented from naming their own Director Generals in departments and domains under their control. The FPI ministers do not have the same problem.
The arm-wrestling between Gbagbo and his former political ally Bédié at the moment concerns money and power, mainly the control and management of the Port of Abidjan which the FPI adamantly wants to retain under its control, if we understand the party president Affi correctly. Big money is involved. It is said the PDCI could finance their election campaign with the petty cash that can be found there. And the FPI already knows well what money is involved. Yesterday’s press said there is a hole of 21 billion francs (a mere 40-odd million deflated US dollars) that will not be able to be covered up if the current director Gossio goes. Hence, it is said, Gbagbo must fight to keep him in his position.
For his part, Bédié is not in the mood to make concessions, and reports have indicated that he has refused to meet with President Gbagbo to discuss the issue. So all other things pale into insignificance. The RDR threatened to leave the government, but the Justice Minister was finally able to make her appointments in spite of the pro-Gbagbo thugs bashing some of the judges while the police looked on. (Shades of that unforgettable demonstration at Gbagbo’s residence during the visit of Dominique de Villepin?)
Reunification of the country and disarmament are almost secondary issues and, as with most deadlines, the 8th March came and went without anything happening. The huge sums of money for that are not yet available, but everyone will be interested once they are.
Meanwhile the US is getting vocal, condemning, probably appropriately, all the Ivorian parties involved in this ongoing mess and seeking to delay things for selfish reasons, the President and his cronies young and old not excluded. And among the UN troops to be sent, there will probably not be the 2000 Angolans that the press reported Gbagbo had requested, Angola being his ally and said to have sent some of the mercenaries (which never existed, if you believe the government version and discount the photos of the press agencies).
And “ivoirisation” of all job positions, sponsored by two FPI ministers, has temporarily replaced “ivoirité” as the international talking point. And who cares here? It only concerns foreigners, after all – including Africans like the Congolese and Chadians, to mention only them.
Briefly, the former party in power, the PDCI-RDA, has suspended for the time being its participation in the government of national reconciliation. Some of the ministers named as a result of the Marcoussis agreements have been prevented from naming their own Director Generals in departments and domains under their control. The FPI ministers do not have the same problem.
The arm-wrestling between Gbagbo and his former political ally Bédié at the moment concerns money and power, mainly the control and management of the Port of Abidjan which the FPI adamantly wants to retain under its control, if we understand the party president Affi correctly. Big money is involved. It is said the PDCI could finance their election campaign with the petty cash that can be found there. And the FPI already knows well what money is involved. Yesterday’s press said there is a hole of 21 billion francs (a mere 40-odd million deflated US dollars) that will not be able to be covered up if the current director Gossio goes. Hence, it is said, Gbagbo must fight to keep him in his position.
For his part, Bédié is not in the mood to make concessions, and reports have indicated that he has refused to meet with President Gbagbo to discuss the issue. So all other things pale into insignificance. The RDR threatened to leave the government, but the Justice Minister was finally able to make her appointments in spite of the pro-Gbagbo thugs bashing some of the judges while the police looked on. (Shades of that unforgettable demonstration at Gbagbo’s residence during the visit of Dominique de Villepin?)
Reunification of the country and disarmament are almost secondary issues and, as with most deadlines, the 8th March came and went without anything happening. The huge sums of money for that are not yet available, but everyone will be interested once they are.
Meanwhile the US is getting vocal, condemning, probably appropriately, all the Ivorian parties involved in this ongoing mess and seeking to delay things for selfish reasons, the President and his cronies young and old not excluded. And among the UN troops to be sent, there will probably not be the 2000 Angolans that the press reported Gbagbo had requested, Angola being his ally and said to have sent some of the mercenaries (which never existed, if you believe the government version and discount the photos of the press agencies).
And “ivoirisation” of all job positions, sponsored by two FPI ministers, has temporarily replaced “ivoirité” as the international talking point. And who cares here? It only concerns foreigners, after all – including Africans like the Congolese and Chadians, to mention only them.
The Police Checks are Back
The limit of the Ivorian administrative memory having showed itself over the years to be about three weeks, the police checks on the roads, with also the gendarmes often said to have been emptying the pockets of traders, are now back once again. The Minister asked that the unauthorised checks cease. They did for a while. Now they are back as a result of last week’s government council meeting banning opposition marches, which had not yet materialised, the FPI sympathetic “patriots” and FESCI students being the only ones who can do with impunity such things as block the city court house and threaten the Golf Hotel where the New Forces (ex-rebel) ministers are lodged. The “identification” process having started again, many of those people with “papers” that are not up-to-date are contributing to the police pockets. And as you well know, the details have not even been released yet about the new “Carte de résident” for non-Ivorians -- who soon may not legally be able to get a job here. But that is another story.
The limit of the Ivorian administrative memory having showed itself over the years to be about three weeks, the police checks on the roads, with also the gendarmes often said to have been emptying the pockets of traders, are now back once again. The Minister asked that the unauthorised checks cease. They did for a while. Now they are back as a result of last week’s government council meeting banning opposition marches, which had not yet materialised, the FPI sympathetic “patriots” and FESCI students being the only ones who can do with impunity such things as block the city court house and threaten the Golf Hotel where the New Forces (ex-rebel) ministers are lodged. The “identification” process having started again, many of those people with “papers” that are not up-to-date are contributing to the police pockets. And as you well know, the details have not even been released yet about the new “Carte de résident” for non-Ivorians -- who soon may not legally be able to get a job here. But that is another story.
Monday, March 15, 2004
Cheaper Internet Dial-Up Charges and ADSL with Aviso
In theory throughout the country there is one charge for this, 45F per minute plus 18% VAT. However, to benefit from this reduced rate, you must dial a number for your ISP that CI-Telcom recognises, otherwise you will be charged the local/national call rate of 59F per minute.
For AVISO there is only one authorised number for this cheaper rate:
90-50-2000 which should show in your connection window.
All other old Aviso dial-up numbers are taxed at 59F per minute.
People with other ISPs, Africaonline, Globeaccess, Globix, Ivoir-net should contact their ISP to find out whether they have a dial-up number which has Ci-Telcom charge the cheaper rate.
And, yes, we now have ADSL with Aviso and does it make a difference! Till 31st March Aviso is offering a special price for ADSL of 14750F for set-up and a monthly rate of only 29500F, both including VAT. And they pro-rata your first month's charge.
Now having no dial-up charges, even taking into account the ADSL charges, we will save well over 100.000F per month. Have a look at the Aviso ADSL page if you like by clicking on http://www.aviso.ci/produitsadsl.php :
In theory throughout the country there is one charge for this, 45F per minute plus 18% VAT. However, to benefit from this reduced rate, you must dial a number for your ISP that CI-Telcom recognises, otherwise you will be charged the local/national call rate of 59F per minute.
For AVISO there is only one authorised number for this cheaper rate:
90-50-2000 which should show in your connection window.
All other old Aviso dial-up numbers are taxed at 59F per minute.
People with other ISPs, Africaonline, Globeaccess, Globix, Ivoir-net should contact their ISP to find out whether they have a dial-up number which has Ci-Telcom charge the cheaper rate.
And, yes, we now have ADSL with Aviso and does it make a difference! Till 31st March Aviso is offering a special price for ADSL of 14750F for set-up and a monthly rate of only 29500F, both including VAT. And they pro-rata your first month's charge.
Now having no dial-up charges, even taking into account the ADSL charges, we will save well over 100.000F per month. Have a look at the Aviso ADSL page if you like by clicking on http://www.aviso.ci/produitsadsl.php :
Sorry about that!
Someone has just written saying, "What's happening with your blog page? Have you really found nothing to write about for a whole month?"
And he's not the first to comment.
And thanks also to those who proof-read the pages for me for spelling errors. It's good to know you care.
Well, I hadn't realized that a month had gone by since my last comment. And I have been doing so many other things. Oh for a 30 hour day and a 10 day week!
Hopefully later tonight while most mortals are sleeping, I'll do something more substantial but with the current political imbroglio it looks less and less likely that President Gbagbo will be able to hold the elections before October next year. And the hotel-casino complex often linked to the President who apparently laid the foundation stone and opened the casino-restaurant, the ex-"Aquarium" on the lagoon, now has a wall painted with the information that their hotel will be opening December 2005. So everyone is holding his breath. ;-)
Someone has just written saying, "What's happening with your blog page? Have you really found nothing to write about for a whole month?"
And he's not the first to comment.
And thanks also to those who proof-read the pages for me for spelling errors. It's good to know you care.
Well, I hadn't realized that a month had gone by since my last comment. And I have been doing so many other things. Oh for a 30 hour day and a 10 day week!
Hopefully later tonight while most mortals are sleeping, I'll do something more substantial but with the current political imbroglio it looks less and less likely that President Gbagbo will be able to hold the elections before October next year. And the hotel-casino complex often linked to the President who apparently laid the foundation stone and opened the casino-restaurant, the ex-"Aquarium" on the lagoon, now has a wall painted with the information that their hotel will be opening December 2005. So everyone is holding his breath. ;-)
