IVORY COAST: LIP SERVICE POLITICS BY ALASSANE DRAMANE OUATTARA (By Sylvain De Bogou)

For the outside world, the dictator Alassane Dramane Ouattara is doing a great job. “The economy is booming” at a rate of 9% per annum according to the dictator’s expert friends in the “international community”. Overall, the country is moving on after the 2010 -2011 crisis. The truth is something else.

There are hundreds of Ivorian refugees in Ghana, Togo, Benin, South Africa, Liberia, Gambia and the northern countries of the African continent. The list of Ivorians fleeing their homeland since Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s brutal entrance on the country’s political arena is far from stopping or reducing. Some lucky ones have claimed asylum in different European countries after crossing the Mediterranean Sea by boats.
In the United Kingdom, the number of new Ivorian asylum seekers is growing. These young men and women claim that the current Ivorian rulers are chasing them for being either members or sympathisers of the Ivorian Popular Front (IPF) whose president Laurent Gbagbo is in The Hague or just because they are from the same ethnic group or ally groups to President Gbagbo’s (BETE). So, if you are from the west of the country where more murders have committed on against the WÊ populations by the rebels turned into FRCI (national defence forces) that fought for Alassane Dramane Ouattara, the plausibility for you to be arrested, jailed indefinitely is very high. This area is considered as core President Gbagbo’s supporters zone.
These young men and women (we have their permission to publish their names) have seen all: torture, gun shots, imprisonments and rape. Mr. Seri Kiplé Simplice has scares all over is body. He was shot and beaten. He said that he is traumatised by the thoughts of his experiences. Mr. Fernand Gossé, a former transport trade unionist and member of the IPF in the area of Koumassi (Abidjan) is also facing the battle to be allowed stay in the United Kingdom. Mr. Kouamé Yao Jean Luc who played a core role in his district as secretary in charge of “Organisation and Mobilisation” is under a huge stress. His political boss Souleymane Diaby has won his asylum case. Miss Kpain Jeannette said that she is ashamed to tell what she went through. But, she did say that she is not sure that she will ever have a child. We were forced to stop our interview as the situation became unbearable.
Finally, just to underline that Mr. Alassane Dramane Ouattara is not what he pretends to be; he is not reconciling the Ivorians. In the contrary, the country is divided. In fact, the lip service politics developed and implemented by Mr. Alassane Dramane Ouattara are sawing the seeds of a newer and greater conflict in the Ivory Coast.

By Sylvain De Bogou