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Ivory Coast Authorities Crack Down After Foiled Coup Bid
by Stephane Orjollet
ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivory Coast officials arrested dozens of northerners on Monday in a crackdown against a foiled bid to unseat the two-month-old government of President Laurent Gbagbo in the latest political chaos to hit the once stable west African nation.
At least 31 people, mainly hailing from northern Ivory Coast, were arrested in connection with the insurgency, which authorities said had the backing of sources in neighboring countries.
A three-day, nighttime curfew was issued late Monday as tension hung over the commercial capital, Abidjan.
Several people on both sides died during the failed power grab, as troops in Abidjan battled before dawn against unidentified mutineers who had temporarily seized the national television and radio headquarters, familiar first targets of putschists.
According to a list read out at a press conference in Abidjan, the majority of those arrested were from the north or from neighboring countries.
Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou said authorities had discovered a "dozen four-by-four vehicles escorted by a Mercedes coming from northern Ivory Coast," and launched an attack on the convoy.
The minister said the convoy turned around and headed back to Ferkessedougou and Kong, the latter a political bastion of opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara.
The insurgents, who had called on "brothers-in-arms" to join the struggle, issued no specific demands during a short broadcast before being routed from the facility by soldiers.
Meanwhile, a government spokesman said a statement seized from the authors of the foiled coup called for the destitution of Gbagbo, the dissolution of the government and national assembly elected in December, a halt to political activities, and the creation of a temporary "national rectification committee," the composition of which was not specified.
Ivory Coast, which seemed impervious to putsches until poorly paid mutineers staged a surprise coup in December 1999, has been mired in political, ethnic and religious tensions ever since.
Two failed mutinies after the coup, followed by violent elections in October that brought Gbagbo to power while leading contenders were barred from the vote, have plunged the nation into a climate of fear.
This, in a country that was once the economic hub of west Africa and the world's biggest cocoa producer, and where some 60 ethnic groups from three major religions had lived in harmony since independence from France in 1960.
During a visit to Ouagadougou on Monday, the president of the European parliament, Nicole Fontaine, said Europe was following the situation in neighboring Ivory Coast with close attention.
"As you can imagine, we are following the situation very closely, with the worry that it could have troubling consequences, but at the same time with the sense that we do not want to interfere in the internal matter of a country that is our friend," Fontaine said.
Ivorian authorities, tipped off about a coup plot, made sure that President Gbagbo was out of the commercial capital days in advance.
Among the dead from the overnight insurgency were two paramilitary policemen.
On Monday afternoon, three bodies stripped naked and bearing bullet wounds lay near the Ivory Coast state television station in Abidjan's posh Cocody district, a journalist at the scene said.
A fourth body was visible on the edge of the Plateau administrative district, near a main avenue alongside the lagoon.
On Monday afternoon, the interior minister said "compromising documents" had been seized and that authorities knew who was responsible, as rumors circulated that Ouattara's backers were involved.
Ouattara, a Muslim from the north and a former prime minister in the early 1990s, has been excluded from running for political office by successive regimes for more than a year.
The opposition leader was barred from standing in October presidential polls on the grounds that he was not Ivorian, a charge he denies.
Gbagbo won the controversial vote. The United Nations, the Organization of African Unity and western nations refused to send election observers.
The poll was cloaked in violence: initially during an uprising to oust military leader General Robert Guei, who tried to rig the ballot, and then between Gbagbo supporters and security forces against backers of Ouattara.
Christians from the south have traditionally dominated Ivory Coast.
The most recent census of Ivory Coast's population of 15.8 million registered 40% Muslims, 30% Christians and 17% animists.
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