Mutineers to go before military court

Soldiers who staged a violent protest in Cote d’Ivoire last week are to be tried by a special military court, General Robert Guei, the country’s president, said on Sunday night in a nationwide broadcast. Guei apologised to those who lost property when the soldiers who, the authorities said, demanded bonuses amounting to the equivalent of US $9,000 each, went on a rampage in Abidjan and other major towns. The protesters looted a weapons store, banks and other businesses, according to official and media sources. Guei also apologised, on behalf of the armed forces, for the lives lost (at least five) during the unrest. Repeating an earlier claim that unnamed politicians were behind the protest, Guei said it was “regrettable and unthinkable for soldiers to allow themselves to be manipulated by ambitious politicians who are only thinking of destroying our beautiful country”. “The delinquent soldiers who thus auctioned off their honour and dignity(and) violated the rules of military discipline and virtue...,” he said, “will be judged by a special military tribunal so as to be severely punished by the law before being dismissed from the armed forces”. The protest began on Tuesday 4 July. It ended on 5 July when a spokesman for the protesters appeared on television with a message to the nation and his comrades-in-arms. “We have discussed with the president,” he said. “We have come to an agreement, so go back to barracks.”