French journalist shot dead by policeman

Jean Helene, the correspondent of Radio France Internationale (RFI) in Cote d'Ivoire, was shot dead by a policeman on Tuesday night while he was waiting outside police headquarters in Abidjan to interview 11 political detainees who were about to be released, a French embassy spokesman said. The spokesman quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Helene, 48, was sitting in his car and talking on his mobile phone when the policeman approached him. The French journalist got out of the car and the policeman rammed the butt of his automatic rifle into the man's stomach before shooting him in the back of the head, he added. Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, Internal Security Minister Martin Bleou and the French ambassador Gildas Le-Lidec immediately went to the scene. Bleou said later that a police sergeant had been arrested in connection with the killing and a full investigation was under way. "We are determined to take all the measures which the circumstances of this affair demand," he added. French President Jacques Chirac, who began a four-day visit to Niger and Mali on Wednesday, deplored the killing and demanded that the Ivorian authorities "shed all possible light on this murder." The press freedom watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), which criticised the recent erosion of press freedom in Cote d'Ivoire earlier this week, condemned the killing and demanded a full inquiry. RSF Secretary General Robert Menard said: "Exemplary punishment must be meted out to those responsible for the murder of the journalist." The French embassy spokesman said it was not yet clear whether the killing was premeditated, but early indications were that it was not. The murder of Helene, a veteran reporter of conflicts in Africa, was the latest in series of anti-French incidents since Cote d'Ivoire erupted into cvil war in September last year. French companies still control much of the economy of this once prosperous country, which is the world's largest cocoa exporter, and 4,000 French peackeeping troops have been deployed to keep the two sides apart. But leading figures in President Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) have repeatedly accused the former colonial power of siding with rebels who occupy the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire. There has been a strident anti-French campaign in pro-Gbagbo sections of the Ivorian media and symbols of French influence in this former French colony have repeatedly been attacked by Gbagbo supporters in Abidjan. The French lycee in Abidjan was burned down on 25 January the day after the signing of French-brokered peace agreement with the rebels. And earlier this month, hardline youth groups vandalised the offices of French-owned water, electricity and mobile phone companies in Abidjan as they demonstrated against the rebels refusal to disarm,. Last April, the rebels appointed nine ministers to serve in a broad-based government of national reconciliation and a ceasefire has held firm since then. But on 23 September the rebels suspended their participation in the peace process in protest at what they said was the refusal of Gbagbo to delegate meaningful authority to individual ministers. The rebels withdrew from the cabinet and put on hold plans to disarm. Ghanaian President John Kufuor is currently leading diplomatic efforts to break the deadlock and put the peace process back on track before Cote d'Ivoire degenerates into renewed conflict. Diplomatic sources said he was attempting to arrange a reconciliation summit between Gbagbo and rebel leaders in Accra. The eleven detainees whom Helene was waiting to interview were all activists of the Rally of Republicans (RDR) party of exiled former prime minister Alasanne Ouattara, who was banned from standing against Gbagbo in the 2000 presidential election.> They were arrested last Friday for questioning about an alleged plot to assassinate various unnamed political and military leaders, but were released on Tuesday night shortly after Helene's shooting. An activist of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), which held power from independence in 1960 until 1999, remained in custody, PDCI Secretary General Alphonse Djedje Mady told IRIN on Wednesday. The man, whose arrest last Thursday has not yet been acknowledged by the government, was being held at a base of the paramilitary gendarmerie, he added. Rebel spokesman Amadou Kone expressed regret at the killing of Helene, saying that his reporting of the arrest of the 11 RDR activists had helped to secure their eventual release. The RDR is sympathetic to the rebels and has been accused by Gbagbo of colluding with them. Kone told IRIN by telephone from the rebel capital Bouake in central Cote d'Ivoire that rebel leaders had received several diplomatic approaches urging them to make up their quarrel with Gbagbo and were responding positively to these overtures. "We have received several invitations, which we are going to accept because we are open to discussion about resuming our place in the government of national reconciliation," Kone said. Helene was not the first French national to die in the Ivorian conflict. On 25 August, two French peacekeepers were shot dead by rebel fighters after an argument during which a French patrol tried to persuade the armed fighters to leave the demilitarised zone along the frontline between rebel and government territory.