Government reacts to US State Department spokesman

The government of Cote d’Ivoire on Wednesday described as “external interference” a statement by the spokesman of the US State Department, James Rubin, expressing concern over the arrest of 19 opposition politicians in the West African nation. “It is a mistake for the State Department to say that actions of the judiciary in Cote d’Ivoire ‘appear to be aimed at stifling the opposition’,” read a statement signed by Moise Koffi Komoue, the Ivoirian ambassador to Washington and addressed to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. “Needless to say, the Government of Cote d’Ivoire rejects this external interference ...,” it said. Rubin had also said that “if the electoral process is opaque, unfair and/or exclusive, it could provoke civil unrest”. However, Komoue said the State Department had no grounds to fear that presidential elections set for October 2000 might not be free and fair and that “by acting in this way, the State Department is encouraging the opposition as they step up their efforts to disturb the political process”. Komoue wrote: “To be very frank, I feel the declaration of 29 October 1999 was probably aimed at encouraging rather than discouraging eventual acts of political violence by opposition groups.”