The 2020 edition of the National Day of Peace comes at a time when, at a crossroads, the country sinks into another deep post-election crisis; at a time when we hear from all regions, the song of death, at a time when emerging violence is unfolding and when Ivorians are playing ball with the head separated from his body, from another Ivorian. At a time when “peace” ceased to be “behavior”: and I blame!
The foundations of peace in our country.
The national anthem of Côte d’Ivoire inscribes “peace” as the supreme way by which the Ivorian patriots “brought back freedom”, independence. This is why the people have elevated peace to the rank of “second religion”. This is why, “united in the new faith”, the children of Eburnie sing about the Ivory Coast as the “land of hospitality”; “The homeland of true brotherhood” and propose it as “a model of hope”. And that is why the first president of Côte d’Ivoire prescribes that “Peace is not an empty word, but behavior”.
A national day of peace has even been declared by UNESCO for November 15 of each year. As is the case for events of great importance, the national day is intended to celebrate peace, take stock each year, and above all, produce acts of remembrance that magnify the values of peace and social cohesion.
This foundation has made it possible to forge the “Ivorian” whose main characteristic leads to joy, non-violence and theoretically, peace. From 1960 to 1989, Ivorians lived together. Those in the north in particular were in the south, east, west and center, both in towns and villages; where they have their own camps, the “Dioulabougou”.
Unfortunately, since 1990, harmony at the national level, solidarity, the cement of living together and national cohesion, have been broken, shattered. Violence has set in between Ivorians, Ivorians of a particular type, leaders of a new type capable of killing other Ivorians have emerged.
When violence sets in in Côte d’Ivoire
It was from the year 1990 that the man who came from the IMF, to implement the Structural Adjustment Plans (PAS), broke into Ivorian politics, and registered himself on the list of political heirs of Houphouët-Boigny. In the opinion of many, it was enough for him to declare on the RFI antennas: “We do not want me to be a candidate because I am from the north and a Muslim”, for brothers from the north and Muslims to be seduced. .
Now a politician, his first move was an attempted coup. The then Prime Minister opposed the implementation of the 1960 constitution, and wanted, against the constitutional order, to succeed Houphouët-Boigny, called to God in 1993.
Claiming to be an heir, he has particularly shown that he is neither legalistic nor patient. He is one of those who refuse to “wait until the end of the term” before coming to power. He promised and succeeded in making “the country ungovernable”. Unsurprisingly, this is how the 1999 coup d’état came about.
Côte d’Ivoire is therefore ungovernable when Laurent Gbagbo acceded to state power in 2000. He made enormous efforts to bring the two “heirs” back to Côte d’Ivoire, and succeeded in putting them on the same table. discussions. Alas, his efforts will be in vain, because violence had since plagued Côte d’Ivoire.
“Peace” is now “an empty word”.
On September 19, 2002, Laurent Gbagbo’s regime fell victim to an attempted coup. Having failed, after killing several civilian and military personalities, the authors of the attempt withdrew to the town of Bouaké and formed a rebellion. The perpetrators: deserters, traditional hunters, convicts, former prisoners, mercenaries, small trades people claiming to be Alassane Dramane Ouattara, according to their leaders. The rebellion, whose perpetrators are almost from the north, brings about brutally and definitively the descent of the Ivory Coast in the interminable cycle of violence. A particular type of Ivorian and leader emerges in the socio-political landscape of our country. He is heartless. He is not afraid of shedding blood, nor afraid of cutting up with machetes or killing other Ivorians with guns. It is with this type of Ivorian that the rebellion attacks public and private goods: banks, schools, businesses, civil status, barracks, hospitals, but also men.
Ivorians from other regions are particularly targeted in the north: from state workers to the unemployed, including children. With these new Ivorians, fraternity, solidarity, the feeling of belonging to the same country disappear and “peace” becomes “an empty word”.
On September 19, 2002, Laurent Gbagbo’s regime fell victim to an attempted coup. Having failed, after killing several civilian and military personalities, the authors of the attempt withdrew to the town of Bouaké and formed a rebellion. The perpetrators: deserters, traditional hunters, convicts, former prisoners, mercenaries, small trades people claiming to be Alassane Dramane Ouattara, according to their leaders. The rebellion, whose perpetrators are almost from the north, brings about brutally and definitively the descent of the Ivory Coast in the interminable cycle of violence. A particular type of Ivorian and leader emerges in the socio-political landscape of our country. He is heartless. He is not afraid of shedding blood, nor afraid of cutting up with machetes or killing other Ivorians with guns. It is with this type of Ivorian that the rebellion attacks public and private goods: banks, schools, businesses, civil status, barracks, hospitals, but also men.
Ivorians from other regions are particularly targeted in the north: from state workers to the unemployed, including children. With these new Ivorians, fraternity, solidarity, the feeling of belonging to the same country disappear and “peace” becomes “an empty word”.
Civilians crammed into containers burn in the sun, gendarmes killed en masse are thrown into mass graves. For these new-type Ivorians, killing is stronger than love for others. Even in other regions where they have been received out of hospitality, where they have been staying for a long time, where they have set up camps, where they have portions of land, these new Ivorians are drastically transformed into enemies, and turn against those who welcomed them.
In the west and in the south in particular, the massacres are no quarter. The examples of Duekoué crossroads, Guitrozon and the Nahibli refugee camp, in the Wè region, give shivers down your spine. Nearly 1,000 people are thrown into the arms of death.
Peace is more “an empty word”. While President Laurent Gbagbo shares power with the opposition (including the RDR), makes more concessions in favor of peace, the 2010 presidential election, hoped for a definitive exit from the crisis, ends in war. Because while Laurent Gbagbo advocates the recount, in the second round, Alassane Dramane Ouattara engages the rebels, France, the UN, the EU in the war.
France and others contribute to violence
The Ivory Coast, which has promised the whole world to be “a model of hope and hospitality” becomes a theater of blood and turns into targeted violence against it. Alassane Dramane Ouattara orders a rebel crusade from the interior of the country to Abidjan, “to oust Gbagbo from power”. Along their crusade, Soro and his war “dogs” sow ruins, tears, desolations and deaths. In this role play, each organism does its part. The European institution (EU) orders a boycott of drugs for the Ivory Coast destination with what this implies in loss of human life. The UN, on the other hand, is convoying the rebels to strategic locations and fighting alongside them, killing Ivorians on behalf of the rebellion. It even replaces the Constitutional Council to declare the RDR candidate the winner of the presidential election.
What about the France of Human Rights? By express order of its president Nicolas Sarkozy, the army of the 5th military power in the world is going directly to war against the Ivory Coast and is fighting openly alongside the rebellion.
As a reminder, in 2004, France fired at the Ivorians who had formed a human shield for Laurent Gbagbo, from tanks and war planes. She does it again in 2011 by shooting for more than 10 days, on the residence of the elected president. Having succeeded in bringing Laurent Gbagbo back to the rebellion, she installs Alassane Dramane Ouattara.
Peace in the face of excess
Outrageousness! Once installed, Mr. Alassane Dramane Ouattara deports Laurent Gbagbo and all his collaborators to prisons in the north of Côte d’Ivoire. And while his collaborators languish in the prisons of the north, sequestered by executives from the north, Laurent Gbagbo, him, is deported to the prison of The Hague.
For the first time, this new type of leader is deporting an Ivorian to a prison in another country. As if he wanted to deconstruct peace, social cohesion, the president of the RDR creates a dictatorship fueled by hatred and violence.
Peace in the face of excess. The CDVR compensates, in a discriminatory way, the victims of the post-election crisis. We deplore the “ethnic catching up” even before the judiciary. “The justice of the victors” makes the chances of credible justice more difficult. Only “the Gbagbo camp” is being prosecuted, while the results of a national investigation, initiated by the regime itself, establish responsibilities in both camps. There is a reign of terror and the public demonstrations end in blood. Terror is, clearly, the strategy to subdue the people of Côte d’Ivoire. It is in this perspective that the RDR regime uses “microbes”, militiamen, mercenaries and other auxiliaries, since the people decided to say no to Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s third term. These Ivorians of a particular type capable of easily killing another Ivorian have been used extensively lately.
Precisely this November 15, 2020, a day dedicated to peace, falls squarely into violence. Ivory Coast still counts deaths among its children killed by these Ivorians of a new type, capable of killing another Ivorian. The people had to say no to the violation of the constitution of November 8, 2016, for these new-type leaders to carry out mass arrests and killings. In less than two months, there have been hundreds of arrests and deaths with live ammunition, not to mention the displaced and exiles. As if that weren’t enough, that same power framed and threw against the bare-handed protesters counter-protesters armed with machetes, clubs and war rifles. These Ivorians of a new type cut with machetes, separated the heads of their bodies, burned alive, killed with guns in the localities of Bonoua, Daoukro, Gagnoa, M’Batto, Bongouanou, Toumodi (…).
But since the advent of RHDP power, the country is used to unprecedented barbarism, attacks on public freedoms and human rights. For 10 years, Ivorians civilians and soldiers languish in prisons, others are forced into exile, still others are prevented from accessing their own country, not to mention those who have died in prisons and in exile.
I accuse the RHDP regime of having introduced violence in Côte d’Ivoire;
I accuse the RHDP regime of having created an Ivorian of a new type, capable of killing another Ivorian;
I accuse the regime embodied by Alassane Dramane Ouattara of being solely responsible for the deaths in Côte d’Ivoire;
I accuse Alassane Dramane Ouattara of having transformed the Ivory Coast into a country of violence where “peace” is now “an empty word”!
I accuse !!!!
Abidjan, November 19, 2020
Honorable Marie-Odette Lorougnon
Former Deputy of Attécoubé
