Ivory Coast: The impossible reconciliation

On 16 December 2014, the government of Ivory Coast inaugurated the Henri Konan Bédié Bridge, the third infrastructure project of this kind in Abidjan, which is expected to lessen traffic and allow motorists to connect the southern and the western part of thcity without going through Plateau, the administrative and business center. A month later on 15 January 2015, another bridge was inaugurated in Bouaflé, a small town of the inland. The two bridges are among the road projects that the administrations which have ruled the country since 1993 planned. Hadn’t it been for the coup of 1999 or the 2002 rebellion, these public works would have been completed earlier and with far lower expenses when Konan Bédié and Laurent Gbagbo were in power.

Of course, for Alassane Ouattara the opening of the bridges proves that his administration is on track to make Ivory Coast an emergent nation by 2020. Thus the new bridges illustrate Ivory Coast’s economic growth (estimated at 9% in 2014) and return to political normalcy. For the supporters of Alassane Ouattara, for instance former President Konan Bedié, whose name the third bridge of Abidjan bears, the new infrastructures are ‘revolutionary achievements,’ for which Alassane Ouattara should be allowed a second term in office. This comment reechoes the controversial ‘Appeal of Daoukro,’ a sort of manifesto in which Konan Bedié summoned his party members to endorse Ouattara as their candidate for the 2015 presidential election.

Any serious analyst agrees that the new roads and bridges will increase the movement of people and goods and stimulate domestic trade. Among other things, the new roads may facilitate the transportation of staple food to urban markets, where they are needed. The bridges are indisputably good things. But some questions need to be raised. First, what are the economic benefits that the bridges will yield? Second, can the new bridges boost the process of national reconciliation? These questions have merit because since April 11, 2011, two Ivory Coasts have sprung out: one in which people praise the current regime and another in which people still ask about the results of the 2010 presidential elections, the reasons of electoral disputes and the ensuing war in which the UN and French troops sided with Alassane Ouattara and the rebels, who had occupied the northern part of the country between 2002 and 2011. The two Ivory Coasts exemplify the depth of the fragmentation of Ivorian social, political and ethnic life.

Whereas some celebrate the bridges, others are concerned about the loans that the state secured to bring them to completion. After the Poor and Highly Indebted Countries Initiative, which wiped part of its burdening debts was granted, many would thought that the regime would not take new loans. It did not happen that way and that is where the difference arises between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara. During his tenure, Gbagbo granted the construction bid to Chinese companies. The deal was financially better for the state and for the population, who would not have paid any usage fees. The choice of the Chinese constructors was predicated on the willingness to reduce the debt. The strict implementation of the debt reduction strategy made it possible for Ivory Coast to have part of its international debt cancelled before the 2010 presidential election. Alassane Ouattara, a devoted neoliberal economist, reversed this debt reduction policy, by promoting growth and development through loans and private capital. That is why contrary to earlier plans, the new roads and bridges are not toll-free. The collected tolls are expected to help repay the loans.

The spokesperson of the government Bruno Koné explained that the government’s borrowing plan was under control and within the norms that the international financial institutions allow. Yet is this borrowing justified in the country where poverty is growing unabated? Though Alassane Ouattara claims that poverty has decreased a lot in the past three years, he is contradicted by Ousmane Diagana, the representative of the World Bank for the Ivory Coast, who said on 10 November 2014 that ‘the level of poverty in the Ivory Coast was high and worrisome when compared to the growth rate of the country.’

The World Bank’s declaration is more realistic. Ivorians are getting poorer and poorer. Unemployment is increasing. What is more is that, the country lacks national reconciliation. In reality, the transfer of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé to The Hague, the trial of about 82 allies of Laurent Gbagbo, including his spouse Simone Gbagbo, the detention without trial of hundreds of supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, the ten thousands Ivorian refugees in Liberia and Ghana, and the expropriation of lands and farms in Western Ivory Coast from their rightful owners continue to hamper political dialogue and national reconciliation. Four years since he stormed into power, Alassane Ouattara has lamentably failed to bring reconciliation and peace to Ivorians. The trauma born of the post-2010 election violence and the unconstitutionality of Alassane Ouattara’s regime is still acute. The Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established in July 2011 and chaired by Konan Banny, failed to reconcile Ivorians because it lacked resources and the commitment of the regime. In his final speech, the chair of the Commission, Charles Banny advised Alassane Ouattara to free all political prisoners in order to give the reconciliation process a chance to succeed.

Unfortunately, this recommendation fell on deafened ears. Alassane Ouattara and his regime continue to deny the truth that the longer the political prisoners are detained, the more impossible it will be to attain reconciliation. It may be true that security has improved and that the country is calm. But Aichatou Mindaoudou, the head of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), says that there is much left to tighten the security of the nation. She is quite right as in December and January assailants attacked the positions of Alassane Ouattara’s army in the southwestern part of the country at the border with Liberia. Before these attacks, the government had promised to pay angry and revolting former rebel soldiers the arrears they were owed when they took arms for Alassane Ouattara against Laurent Gbagbo. Ouattara had offered to buy the silence and the fidelity of these warlords and killers with huge sums of money. Yet, the true solution to the fragile stability is the disarmament of the rebel soldiers, equitable justice and the initiation of a true political dialogue.

Instead, Alassane Ouattara chose to win ‘peace’ by compromising with the rebels and by repressing opposition political parties and leaders. For instance, since April 2011, the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI), the main opposition party, has purposefully been barred from holding public rallies and meetings. It has been barred from receiving state allocations according to the Constitution. The government has set a precedent by interfering in the internal affairs of this political party, pitting its leaders against one another. Thus, the government has either cowed some of the leaders of the FPI into submission thorough deals or harassed and arrested others, who are considered radical. With the help of the international community and notably the French government, Alassane Ouattara seems to have committed to behead the opposition.

The latest victims of this repressive method are many. One is Dr. Assoa Adou, a former minister of agriculture and a close ally of Laurent Gbagbo, who sought refuge in Ghana for three years before returning home in October 2014. Dr. Assoa Adou was arrested on 8 January 2015 at 8:00 pm on charges that include conspiracy, association with subversive groups, and illegal possession of arms. The same charges were used to justify the detention of Lida Kouassi and Dogbo Raphael, two other former ministers and allies of Laurent Gbagbo. These arrests are obviously violations of human rights and the perpetuation of the absence of the rule of law. They expose the undemocratic nature of the regime in power and its attempt to silence all opposition in order to ensure an easy electoral victory in the 2015 presidential election.

Alassane Ouattara’s repressive methods also target his former allies, who announced their intent to run in the 2015 presidential election. Thus, two in the entourage of Charles Konan Banny were arrested on charges of corruption and money laundering as soon as the latter announced he would enter the 2015 presidential race. Charles Konan Banny was himself accused of misusing 16 billion Francs meant to fund the work of the truth and reconciliation commission. Then, the regime also fired Tirbuce Koffi, the former managing director of the National Institute of Arts and Cultural Action, after he harshly critiqued Alassane Ouattara and denounced the ‘Appeal of Daoukro.’

In a country in which the regime in power uses undemocratic subterfuges to silence all opposition, reconciliation is a mirage and violence and political chaos looms around. The Ivory Coast is not far from the abyss. With the recent attacks at Tabou, the discontent of the former rebels, the unfair trial of partisans of Laurent Gbagbo, and the latter’s incarceration at The Hague, reconciliation seems unrealistic.

The regime’s allegation that the reconciliation process has progressed is just spurious. It is time to realize that a transitional government is the ultimate solution to a republican political dialogue and reconciliation before calling any general elections. The Committee of Actions for the Ivory Coast in the United States (CACI-USA) encourages all political actors to mull this solution.

* Eric Edi, PhD, is Executive Secretary, Committee of Actions for Côte d’Ivoire – USA (CACI – USA). [email protected] -- http://lecomitedactionusa.blogspot.com

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