No newspapers on sale after youth gangs attack distribution vans

Cote d'Ivoire was without newspapers on Friday after the country's only distributor suspended operations following several attacks on its distribution vans by gangs of youths who seized opposition titles and burned them. Internal Security Minister Martin Bleou, who recently imposed a three-month ban on street demonstrations, appeared on state television at lunchtime on Friday to warn that certain un-named people were planning illegal marches and urged them to desist. He added that the government had learned of a plot to kill Cardinal Bernard Agrey, the head of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Cote d'Ivoire and other prominent personalities. A church spokesman said a statement would be issued on the threats on Saturday. The country's only newspaper distribution firm, Edipresse, said it had suspended the delivery of all newspapers following attacks on distribution vans in Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital, Abidjan, and several towns in the interior on Thursday. "The [distribution of] newspapers has given rise to security incidents, so our sub-distributors have decided not to work today," the distribution manager of Edipresse, who gave his name as Assomolly, told IRIN. Vans had been seized in the southern towns of Gagnoa, San Pedro, Divo, Agboville and Adzope and in Abidjan's large working class suburb of Yopougon, he added. "We received written threats last night saying the sale of newspapers would be prevented in Abidjan, so this morning we decided not to distribute newspapers in Abidjan," Assomolly said. These attacks on Cote d'Ivoire's independent media by hardline militants who demand that President Laurent Gbagbo's take an uncompromising stand towards rebels occupying the north of the country came barely a week after a uniformed policeman shot dead a French radio journalist in central Abidjan. Jean Helene, the Cote d'Ivoire correspondent of Radio France Internationale, was shot in the head at point blank range while he was waiting outside the main police station in Abidjan to interview a group of detained opposition activists who were about to be released. His self-confessed killer has been arrested and charged with murder. Newspaper editors held a crisis meeting with Prime Minister Seydou Diarra on Friday to discuss the interruption of newspaper distribution, the latest blow to freedom of expression in this divided country which is in danger of slipping back into civil war. Assomolly said the directors of Edipresse were meeting with senior officials of the prime minister's office and the defence ministry to discuss measures to guarantee the safe distribution of newspapers. Media sources said the main titles targeted by the gangs of pro-Gbagbo youths were Le Patriote, 24 Heures, Le Liberal, Le Front, Le Jour and Nouveau Reveil. These are all close to the Rally of Republicans (RDR) opposition party of former prime minister Alassane Ouattara and the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) of former president Henry Konan Bedie. Leading figures in Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party have accused the RDR of supporting rebels who have occupied the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire since the country erupted into civil war in September last year. The youths who attacked the newspaper distribution vans are widely believed to belong to the pro-Gbagbo "Young Patriot" militia groups, which have made repeated threats to stop Le Patriote newspaper from appearing in the past. Its journalists were recently banned from covering events at the presidency. However, Charles Legray, a senior figure in COJEP, one of the main groupings of Young Patriots, denied that his members were involved in Thursday's attacks on newspaper distribution vans. "We have not given any orders for this to be done," he told IRIN. But Legray added: "Remember that in December 2000, Le Patriote published a map of Cote d'Ivoire divided in two with a flag of Burkinabe Faso shown flying in the north. The reaction of these young people is a result of the way these various opposition newspapers handle the news." The rebels signed a peace agreement with Gbagbo in January and joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April, but pulled out on 23 September, alleging that the president was failing to implement the peace accord in full. On Thursday, presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and John Kufuor of Ghana paid a flying visit to Abidjan to press Gbagbo to urgently legislate reforms promised in the peace agreement in order to persuade the rebels to return to government and begin a delayed programme of disarmament.