Guei calls for end to anti-French hostility

Cote d’Ivoire’s president, General Robert Guei, on Monday called for an end to “all demonstrations of hostility against France and its diplomatic representations” in the country following protests sparked by declarations by French Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin.

Hundreds of people held sit-ins on Thursday and Friday in front of the French Embassy in protest against Josselin’s remarks, which they interpreted as interference in the affairs of the West African nation.

Pro-French demonstrators beaten, arrested

On Monday, however, soldiers dispersed a counter-demonstration in support of the French position, detained about 50 people, whipped some of them and then took them away in minibuses, according to the state-owned ‘Fraternite Matin’ daily. Other dailies added that detainees, male and female, were also stripped and otherwise humiliated.

A BBC reporter covering the demonstration, Mohamed Fofanah Dara, was beaten up and hit on the head with a rifle butt by soldiers who “ignored his status whereas (he) showed them his press card”, the BBC said in a letter of protest addressed to Guei.

Josselin had noted that a referendum on a new constitution, held on 23-24 July, had taken place in “globally satisfactory conditions”, and added that for the continuation of the process of return to constitutional legality, it was appropriate “that each of the parties can participate without artificial exclusion”.

He had added: “We hope that the decisions which will be taken when the candidatures for the presidential election are submitted cannot be interpreted as aimed at depriving the electors of their free choice.”

Presidential elections are to be held in September, nine months after the former president was overthrown in a military coup. According to the new constitution, presidential candidates must be of Ivoirian parentage on both sides and must never have had any other nationality. Adversaries of one of the prospective candidates, Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara, charge that both provisions bar him from taking part.