INDEPTH: IVORY COAST
The Ivory Coast
CBC News Online | Jan. 18, 2005
On Aug. 26, 2003, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo thanked France for foiling what he saw as a plot to overthrow his government. The arrests of 10 suspected dissidents headed for Ivory Coast from French airports marked only the latest development in the troubled history of the African country.
Ivory Coast declared an end to a nine-month civil war in July 2003, but divisions persist between rebel forces in the north and the government in the south.
Just one day before Gbagbo's speech to the French, two French soldiers were killed in a remote Ivorian fishing village by a group of armed rebels. A disagreement between the soldiers and the rebels – many reports described them as "drunken or drugged" – led to at least one rebel opening close-range fire, fatally wounding the two soldiers and injuring one other.
The recent history of turmoil can be traced back to the 1990s, when Ivory Coast's economy began to sputter. The country is among the world's largest producers of coffee, cocoa beans and palm oil. It relied heavily on workers from its poorer neighbours, especially Mali and Burkina Faso. As the economy slid, resentment towards foreigners began to build. Many of them lived in the north.
Crowds carry a Laurent Gbagbo poster in victory (2000)
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The president at the time – Henri Konan Bedie – introduced the concept of Ivorianness. If one of your parents was born outside the country, you weren't entitled to the full range of rights as full-blooded Ivorians. If you wanted to run for president, for instance, both parents had to be native born.
Those with foreign roots found it difficult to gain citizenship and to acquire land.
In 1999, Gen. Robert Guei gained power in a military coup. President Bedie fled Ivory Coast for France.
Gen. Robert Guei (2000)
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At the time, Guei said he was not interested in maintaining power. He was there only to do some "house-cleaning." He said he would step aside if he were defeated by democratic vote.
After the ballots were counted in the presidential election in October 2000, Guei declared himself the winner. His only opponent was Laurent Gbagbo, of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), a socialist party. But, Gbagbo's supporters also claimed victory. They fought back against Guei's forces, contending that he had rigged the election. By the end of October, after a popular uprising, Gbagbo was proclaimed president.
Alassane Ouattara (2000)
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It was a controversial election to begin with. The Ivorian Supreme Court barred most of the potential candidates – including former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, former cabinet minister Emile Constant Bombet – from running. The court ruled they were not Ivorian enough.
Canada and the United States, along with the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity and the European Union, withdrew election observers and funding from Ivory Coast, arguing that the election could not be free and fair because of the exclusion of so many major candidates.
On September 19, 2002, a full-scale civil war broke out when President Gbagbo was in Rome. Gen. Guei – blamed by some for helping to spark the violence – was killed on the first day of fighting. Thousands of people died. An uneasy peace was reached in January 2003. It included provisions to share power.
Two months later, the agreement was expanded to include nine rebels in the government. By July, all sides gathered to declare the civil war officially over.
But it was an uneasy peace, with the odd skirmish breaking out. The rebels continued to control the north, while the government held onto the rest of the country.
There are 4,000 French troops – and 6,000 UN peacekeepers – acting as a buffer between the rebel north and the loyalist south.
They have been busy.
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