Assassins-to-be detained in Côte d'Ivoire

[dArKeR]

President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d'Ivoire said in a televised broadcast to the nation on Tuesday night that several people had been arrested in Côte d'Ivoire and France for planning to assassinate him and several of his aides.

A government source said that 20 people had been detained in Côte d'Ivoire since Saturday for questioning about their suspected involvement in the plot.

France said on Monday that it had arrested several people who were planning to use mercenaries to destabilise Côte d'Ivoire. The former French colony in West Africa is edging back towards normality following the outbreak of a civil war in September last year.

A French diplomat in Abidjan said that the French authorities had arrested 11 people, including Master Seargent Ibrahim Coulibaly, a key figure in the 1999 coup that brought to power the short-lived military government of Colonel Robert Guei.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=19678

-----------

Close ties to France since independence in 1960, the development of cocoa production for export, and foreign investment made Cote d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the tropical African states, but did not protect it from political turmoil. On 25 December 1999, a military coup - the first ever in Cote d'Ivoire's history - overthrew the government led by President Henri Konan BEDIE. Junta leader Robert GUEI held elections in late 2000, but excluded prominent opposition leader Alassane OUATTARA, blatantly rigged the polling results, and declared himself winner. Popular protest forced GUEI to step aside and brought runner-up Laurent GBAGBO into power. GBAGBO spent his first two years in office trying to consolidate power to strengthen his weak mandate, but he was unable to appease his opponents, who launched a failed coup attempt in September 2002. Rebel forces claimed the northern half of the country and in January 2003 were granted ministerial positions in a unity government. Several thousand French and West African troops remain in Cote d'Ivoire to maintain peace and help implement the peace accords.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/iv.html

Can you believe anything the CIA says?

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/

[Paschall]

1. For what it's worth

French authorities are saying the arrest of Ibrahim Coulibaly in France may have been one of the reasons French peacekeepers were targetted this week in Ivory Coast. Two were killed and another wounded--the first death of French troops since the peacekeeping mission began almost a year ago.