Gbagbo throws opponents out of government

President Laurent Gbagbo said on Tuesday that he wanted some ministers to leave Cote d'Ivoire's broad-based national reconciliation government and was suspending the salaries of 26 opposition and rebel ministers who have boycotted the cabinet since the security forces killed at least 120 people in Abidjan at the end of March. Gbagbo said in a surprise television broadcast that he had sent Prime Minister Seydou Diarra a list of the ministers who he wanted to remove from government, but he did not reveal their names. However, Gbagbo said they were all members of the “G7,” an alliance of the "New Forces" rebel movement which occupies the north of Cote d'Ivoire and the four main opposition parties in parliament. They pulled out of the government following the security forces bloody repression of a banned demonstration against Gbagbo in Abidjan on 25 March. An investigation by UN human rights experts concluded that at least 120 people died in the crackdown. They also blamed "the highest authority of the state" for deliberately ordering "the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians by the security forces." The president's bellicose speech sparked panic across Abidjan. Some busineses closed and several international organizations sent their staff home early. A UN source, who asked not be named, said that by asking Diarra to form a new government, Gbagbo was putting him in a tough position. He even speculated that the president was trying to push Diarra, a politically independent former civil servant, to resign. “The monster has awaken. The international community is dismayed to see that Cote d’Ivoire is once again turning a dark corner. But we really hope that this latest speech is a cry for help”, an African diplomat based in Abidjan told IRIN. Gbagbo, who in the last three weeks has been lobbying African heads of state for support, said he had ordered the immediate departure of all government ministers accommodated at the Golf Hotel, a four-star hotel in the upperclass neighbourhood of Cocody. This is protected by French and UN peacekeeping troops and has until now been used as a safe haven by the nine ministers of the New Forces rebel movement. Opposition and rebel leaders greeted Gbagbo's announcement with cynicism. “It was a great reconciliation speech, worthy of a president who is worried about the lives of population living in the rebel-held areas”, Amadou Kone, a senior aide to rebel leader Guillaume Soro, told IRIN “It shows his willingness for peace”, said Alphonse Djedje-Mady, the chairman of the “G7” steering committee, with equal sarcasm. Djedje-Mady is secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), the largest opposition party represented in parliament. Soon after Gbagbo's speech was broadcast, eyewitnesses saw a crowd of “Young Patriots”, the mostly unemployed and often violent youth followers of the president, heading from university residences in Cocody towards the Golf Hotel to “dislodge” rebel and opposition ministers staying there. The militia-style youth groups tried to do the same thing a few months ago, but were thwarted by international peacekeepers. A UN security source said about 300 Young Patriots blocked the entrance to the prime minister's office after Gbagbo's speech, while another group gathered outside the Jean Mermoz French school in Cocody, a target of several previous demonstrations by Gbagbo’s young supporters. Pascal Affi N'guessan, a former prime minister who is now president of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, told IRIN that the head of state had taken an initiative to try and break the deadlock in Ivorian politics which has persisted since the opposition walked out of government at the end of March. Affi N'guessan said people would now see who really stood for peace in Cote d'Ivoire, because West Africa's most prosperous country could not go on in this manner. “The objective is to put back some order, work with those who want to work”, Affi N’guessan said. “He [Gbagbo] needs to bang on the table, if he doesn’t who will?”, he asked rhetorically. Like Gbagbo, Affi N'guessan, his long-time friend and political ally, blamed the malfunctioning of the coalition government on what he called the indiscipline and insubordination of opposition ministers.