Pandemic Avian Flu: Barry’s plan.

According to Secretary of HHS, William Leavitt, Avian Pandemic Influenza will be like “5000 Hurricane Katrina”.

 What is Pandemic Influenza?

  The avian influenza or “bird flu” is a viral disease caused by the influenza type A virus, H5N1.  This virus affects mainly birds and it is spread by migratory birds.  The infection occurs by direct contact with viruses shed in feces, saliva and nasal discharges. 

 Despite efforts to eradicate the infection by killing millions of birds in countries where it has declared itself, Avian Influenza is now endemic in some regions and it is still propagating. 

 The main concern with the infection is that the virus is very virulent and can be transmitted from birds to other animals, including humans.  More than 50% of humans infected have died. 

3 conditions have to be met to declare a pandemic.  The first 2, which are a virus infectious to humans and one that has no previous immunity are presents.  The last one, which is the missing one is that the virus must be able to be easily transmitted from humans to humans.

 However, H5N1 continues to evolve and has the potential to become a virus with a transmission from human to human, which leads scientists to believe that a pandemic is inevitable.

 Once it reaches that level, all the conditions for a pandemic will be in place.  Millions of people will die and the entire planet will be affected because the disease will spread very fast and there will be no vaccine for it initially.

Impact of the pandemicOn a global scale

 It will occur in waves lasting months at a time.  Millions of people will die and the entire planet will be affected because the disease will spread very fast and there will be no vaccine for it initially.  As the work force will be largely affected, so will the economic infrastructures.  Governments activities as well as regular daily activities will probably end up undermined by the situation.  No aspect of society will be left untouched by this pandemic which is probably going to be worse than others as they are more of us living on this planet and we move faster and greater distances than we did decades or centuries ago.

 At Barry University

 Due to the fact that people are so close to each other and in permanent contact on campuses, Barry might be affected more than other areas. We will have to deal with a crisis situation the likes of which we have never experienced.  This is the reason why, Barry University developed a response plan to pandemic flu.

  Barry University’s Response PlanThe overall goal of the plan is to slow the progression and spread of the disease since most experts agree that we cannot stop it.Pre-requisite for the plan to be successfulPandemic Avian Flu: Barry’s plan.Barry University-Division of Student Affairs

 The plan is axed around 5 general areas:

 1/ Social Distancing

2/ Isolation

3/ Quarantine

4/ Protective sequestration

5/ Public health education to reduce individuals risk of contracting the disease.

 

1/ Social Distancing

 The school will be closed, all classes cancelled, the library will also be closed and church services interrupted. 

 2/ Isolation

 Students very ill will be hospitalized.  Students not requiring hospitalization, but that are sick, will be put in isolation quarters, to separate them from the healthy population.

 3/ Quarantine

 Students exposed will go in quarantine quarters.

 4/ Protective sequestration

 In order to protect the students, from the beginning of the pandemic and before the school closes, all students will be asked to return home.  The students that are unable to go back to their home towns or parents’ houses, will stay on campus, but will be asked to remain in their rooms as much as possible.  In order to avoid contact with the outside world, entry or re-entry to the campus will be limited and highly controlled.

 5/ Public health education to reduce individuals risk of contracting the disease

 The authorities in charge will have to communicate precise information regarding the situation, and will also have to educate about  the best way for the campus population to stay flu-free.  Public health education will also have for role to decrease panic, as it may lead to put people in danger and increase infection rates.

 One example is that all students will be asked to get their flu shot even before the pandemic starts, since it has been shown to reduce mortality rates.

 The response plan will be implemented also in accordance with directives or recommendations from the Federal Government, the State and local Health Services, the CDC and the WHO.

 

 It is important that at every level, each department and employee knows what their duties are inside the plan and to whom they need to report if the need arises.

 Also, it is important that internet, phone, TV and radio access be available to communicate.

 Food supplies and beverages need to be stockpiled in advanced. And the different areas (isolation, quarantine) set up beforehand.

 Finally it is important to mention that the plan has 3 levels (yellow, orange and red), and the response and departments involved will vary depending on the level of emergency.

 Resources:

BUPandemicAppendixA.doc at the health center

http://pandemicflu.gov

Student Health Center

11300 NE 2nd Avenue,

Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695

  Phone: 305-899-3750

Fax: 305-899-3751

E-mail: healthservices@mail.barry.edu

Pandemic Avian Flu is coming

It is coming!

It will affect you !!!

Protect yourself

Pandemic Avian Influenza

The avian or bird flu caused by influenza virus H5N1 is highly virulent.  It affects and is spread by migratory birds.  It can be transmitted from birds to other animals, including humans.  More than 50% of humans infected have died.  The virus continues to evolve and has the potential to become a virus with a transmission from human to human.

Once it reaches that level, all the conditions for a pandemic will be in place.  Millions of people will die and the entire planet will be affected because the disease will spread very fast and there will be no vaccine for it initially.

Areas like army barracks, schools and campuses will be the most impacted due to the fact that people are in close contact.  As members of Barry University community this relates directly to us.

The Progression of the Pandemic

Once it reaches that level, all the conditions for a pandemic will be in place.  Millions of people will die and the entire planet will be affected because the disease will spread very quickly and there will be no vaccine for it initially.

Areas like army barracks, schools and campuses will be the most impacted due to the fact that people are in close contact.  As members of the Barry University community this relates directly to us.

Steps to Follow:

-Get informed by watching the news and going on the Barry University website.

-Avoid crowded areas

-Stay home or leave campus if cases are declared in the Barry University vicinity.

-Purchase supplies to last many weeks and masks in the case you have to go out.

-Only eat foods certified safe by the authorities in charge.

-Get your Flu shot beforehand if you can.

-If you feel ill, report to the hospital or health center so that you can get isolated and treated.

What can you do?

-Stay connected and informed

-Avoid crowded areas

-Stay home or leave campus

-Purchase supplies

-Only eat foods certified safe

-Get your Flu shot

-Report to the hospital if ill

THESE STEPS MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Pandemic Avian Flu is coming

Barry University-Division of Student Affairs

Student Health Center

11300 NE 2nd Avenue,

Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695

Phone: 305-899-3750

Fax: 305-899-3751

E-mail: healthservices@mail.barry.edu

Learn how to

By Francis Wodie, 03/29/2008.

The bird flu caused by virus H5N1 is highly virulent.  It can be transmitted from birds to humans.  More than 50% of humans infected have died.

When the virus evolves to be transmitted from humans to humans, we will have a pandemic and millions of people will die. 

Areas like schools and campuses will be the most impacted.

Here are the steps that each of us needs to follow:

-Get informed, go on the Barry website.

-Avoid crowded areas

-Purchase supplies

-Get your Flu shot

-Report to the hospital, if ill.

These steps may save your life.

Lien de l’emission: http://www.leconservateur.net/J-Roger_recoit.html

EMISSION: DIMANCHE 24 AOUT 2008, cliquez sur ARCHIVE: ECOUTER L’EMISSION

Lien de l’emission: http://www.leconservateur.net/J-Roger_recoit.html

EMISSION: DIMANCHE 10 AOUT 2008, cliquez sur ARCHIVE: INTERVIEW REP. PIT (ne pas cliquer sur INTERVIEW Pdt YORO).

Description de l’emission:  Emission radio de Jacques Roger depuis Washington DC avec comme invite Daniel Gbale (President coordination PIT Amerique du nord) et Francis Wodie Jr (representant du PIT au sein de CEI-USA)

EXPERIMENTS WITH PERIPHERAL BLOOD

STEM CELLS

By

Francis Wodie

Dr. David Prentice                                    Life Science 692                                   

Department of Life Science                      Summer I 2003                       

Indiana State University

INTRODUCTION:

Adult stem cells, which come from different tissues of the body, have promising properties that make them unique and very promising for clinical use.  They can continue to divide and maintain a pool of stem cells, and once given the correct signal they can differentiate into tissues including endodermal cells, mesodermal cells and ectodermal cells, independently of where they came from.  Adult stem cells also show an ability to home in on damaged tissues, and a patient’s own adult stem cells can be used for treatment, preventing problems of transplant rejection.  Based on these properties, these cells are studied and already used in the treatment of degenerative diseases.  Already bone marrow stem cells have been transformed into nerve tissues, insulin-secreting cells, liver tissue, and various other body tissues.

 For this experiment the ultimate goal is to try to transform peripheral blood stem cells into nerve.  We conducted 2 experiments, to obtain some basic culture parameters for these human cells.  In the first experiment we were trying to determine what is the best concentration of serum to use, and in the second how often we need to feed the cells.

For the current information regarding adult stem cells, see the extensive review written by Dr David Prentice, that can be downloaded from the following address: http://bioethics.gov/background/prentice_paper.html

METHODS and EXPERIMENTS:

In experiment 1, we followed what we labeled as blood stem cell isolation protocol number 1. 

On June 10^th 2003, we collected with the assistance of Dr Marcella Stevens, 3 tubes of peripheral blood from Francis Wodie or a total volume of 14 ml that we put in a 50ml tube.

We then added 14 ml of DMEM+2% FBS to the blood.

In another 50ml tube, we put 15 ml of histopaque.

We added the diluted blood on top.

We centrifuged for 20 minutes at 1200xg, at room temperature.

We removed the plasma and discarded it.  The buffy coat went to a 15ml tube.

We subdivided the buffy coat into 3 15ml tubes and added 10 ml of DMEM+2% FBS to each tube.

We centrifuged for 5 minutes at 800xg, at room temperature.  Then, we removed the supernatant and discarded it.

We resuspended each pellet into 10 ml of DMEM+2% FBS.

We centrifuged for 5 minutes at 800xg, at room temperature to wash the cells, and we removed the supernatant.

Finally, the pellet of one of the tubes was resuspended into 13 ml of DMEM+5% FBS.  The pellet of another tube was resuspended into 13 ml of DMEM+10% FBS.

The pellet of the last tube was resuspended into 13 ml of DMEM+20% FBS.

We added 2ml of these mediums to 6 35mm plates, or a total of 18 plates.

With the left over from the tubes, we did a cell count.

On June 11^th, we removed the medium from 2 of the plates with 5% FBS.  We did the same with 2 of the plates with 10% FBS and 2 of the plates with 20% FBS.

We then added 2 ml of PBSA to each plate and we removed it.

We added 1 ml of trypsin to each plate for 60 seconds.  We removed it.

Finally we added 1 ml of PBSA to each tubes and scraped the plates when necessary.

We did a cell count using the hemacytometer.

On June 13^th, we repeated the exact same protocol and did another cell count.

We then removed the medium from the 6 plates that were left and added fresh medium, with the same concentration of serum each plate had before.

On June 15^th, we repeated the protocol used the 11^th and the 13^th, and we had a cell count for the last 6 plates.

For experiment 2, we also followed the blood stem cell isolation protocol.

On June 17^th, we collected 2 tubes of peripheral blood from Francis Wodie.  The total volume of blood was 8 ml that we put in a 50ml tube.  We added 8 ml of DMEM+2% FBS to the tube.

In another 50 ml tube we put 15 ml of histopaque, and we added the diluted blood on top.

We centrifuged for 20 minutes at 1200xg at room temperature.  We removed the plasma.

We also removed the buffy coat and subdivided it into 2 15ml tubes.

We added 10 ml of DMEM+2% FBS to each tube.

We centrifuged for 5 minutes at 800xg at room temperature.  We removed the supernatant.

We resuspended the pellet into 10 ml of DMEM+2% FBS.

We centrifuged for 5 minutes at 800xg at room temperature.  We removed the supernatant.

We resuspended the pellet of each tube into 9 ml of DMEM+10% FBS.

We added 2 ml of medium to each 35mm plate we had or a total of 8 plates.

With what was left over in the tubes, we did a cell count.

The 8plates were divided into 2 categories: the plates fed once a week and the plates fed twice a week.

On June 20^th, we removed the medium from all the plates and added fresh medium.

On June 23^rd, we picked one plate from each category.

We removed the medium from these 2 plates, added 2 ml of PBSA to each one and removed it.

We then added 1 ml of trypsin to each plate for 60 seconds and removed it.

We finally added 1 ml of PBSA to each plate, scraped and did a cell count.

On June 24^th, we only re-fed the plates that were supposed to be fed twice a week.

On June 27^th, we re-fed all the plates.

On June 29^th, we removed the medium from the plates that were left.

We added 2 ml of PBSA to each one and removed it.

We added 1 ml of trypsin to each one for 60 seconds and removed it.

We added 1 ml of PBSA to each plate, scraped and did a cell count.

On July 24^th, following Dr Prentice’s advice, we decided to do a duplicate of experiment 1.  Therefore, we followed the exact same procedure.

Day 0 was July 24^th.  This day we collected a total volume of peripheral blood of 13 ml

Day 1 was July 25^th.

Day 3 was July 27^th.  On this day we did not only have a cell count, but like in the first experiment, we also re-fed the plates that were destined to be used on day 5.

Day 5 was July 29^th.

RESULTS:

Experiment 1

Duplicate Results:

Average of the results (cell numbers X 10⁴cells/ml):

Based on the graph obtained with the average of the cell counts, we can say that in this experiment, when using DMEM+5% FBS, we have an increase in the cell count from day 1 to 3, followed by a leveling off or slight drop from day 3 to 5.  When using DMEM+10% FBS, we notice a similar increase, though slightly better, from day 1 to 3.  There is a slight increase from day 3 to 5.  When using DMEM+20% FBS, the cell count rises from day 1 to 3 in similar manner than the two previous categories, though the final number is superior.  The rise continues from day 3 to 5.

Experiment 1’

Duplicate Results:

Average of the results (cell numbers X 10⁴cells/ml):

In the duplicate experiment, no matter what the concentration of serum was, the cell counts followed the same path: a rise from day 1 to day 3, followed by a drop from day 3 to day 5.  The numbers are better when using 20% FBS.  When using 10% FBS we obtain a slightly better increase than with 5% FBS from day 1 to day 3, but from at day 5, the cell count is higher with 5% FBS.

Experiment 2

Average of the results

The graph shows us that after 6 days, the cells fed once a week were more important in number than the cells fed twice a week.  6 days later, the cells fed twice a week were more important in number that the cells fed once a week.  The cell count of the cells fed twice a week rose, but the cell count of those fed once a week slightly decreased.

DISCUSSION:

We did not consider the cell counts obtained on the different day 0, because it is our belief many of the cells counted on day 0 were regular blood cells and not blood stem cells.  Only after we plated the cells were we able to keep the stem cells wanted. 

The first experiment showed us that although it is safe to use the DMEM+10% FBS, the DMEM+20% FBS is better.  We had confirmation of these findings in the second experiment.  Although the cell counts number dropped from day 3 to 5, the higher numbers were obtained with DMEM+20% FBS.  If we were to recommend a serum concentration for future experiments, we would probably recommend a DMEM+20% FBS or DMEM+15% FBS.

We can add that although the numbers were higher in the duplicate experiment, the cell count numbers obtained on day 5 are somewhat similar to those obtained in the original experiment.

The second experiment showed us that it is better to feed the cells twice a week.  If we were to recommend one of the conditions we tested for future experiments, we would recommend to feed the cells twice a week.  We would also recommend to duplicate the experiment if time and supplies allow to do so. 

CAUSES AND FACTORS

OF THE CRISIS IN

THE IVORY COAST

By

Francis Wodie

fwodie@hotmail.com

African American Studies 596             Fancois Muyumba

Summer I, 2003                             f-muymba@indstate.edu

Indiana State University                        (812) 237-2553

The Ivory Coast is a West African country counting more than 60 different tribes that can be divided into larger groups:  The Akans in the south, the east and the center of the country, the Krou, which include the Bete people, in the center-west, the Dan and the We in the west and the Mende in the north.  The Mende or Mandingos are Muslims in majority, while the other groups are essentially Christians and Animists.  For years this influential country was known for both its political and economical stability.  The country obtained its independence in 1960.  After forty years of only one party rule, the political arena became opened to the opposition.  Nine years later, the country experienced its first coup d’etat.  On September 19^th 2002, the Ivory Coast was victim of an assault followed by a crisis the magnitude of which it had never experienced before.  Many observers and even people in the Ivorian government qualified this attack of unexplained.  However, many signs were pointing to such a crisis.  To better understand this crisis and how it came about, one need to go back in time and look at the evolution of the Ivory Coast.  We will need to focus more particularly on the way the country was formed, was governed and was influenced by others.

I.          Colonial period

The written history of the Ivory Coast begins in the fifteenth century with the construction of fortified trading posts by the Portugese.  In 1842 the French navy in the person of Bouet Willaumez, an admiral for King Louis-Philippe, signed treaties with the local chieftains.  This placed Assinie[1], which was dependent of the Sanwi Kingdom, one of the two Agni Kingdoms, and Grand-Bassam[2], an Aboure[3] territory, under French protection.  He lead the construction of Fort Joinville at Assinie and Fort Nemours at Grand-Bassam.  The land for Fort Nemours was given in exchange of the French protection, but also of some guns, tobacco, alcohol and mirrors[4].  In 1893 the entire Ivory Coast became a French protectorate and in 1904 the Ivory Coast became part of French West Africa, which capital was Dakar, in Senegal.

            In the 1920s, France abandoned its system of collaboration with the local chieftains to become more authoritarian and systematically exploit the territory.  Following this new policy, the culture of cocoa was introduced in the south of the Ivory Coast, followed later on by other types of industrial cultures.  These years saw the establishment of the forced labor.  In 1932, the south of the Upper Volta, which represents the actual Burkina Faso, was attached to the colony of Ivory Coast, the north remaining a separate colony.  In 1934, Abidjan became the capital of the Ivorian colony.  In 1943, members of General DeGaulle’s provisional government took control of the whole French West Africa, replacing the Vichy government[5].  Once the war was over, in 1946, the Ivory Coast was declared an overseas territory and in 1947 the southern part of Upper Volta was detached from the Ivory Coast and once again attached to the rest of the Upper Volta.

II.        Before the independence

            Starting in 1946 the history of the Ivory Coast became undiscociable from the history of one man, Felix Houphouet Boigny.  He created with other wealthy plantation owners the “Syndicat Agricole Africain” (SAA).  This new syndicate had for goal to obtain equal treatment of French citizens and African subjects of France, the abolition of forced labor, which was really a form of slavery by the French administration.  The SAA was mainly composed of Ivorians.

In 1946, France granted its colonies the right to form political associations and to be represented in the French Assembly[6] and finally French subjects were awarded the French citizenship.  The same Year Houphouet Boigny created the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) and a few months later with other African leaders the Democratic African Rally (RDA), which was the principal pre-independence political force in French West Africa.  Still in 1946 Houphouet was elected with a narrow margin to the constituent assembly to represent the Ivory Coast.  One of the first political success of Houphouet was to obtain from the Assembly the abolition of forced labor.  Houphouet would remain the representant of the Ivory Coast in the Assembly until 1959.  He would also serve under four different French governments as a minister.  Mr. Houphouet  continued to work on improving the labor conditions.  A particular trait of the man was his opposition to nationalism, but also to pan-africanism.  In 1956 he expressed his position on the issue of indepedence asked by nationalist movements: “to the mystique of independence we oppose the reality of Fraternity”.  To him, the Ivory Coast would not be able to survive without France and the idea of independence was mere utopia. From the French perspective, Francophone Africa was often considered as a French preserve[7] from which other foreign powers were to be excluded[8].  Moreover, the concepts of France-Afrique or Eurafrique symbolized the intensity of France’s belief that its links with Africa were indissoluble[9].  This is the reason why at the conference held in Brazzaville in 1944, any possibility of decolonizing the French empire was shelved[10].  The crucial 1956 loi-cadre[11] located the vital institutions of African political autonomy at the echelon of the fourteen territories in the Afrique Occidentale Francaise (AOF) and Afrique Equatoriale Francaise (AEF)[12].  Although some nationalist leaders dreamed of achieving independence within the broader unit, especially in the AOF of which the Ivory Coast was part, the wealthier territories, Ivory Coast and Gabon, were opposed to this[13].  Houphouet considered that the Ivory Coast was the milking cow of the AOF.  He was tired of supporting the other territories and being used. 

Until literally the eve of independence, the “federal” formula the fifth Republic Constitution, sought to institutionalize, had the assent of most of the current political class, with the exception of the more radical intelligentsia-especially the students.  The referendum approving the fifth Republic Constitution in 1958 drew large, usually overwhelming majorities in all sub-Saharan territories except Guinea, reflecting the strong whishes of the African leadership for its approval[14].  In 1958, the Ivory Coast became a republic inside the French Community.

In 1959, Felix Houphouet Boigny became prime minister of the Ivory Coast.  Following the independence of the short-lived Mali Federation, regrouping Senegal and Mali in June 1960, all former French African colonies, including the Ivory Coast and Gabon but excluding Comoros and Djibouti, had become independent by august 1960[15].  We could say that in the final compressed surge to independence, the interaction of divisions among nationalist leaders and movements, combined with French interests, resulted in twelve states of modest size rather than two large ones[16].  The problem is that where state boundaries were cut through the territories of ethnic groups, these boundaries have remained, institutionalizing ethnic tension and communal violence[17].  In the case of the Ivory Coast the key example is the kingdom of Kong, which covers both part of northern territory and part of southern Burkina Faso.  Another example is the We, who are present both in the Ivory Coast and in Liberia.

III.       The independence               

The independence of the Ivory Coast was proclaimed on August 7^th 1960. Houphouet was elected president and assumed the title of father of the independence.  This title will be transformed years later in father of the nation.  Starting in 1960 Houphouet conducted policies, which were very different from what other ex-colonies were doing.  Unlike other countries such as the Gold Coast, which became Ghana, the Dahome, which became Benin or the Upper Volta, which became Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast remained the Ivory Coast.  The former colons were not asked to leave, but new French citizens were encouraged to come and work in the Ivory Coast and bring their expertise.  At the time a French secretary in a ministry was paid twice the salary of an Ivorian secretary in the same ministry.  This attitude led to maitaining the ties between the Ivory Coast and France.  The ministries and directions were given to a new ivorian elite freshly out of French universities.  Even though Houphouet used what was called the “geo-politique” by sharing the positions between people from the south, the east, the west and the north, the strategic ones were left to his kinsmen, the Baoule, an Akan tribe.  Under his forty year reign the defense ministry was always occupied by Baoule and for years the minister of defense was his own nephew Charles Konan Banny.  He also created a special unit, the republican guards, only composed of Baoule, for his personal protection.  Like other African presidents of the time he was careful in making sure that the country’s army was not too developed, underarmed and staying in caserns, except for when it was needed, usually to stop protestation movements.  The security of the country was maintained through accords with the French Army[18].  France signed military assistance and defense agreements and set up a base, the 43^rd BIMA, in Abidjan. 

Houphouet wanted to be the only one at the head of the country and everyone way under him, making sure this way that nobody could have in mind to replace him.  The constitution copied on the French constitution and allowed, in its article 7, Ivorians to create political parties.  All they had to do was to send a demand to the interior ministry, but the ministry never allowed the creation of any other parties.  As a consequence, the parties that existed before the independence, like the progressist party, were incorporated into the PDCI or disappeared.  For the elections, candidates also had to be recognized by the interior ministry, as a result only militants of the PDCI-RDA and handpicked by Houphouet himself were allowed to present themselves.  Like elsewhere in Africa where individuals and groups transformed government benefits from the economy into their own and their supporters’[19], Houphouet allowed people that he put at the head of ministries or state corporations, to live well above what should have been their standard of life.  It was a system that worked, because once somebody was placed, he wanted and needed to stay where he was, so he had to be one hundred percent supportive of Houphouet. 

Between 1961 and 1965 were the Houphouet Boigny purges based on fake plots.  Among the young elite that was already occupying higher posts or was in formation, Houphouet picked anyone who was susceptible to oppose him and even people who were clearly attached to him and emprisoned them in military camps, presumably guilty of wanting to remove him from power or other subversive activities.  Among the hundreds who were emprisoned the most prominents were Jean Konan Banny, a leader of the PDCI and Houphouet’s nephew, and a minister at the time, Charles Don Wahi, who later became president of the National Assembly for the PDCI, and was vice president of the same assembly before that, Gaston Koffi Gadaug, who was the grand Chancellor of the National Order, Seydou Diarra, actual prime minister of the Ivory Coast and who was a young diplomat at the time, Francis Wodie, actual leader of the Ivorian Labor Party (PIT) and Abdoulaye Fadiga, who became the first governor of  the central Bank of Western African States (BCEAO).  French intelligence services provided invaluable protection to rulers by their capacity to monitor and penetrate oppositions groups and to foil potential conspiracies by providing early warning to incumbents.  These security operations have always enjoyed high-level attention in Paris through such presidential advisers as eminence grise Jacques Foccart[20].  Francis Wodie, who was member of an Ivorian Student Association in France, criticized the paternal way Houphouet Boigny was conducting state affairs.  In 1961, he was picked up with others by the French police and without any explication sent to the Ivory Coast where they were emprisoned for six months.  The conditions of detention were hard, and some prisoners were tortured.  In many ways these purges traumatized those arrested.  The message was clear; imagine what would happen to you if you do try something.  Most prisoners after being released were left for a few months without any revenues before they found new positions similar to the ones they had before, and for others better, with more responsibilities. 

IV.       The early years of independence

By 1963, Paris continued to maintain influence through an intricate network of political, military, economic, and cultural ties.  Thirteen African countries tied their Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA) franc to the French franc, giving Paris effective control over the zone’s central banks and the French treasury control of their foreign reserves[21].  The relations of the new republic of Ivory Coast with France were excellent.  The problem however was Nigeria, the African giant of West Africa.  France, Gabon and the Ivory Coast saw the increasing influence of Nigeria as threatening.  Also, president De Gaulle was angered that in 1961 Nigeria had severed diplomatic relations with France to protest against its atomic tests in the Saharan desert[22].  In 1967, when the separationist Biafra crisis exploded, France set up a loan scheme with the Ivory Coast and Gabon to supply arms to secessionist Biafra.  French mercenaries were also sent to assist the Biafrans.  Ivory Coast and Gabon offered diplomatic recognition to Biafra, when the majority of francophone African states opposed such recognition[23].  The goal was to break the Nigerian Federation.  In 1970 the Biafrans lost the war.  According to personal interviews with Mrs Victorine Wodie[24], the Ivory Coast received many Biafrans refugees and students like herself had to take care of the children as an assignment. The Biafran conflict is an example of France being able to use its special relationship with its former colonies to prevent close cooperation between English speaking and French Speaking states[25].

In the Ivory Coast itself a young man from a Guebie village, in Bete region, called Kragbe Gnagbe tried to denounce what he called the take over of Bete’s land by Baoule and the lack of freedom of expression.  He created a political party called PANA[26].  Facing the refusal of the authorities to legalize his political party in Abidjan, he decided on secession and created the republic of Eburnie in the Bete region.  In October of the same year he organized an armed attack on the city of Gagnoa[27].  On the night of October 27^th 1970, Gnagbe and his followers took over the Police department, the prefecture and the office of the mayor.  The chief of Police, Obou Kouadio, was killed.  Houphouet then sent the army led by the Captain Ouassenan Kone, who would become General and security minister under Bedie.  The army killed both Kragbe Gnagbe and the people in villages where his followers were found.  This would later be called the Guebie massacre. People estimated the casualties to be between 4000 and 6000.  In 1973, another wave of arrests hit the union milieu of Ivory Coast.   Among the people arrested was a young professor of history named Laurent Gbagbo.  He was incarcerated in a military camp in Abidjan, before being transferred to Bouake.  In Bouake, his warden was none other than captain Robert Guei.  The two men developed a special relationship during the few years they spent together. 

V.        The Ivorian “miracle”

During the 1970’s the economy, which was based mainly on the exportations of cocoa and coffee, exploded due to prices that were multiplied by seven for cocoa and by four for coffee.  This was the time of the Ivorian miracle.  Ivory Coast was considered an economic power at that time.  Houphouet, who was the largest plantation owner of the country, increased his fortune even further.  PDCI barons to whom were given land and forests also became considerably richer.  Starting in 1974 and until 1981 France, under President Valery Giscard D’estaing increased economic and military assistance to the Ivory Coast.  In 1977 Henri Konan Bedie, minister of economy and finance and Houphouet’s protege, was associated with the scandal of sugar refineries. The money that was destined to the construction of these complexes disappeared.  He had to resign his position, but Houphouet did not abandon him.  He was appointed Advisor for African Affairs to the head of the World Bank in Washington DC, before coming back in 1979 and being elected president of the national assembly in 1980.  The constitution was modified in its article 11, stating that the president of the Assembly was to assume the interim at the death of the president of the Republic, and Bedie became the constitutional Dauphin.  Philippe Yace, who was the former Dauphin, never forgave Bedie. 

The 1970’s were also the years of the opulence.  Houphouet decided to transform Yamoussoukro into the “Ivorian Versailles” and began big construction projects.  A lot was done to modernize the country, a lot of roads and highways were constructed, schools and hospitals appeared all over the country.  There was a real effort to develop each region of the country.

 Many Ivorians tended to only promote and support their kinsmen.  Every time a new minister came into function, he mostly hired people who were from the same region he was from.  It became a tradition. Since Houphouet was doing the same he did not see any problem with it.  The population beneficiated from the economic situation, public schools were entirely free, hospitals were also free and the government provided enough jobs so that unemployment was not an issue.  In those years corruption became a way of life and many people in public offices were involved.  Houphouet also tightened his grip on power by distributing favors and gifts to “worthy militants”. 

VI.       The economic crisis

            The end of the 1970’s was marked by the rise in oil prices, which ultimately led to the fall of cocoa and coffee prices.  This was a disaster for the Ivory Coast which entire economy was mainly based on these two products.  Without receiving enough money from its exports, or its taxes, the Ivorian government became more and more dependent on foreign funding to function.  As the country entered the crisis, Houphouet was unable to reconvert the economy.  Nobody had envisioned such a crisis so the infrastructures to adapt did not exist. As the socialists came to power in France, with the election of Francois Mitterrand in 1981, the aide to the Ivory Coast was considerably reduced.  Although Francois Mitterrand had proclaimed his intention to decolonize France’s policy on Africa, his socialist regime found its room for maneuver strictly limited by historical constraints and by the weight of economic, political and strategic interests.  Mitterrand was thus left to manage, rather than to radically transform, this inheritance[28].  In 1983 Yamoussoukro, the native village of Felix Houphouet Boigny became the political capital of the country, and Abidjan the economic capital.  This decision led to more money being poured into this new capital, for grandiose buildings. The most well known example being the Basilica Notre Dame de la Paix, constructed between 1986 and 1989.  This Basilica was financed by “Houphouet’s personal fortune”to a cost of 200 millions US dollars.  It is the tallest church in the Catholic world. 

The economy being weak and the country being dependent on punctual helps and loans from France and the World Bank-IMF (International Monetary Fund) it had to follow prescriptions of the World Bank, which wanted to discipline the African states.  The World Bank-IMF prescriptions, resolutely and uniformly prescribed since the early 1980s are well known: (1) more open, market-driven economies that are less encumbered by state regulation in order to promote international competitiveness as a part of domestic economic growth; (2) the devaluation of artificially inflated currencies to bring imports into line with exports and to increase export earnings as a percentage of the gross national product (GNP); (3) the removal of urban consumer subsidies as a step toward increasing production incentives to rural producers, long disadvantaged by the relatively greater political capacity of urban elites to tailor public policies to their own interests.  A fourth less rigorously enforced World Bank-IMF injuction was to bring political decision making closer to the grass roots, not only by shifting costs of key social infrastructure, such as schools and health care, to users but also by suggesting that local communities of consumers needed to decide collectively what they should pay for these areas.  An understated objective of the structural adjustement along these lines promoted by the World Bank and the IMF was to reach informal sectors operating beyond the control of governments that seemed to stultify enterprise.  The premise was that participants in informal sectors would not resist legitimate government regulation and taxation, thereby enabling governments to function more effectively and efficiently[29]. 

Houphouet Boigny in an act of self-denial was fighting these measures the best he could and as long as he could, using all his power and influence.  He was particularly opposed to any devaluation.

By 1989, the economic situation was so bad that Houphouet had to give something.  Furthermore France adopted a new line from 1989 onward because the personal fortunes of Africa’s elite in foreign bank accounts were greater than the debts of the countries in question.  France’s new policy was: political conditions with levels of aide dictated by the pace of reforms.  The effect of this new posture on the part of France was seen immediately.  Houphouet Boigny and Bongo immediately commenced the process of liberalization[30].  In accordance with the World Bank Houphouet solicited the service of Alassane Dramane Ouattara, who was governor of the BCEAO at the time.  Ouattara came in as the head of an inter-ministerial committee which sole purpose was to help the economy through the implementation of certain measures like having the Ivorians pay for public schools and health care in order to reduce the government expenses.  In November 1990, Alassane Dramane Ouattara was created prime minister of Ivory Coast.  Due to the fact that he grew up in Burkina Faso and held international positions for this country, people started calling him a Burkinabe[31].  On the other hand, northern citizens immediately adopted him, because they knew his family name[32] and because it was the first time in Ivorian history that somebody other than a Baoule or at least an Akan was in such a powerful position. 

VII.     Foreign policy

In 1980, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe led a coup against President Tolbert of Liberia, ending the 110 years rule of the True Whig party[33].  Tolbert and thirteen senior officials were publicly executed by firing squad on the beach of Monrovia, an act that raised the ire of Tolbert’s ally, President Houphouet Boigny of the Ivory Coast[34].  Worse, Doe had killed Houphouet’s “son in law”[35].  When Doe, came into power, being supported by the United States, which gave millions of dollars, he closed the Lybian and the Soviet consulates.  This act led to him having another important enemy, Khadafi, who had in mind to break up all imperialist influences in Africa[36]. 

In 1987, relations between Ouagadougou and Abidjan suffered following accusations by President Thomas Sankara that voltaic laborers were facing discrimination in Ivory Coast.  Accusing Abidjan of deriving the bulk of profits from tariffs and duties in the jointly administered Abidjan-Ouagadougou railway, the Burkinabe leader cut these bilateral ties in 1987.  Sankara was assassinated in October 1987 with the apparent complicity of his previously loyal lieutenant, Captain Blaise Compaore, who took over as head of state.  Compaore moved Burkinabe diplomacy back closer to Abidjan and Paris[37]. 

In 1989, Charles Taylor triggered the civil war in Liberia from the Ivory Coast and his rebels received military support from Burkina Faso and Libya[38].  Taylor’s forces entered Liberia through Nimba country, rallying Gio and Mano[39] to his National Patriotic Front of Liberia.  In response, Doe murdered Gio and Mano civilians in Monrovia and officers in the Liberian army, turning to his own Krahn tribesmen for support.  The Gio people are also found in Ivory Coast where they are called Yacouba.  The civil war in Liberia soon degenerated into a brutal struggle for power between various warlord factions, often through, not exclusively ethnically based[40].  The following year, while Guei was chief of staff of the army in the Ivory Coast, Taylor was using Danane, in the west of the Ivory Coast, as a base for its operations.  The same year, Prince Johnson, an ex lieutenant of Taylor, gunned down Doe and his guards.  Among the NPFL[41] fighters were a lot of Burkinabe and Sierra Leoneans.  In 1991, a small group of Sierra Leoneans, allied to Charles Taylor, invaded eastern Sierra Leone[42].  They formed the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and all the looted goods were sold in the Ivory Coast, which exported 1.5 million carats in the mid-1990s, though diamond mining had ceased in the 1980s[43].  

VIII.    1990

            In the Ivory Coast, the decisions of the inter-ministerial committee to allow the country to pay its exterior debt were badly received by Ivorians, especially students.  In February 1990, these austerity measures led to unrest and strikes.  Peoples across sub-Saharan Africa came to see multiparty democracy as their salvation from more than a quarter century of corrupt, authoritarian and economically ineffective regimes.  In one country after another, popular pressure forced governments to allow competition from opposition parties[44].  In April 1990, all the opposition parties that wanted to declare themselves were legalized in the Ivory Coast.  In May, four political parties, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), the Ivorian Labor Party (PIT), the Union of Socialist Democrats (USD) and the Ivorian Socialist Party (PSI), created the Coordination, which was a socialist block of independent parties to obtain the conditions of transparent elections.  By October, the Coordination decided to boycott the upcoming election because they considered that nothing had been obtained.  The two candidates announced for the presidential election were Houphouet-Boigny and Laurent Gbagbo, member of the coordination.  This was a clear example of Gbagbo’s habit of changing his official positions to fit his own interests.  He obtained 18 percent of the votes against 82 for Houphouet Boigny.  The following month, the elections for the national assembly were held.  The PDCI obtained 163 seats, the FPI 9 seats and the PIT 1 seat.

            In 1991, Ouattara reduced state agents salaries, and he cut down on the state scholarships.  This led to important manifestations and protests by students. On May 17^th 1991, the government turned to General Guei to send the army to the campus of Yopougon.  That night the military went into the rooms and beat up the students, many girls were raped.  As a result, on February 18^th 1992, the opposition led by the FPI decided to organize a gigantic march.  The march was repressed.  Gbagbo and the 75 leaders of political and civil organizations who were present at the march were arrested.  Francis Wodie of the PIT was also arrested, at his home.  Because of international pressure, Wodie was freed two days later.  The others were judged and condemned.  They spent six months in jail before receiving a presidential grace.  Many observers think that Gbagbo never forgave Ouattara for those six months in jail. 

IX.       The Ouattara-Bedie conflict

The year 1993 represented the beginning of the Ouattara-Bedie conflict.  Houphouet had let Ouattara free of forming his own government except for the defense and foreign ministries.  It is fair to say that a new elite came to power.  Among them was a majority of citizen from the north even at the army level.  As Houphouet became sick and had to leave the country often to go in France and receive special care, Ouattara became the real head of state.  His support from the Dioula[45] and Muslim community increased further when he made two Muslim sacred days, National Holidays.  Bedie, who was the constitutional dauphin, began to worry, and for the first time in Ivory Coast history, law tests presented by the government to the assembly were not immediately adopted.  Bedie and the Barons around him started criticizing the privatization program of Ouattara accusing him of selling all the state owned sectors, such as water, electricity and telephone to French companies[46].  At the end of 1993, Yace[47] did not want to follow the article 11 of the constitution.  The alternate solution was the formation of a national counsil, presided by him.  Ouattara would keep the executive branch and the government would be open to the opposition.  The coup was supposed to be enforced by General Guei. 

The French government overall was ruling for Bedie succeeding to Houphouet, as it wanted stability in the country, which was the center of French interests in West Africa.  Ouattara proclaimed Houphouet’s death on December 7^th 1993[48], and on December 9^th, Bedie accompanied by an important contingent of gendarmes went to the state television and announced that he was the new president according to the constitution.  Finally, on December 11^th, when it became clear that Guei had decided not to intervene, Ouattara resigned.

The opposition was approached to participate in the new government.  Most opposition leaders refused, at the exception of Zadi Zaourou of the USD, because the only thing Bedie and the PDCI offered were ministerial positions.  No agreement was reached on how to deal with the problems of the country.  In July 1994, Alassane Ouattara following a secret agreement with Bedie did not run for the presidential elections of 1995, and in exchange he was appointed Associate Director at the IMF for the Ivory Coast with residence in Washington D.C.  In July 1994, Djeny Kobina and his renovators split from the PDCI and created the Rally of Republicans (RDR).  The direction of the RDR was composed essentially of people who had worked with Ouattara and had lost their positions when Bedie rose to power. 

X.        1995

In 1995, a new electoral code was adopted requiring that both of his parents be Ivorians before one could present his candidacy at a presidential election.  To fight this electoral code that they considered unfair and to obtain conditions for transparent elections, the FPI of Laurent Gbagbo and the RDR decided to form a tactical alliance, the Republican Front.  Gbagbo was claiming at the time that the two candidates to the presidential election from the opposition would be Ouattara and him.  It was around the same time that the direction of the RDR started to claim that by trying to reject Ouattara’s candidacy, the government was trying to reject all the people from the north.  By the end of the year, the Republican Front had not obtained anything and decided to conduct an active boycott of the elections.  Fearing the violence and the possible death of many Ivorians, the PIT decided to participate in these elections in an effort to break this boycott.  Francis Wodie was immediately accused by the FPI journal of being a traitor.  The elections were conducted in October.  The FPI and the RDR were successful in disorganizing the vote only in the Bete region and in the north of the country.  Bedie called on Guei to have the army help the police, but he refused because he did not want to spill the blood of “innocent civilians”.  This active boycott caused many deaths and hundreds of people were arrested.  The official results of the elections gave 95.25 percent to Bedie and 3.7 percent to Wodie.  The FPI then accused the PIT of having accompanied the PDCI in those elections.  General Guei was fired from his head of staff position.  After the elections for the national assembly, the PDCI obtained 148 seats, the FPI 12 seats essentially in the Bete region and the RDR 14 seats essentially in the north. 

In 1998, many RDR militants, including their secretary general Mrs. Henriette Diabate[49], were arrested.  Later a warrant was issued for the arrest of Alassane Ouattara.  He was accused of having forged identity papers in order to show proof of his nationality and be eligible for the presidential elections and had to stay in exile.

XI.       The Bedie era

            On the economic level, the Bedie era was an era of progress, at least in the numbers.  In 1993, the plan to devaluate the CFA franc lost one of its most powerful opponent with the death of Houphouet.  In addition the French government, with its strong franc policy due to European community and domestic politics, found itself under intense pressure to devaluate the greatly overvalued CFA franc[50].  As the CFA crisis progressed, in August 1993, the central banks of the two currency unions that constitute the CFA announced that they would no longer repurchase CFA francs from outside the franc zone in order to reduce smuggling[51].  Finally the loosening of ties with France ultimately led the CFA to being devalued by 50 percent[52].  The short-term result of this was a boom in the exportation followed by a rise in the prices of imported goods, which led to an inflation that the government had difficulties managing.  Worse, because of the rise in oil prices, even the price of domestic products, which had to be transported from farms to markets, rose.  During these years, the government received a lot of help and loans from the World Bank, the European Community and France.  There were even in partnerships with the United States and China.  However, because of the way the Bedie clan was conducting the state affairs, the population did not feel the economic growth.  Under Bedie, the corruption reached levels never seen before.  Entire loans from the international community were stolen.  The French government, under cohabitation of socialist and republican parties, started to distance itself from Bedie.  Another aspect of Bedie’s way to govern was to give himself and his family monopolies on entire economic sectors. 

Under Bedie, the foreign policy changed a little bit.  There were less ties with France, and the government opened the country to other international partners.  In West Africa however, the policy stayed the same.  Taylor was still using Danane until he became president after a controversial election in 1997.  Fode Sankoh of the RUF once conducted his military operations from Abidjan[53].  In 1996 a government of national unity was formed in Sierra Leone after the Abidjan Peace Accord.  Foday Sankoh became minister responsible for the mining region[54].

XII.     The 1999 Coup and the CNSP         

            On December 23^rd 1999, a group of soldiers among whom were the subaltern officers who had positions under Ouattara entered in mutiny for non payment of their solds.  Bedie refused to see them.  The next day, General Guei announced on national television that the “young men” called upon him to replace Bedie as head of state.  There was a general air of relief at the ouster of Bedie’s decadent regime[55] because it had become clear that there would be no political improvement with him.  On the 25^th Guei made other declarations to reassure the population.  At his sides were Generals Palenfo and Coulibaly[56].  The rumor began to circulate that Guei had conducted a coup d’etat for Alassane Ouattara.  Guei responded by saying that he had only come to clean up the house. Bedie had to exile himself to France.  All his ministers and many PDCI barons were arrested.  The national assembly was dissolved.  It seems that Gbagbo who had many friends in the French government intervened so that the 43^rd BIMA would not enter in action.  Ouattara, who had been elected president of the RDR in August, announced his arrival to Abidjan.  Guei formed the CNSP[57] with all the officers that joined him right after the coup.  The CNSP agreed with the FPI and the RDR to form a government, and all the political prisoners were freed, along with some criminals.  On January 4^th a new government was formed.  There were conflicts between the RDR and the FPI about the number of ministries attributed to each.  Special agreements were made and the FPI obtained two more ministries than the RDR. 

During this period, many people from the west of the country started considering Guei as their champion.  Many barons of the PDCI joined him, starting with all the barons from the west.  Guei went from head of the state to president of the republic.  His relationship with Palenfo and Coulibaly began to sour, as they did not want him to stay in power.  They just wanted him to organize open elections.  A commission including all major political parties elaborated a new constitution, which only authorized Ivorians with Ivorian parents to be candidate at the presidential election.  It rejected any candidate having assumed another nationality in the course of his life.  In May 18^th there was a clear split between the CNSP and RDR when the RDR lost all its ministries. 

As the elections were approaching, presidents Kerekou of Benin and Eyadema of Togo, representing the Organization of African Unity (OUA) came to Yamoussoukro on August 10^th 2000.  They met with Guei, but also with Ouattara, Gbagbo, Wodie, and the secretary general of the PDCI, Laurent Dona Fologo[58].  The two presidents did not obtain from Guei the assurance that he would not present himself, but they obtained from all the parties to agree to form a government of national unity.  On September 18^th 2000, members of Guei’s personal guard attacked his home.  This attack was called the White Horse plot, because his animal was killed.  Many soldiers fled to Burkina Faso.  Palenfo and Coulibaly were accused of treason and arrested. 

On October 6^th, only five candidates were retained.  All the PDCI candidates were rejected for one reason or another, and Ouattara was disqualified for “suspicious nationality”.  The candidates were Robert Guei, Laurent Gbagbo, Francis Wodie, Mel Theodore[59] and Nicolas Dioulo[60].  The PDCI headed by Bedie decided to boycott the elections, so did the RDR.  Gbagbo won with 56 percent of the votes followed by Guei with 32 percent and Wodie with 5.7 percent. 

XIII.    Gbagbo’s rise to power

The same night Guei still proclaimed his win.  FPI militants took to the streets and helped by the gendarmes and part of the army ousted Guei from power.  Gbagbo was proclaimed president.  On October 26^th Alassane Ouattara called on his supporters to protest and ask for new elections.  The result would be the first ethnic and religious afrontments in the Ivory Coast history.  Hundreds were killed, churches and mosques were burned.  Two days later, Gbagbo and Ouattara met and called on their militants to return home.  Gbagbo formed a government of national unity with the PDCI, the UDPCI and the PIT.  The RDR refused to participate. 

On the night of January 6^th 2001, armed soldiers attacked the state radio and television, the gendarmerie camp and the house of the president.  At the same time an unidentified armed column with a black Mercedes in the middle was coming toward Abidjan from the North.  During the day the radio and the television were liberated.  The armed column was bombarded by the air forces.  In January of 2002, after the forum of national reconciliation[61], Guei, Gbagbo, Bedie and Ouattara met in Yamoussoukro with Seydou Diarra[62] to comment on the results.  The main recommendation of the forum was to give Ouattara, his certificate of nationality.  By August nothing had been done yet, but the RDR accepted to enter the government.  Around the same time a judge gave his certificate to Ouattara.  The interior ministry immediately claimed that it was a fake.  On September 13^th Guei retrieved his party from the government because Gbagbo was still refusing to give him the status of former head of state.  At the same time reports started to surface that most of the soldiers, who had to leave the country after the White Horse and the Black Mercedes plots, were training in a military camp in Burkina Faso. 

XIV.    September 19^th 2002 or the crisis

On September 19^th 2002, armed soldiers attacked the cities of Abidjan, Bouake[63], and Korhogo[64], while Gbagbo was on an official trip in Italy.  The same day, they were driven out of Abidjan.  The interior minister, Boga Doudou was killed, so were Robert Guei and his wife.  Alassane Ouattara had to hide at the German Embassy.  His house was burned to the ground.  Gbagbo tried to activate the defense accord that the country had with France, but the socialists had lost the elections a few months earlier and were no longer in power.  At first it seemed that soldiers hired by Guei during the military transition and who were about to be fired had decided to attack, but the quality of the weapons they were using did not make this hypothesis really plausible.  France provided the loyalists with weapons and technical support.  Gbagbo who had come back meanwhile, pressured by France, and in order to protect the foreign citizens, ordered the army not to attack Bouake anymore.  Meanwhile the rebels were occupying other cities in the north.  On October 7^th Tuo Fozie, one of the exilee in Burkina Faso, presented himself as the spoke person for the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI)[65].  He asked Gbagbo to resign or else face a descent on Abidjan.  More French troops were immediately sent to the Ivory Coast.  The official reason was the evacuation and protection of their countrymen.  They based themselves in Yamoussoukro, and blocked the rebels. Later, negociations in Lome lead to a cease fire.  The requests of the rebels were identical to those of the RDR, mainly stating that everybody should be allowed to present themmselves and there should be no difference between Ivorian citizens and foreign citizens in the acquisition of land.  On the 28^th, two new rebel groups appeared in the west claiming to fight to avenge Guei’s death. One of their leaders, Felix Doe, was trained by Charles Taylor, who would lend him troops. 

In January 2003 the French government decided to obtain peace by calling on the MPCI and the other rebel movements, as well as all the main political parties, to come to Paris for negociations.  Assembled in Linas-Marcoussis, the negociators ended up with proposals, which they believed could end the crisis.  People who had used another nationality would be allowed to be candidates, a government open to the rebels would be formed, and the government would engage itself to fight impunity and xenophobia.  Later at Kleber[66] France “imposed” a government in which the rebels obtained nine ministries including the defense and interior ministries to ensure disarment.  Back in Abidjan, the news led to riots.  French schools, embassy and military base were attacked by protesters.  In Paris, the name of a new prime minister with increased power was announced; it was Seydou Diarra.  Later this year, new negotiations were held in Accra, Ghana and the government of national reconciliation was finally announced. 

            In conclusion, I will stress out that it is not yet the end of the war[67].  Even though a cease-fire has been signed, rebel ministers are able to work in Abidjan and there are talks of disarming the rebels starting august 1^st of this year, dangers are all still present.  The cease-fire is monitored by both French soldiers and soldiers of the ECOMOG[68].  The first attempt to test the applicability of regional peacekeeping approaches in Africa occurred in Liberia in 1990[69] but it was a failure.  The recommendations of Marcoussis are only recommendations.  Nothing guarantees that they will be transformed into laws by the National Assembly.  It is a good thing the army and the rebels conjointly fought to expel Liberian mercenaries from the west.  However, with the situation worsening in Monrovia, nobody knows what the consequences could be for the Ivory Coast. 

Although the relations between the Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast are better, it is clear that the feud between Gbagbo and Compaore is not over.  Another danger is the young patriots in Abidjan.  They tried to kill Guillaume Soro in the state television building, in June 2003 and could be a reason the war resumes.  The last concern is the Ouattara problem.   In October 2005, if the constitution remains the same, will the RDR accept it?  Worse will the MPCI use this as an excuse to take its weapons and fight again? 

A lot of question remains unanswered, and only time will tell us what is in stores for the Ivorian citizens.  It is my sincere hope that the leaders of this country, which has the potential to rise up to its past level, will learn to exceed themselves, and leave aside their personal ambitions to think about the welfare of the people they want to represent.  It is also on us Africans, by collaborating among ourselves and with others, but also by focusing on not depending so much on the exterior, to find ways to become independent of the neo colonialism

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      Africa in World Politics.  Post-Cold War Challenges.  Harbeson, J.W. and Rothchild,

      D. (ed). 2^nd Ed.   Westview Press.  San Francisco, 1995.

Saxena, S.C.  Democratic Revival in Africa:  Is It Sustainable?  African Identities:

      Contemporary Political and Social Challenges. Ahluwalia, P and Zegeye, A (ed). 

      Ashgate, Burlington, 2002.

Sekgoma, G.A.  Decolonization: Towards a Global Perspective, 1940-1978.  Africa

      and the International Political System.  Shaw T.M and Ojo, S. (ed).  University Press

      of America, Washington, 1982.

Young, C.  The Heritage of Colonialism.  Africa in World Politics.  Post-Cold War

        Challenges.  Harbeson, J.W. and Rothchild, D. (ed).  2^nd Ed.  Westview Press.  San

        Francisco, 1995.

Additional sources:

http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/ivorycoa.htm

This web site gives a chronology of what happened in the early 1990s in Ivory Coast.

www.gbagbo.com

The site includes a biography of Laurent Gbagbo.

www.ado.ci

The site includes a biography of Alassane Ouattara.

www.abidjan.net/election2000/candidats/wodie.asp

The site is a biography of Francis Wodie.

www.lesiteivoirien.com/

The site provides link to local newspapers web sites (including the site for Fraternite Matin), to Ivorian Embassies and institutions.

Fraternite Matin numbers:

10736- August 11^th, 2000

10774- September 27^th, 2000

11364- September 21^st, 2002

11370- September 28^th, 2002

11377- October 7^th, 2002

11450- January 8^th, 2003

11462- January 22^nd, 2003

Fraternite Matin is the state journal of the Ivory Coast.

http://abidjan.net/actualites/

This site provides news on the Ivory Coast and also present articles from different newspapers.

http://www.reconciliationnationale.org

The site is the official one for the forum of national reconciliation.

Biographies:

Felix Houphouët Boigny:

Officially born in October 1905 in a royal Baoule (Akan people of the center of Ivory Coast) family, Houphouet was the heir of a fortune based essentially on plantations.  Being of a royal family and as it was the custom at the time, the French administration forced his family to let him go to school.  He will be sent to Bingerville and later to the William Ponty Institute in Dakar, where he comes out an “african” physician.  Back to the Ivory Coast after exercing a few years his medical profession he created the PDCI-RDA in 1947.  In 1960, he became the first president of this country and remained until his death in December 1993.

Henri Konan Bedie:

Born on May 5, 1934 at Dadiekro, in the country of Daoukro, Center of the Ivory Coast, Henry Konan Bedie graduated from the University of Poiters, France, earning a master degree in law and political economy.  He later completed his doctoral degree.  Mr. Bedie was appointed deputy director of the Social Security Fund in 1958.  In 1960, he was entrusted the responsibility of setting up the Embassy of the Ivory Coast in Washington, DC and was asked to represent the country at the United Nations in New York.  In 1966, he became the first minister of economy and finance of the Ivory Coast.  From 1977 to 1980, Henry Konan Bedie held the position of special advisor to the president of the World Bank, in charge of African affairs.  In 1980, he was elected member of the national parliament, mayor of his native Daoukro and speaker of the national assembly.  After President Houphouet Bogny died in 1993 and in accordance with article 11 of the Ivorian constitution, Henry Konan Bedie became president of the Republic of the Ivory Coast.  He won the presidential elections of October 21, 1995.  In December 1999, President Bedie was ousted by a military junta led by General Robert Guei.

Laurent Gbagbo:

Born on May 31, 1945 at Gagnoa, Center-West of the Ivory Coast, he graduated from the University of Abidjan, with a license in history.  He became a high school teacher of history and geography in 1970 and joined the underground opposition to the PDCI-RDA.  He was arrested and incarcerated from 1971 to 1973.  In 1979, he earned a doctorate at the University of Paris VII, his thesis being: “The social and economic consequences of the Ivorian politic from 1940-1960”.  In 1982, he created a clandestine organization that would become the FPI.  Accused of illegal instigations, he left the country and went to France to organize the fight against the “dictatorship of the PDCI”.  In 1988, he became the general secretary of the socialist party FPI.  Being the only candidate opposing President Houphouet Boigny at the presidential elections of 1990, he became a leading figure of the opposition.  In October 22, 2000, after the political unstability, he was elected president of the Republic of the Ivory Coast.

Alasane Dramane Ouattara :

Born on January 1st 1942 at Dimbokro, in the Ivory Coast, Alasane Ouattara graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.  From 1968 to 1973 he held the post of economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.  From 1983 to 1984 he was vice governor of the central bank of West African States and later became governor.  From 1984 to 1988, he was director at the IMF.  In 1990 and through 1993 he was prime minister of the Ivory Coast.  In August 1999 he became president of the RDR.

Robert Guei :

Born in 1941 at Kabacouma, in the West of the Ivory Coast, Robert Guei graduated from the military school St Cyr in France.  He was appointed minister of civic services by Houphouet Boigny and in 1990 became head of staff.  In 1995 he was dismissed from his position by President Henri Konan Bedie.  The same year, he entered the political arena by opposing the use of the army to settle civilian manifestations.  In 1996, he was accused of treason and was fired from the army.  In 1999, he led a military coup, and stayed in power until October 2000.  He was killed on September 19^th 2001.

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