United States Embassy (Abidjan)
10 August 2007
This daily press review is compiled by the Information Section of the Public Affairs Office of the American Embassy in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
1. The upcoming elections in Cote d'Ivoire continue to dominate commentaries in the Ivoirian newspapers, a day after the Ivoirian authorities established a committee tasked with implementing the national identification process. News reports also say that soldiers are grumbling in expression of their unhappiness over a controversial rank issue and unpaid war allowances.
2. A front-page story in the privately-owned daily L'inter says, "The grumble has intensified," as soldiers held "a secret meeting" yesterday to make what the paper calls "major decisions." Citing reliable sources, the paper discloses that, "The disgruntled soldiers are planning to go berserk to demand the payment of war allowances and upgrading."
3. The paper comments, "A serious threat is looming ahead," at a time Cote d'Ivoire is fully engaged in a peace process. It warns, "The controversy over soldiers' ranks is a real lasting bomb that could undermine the peace process."
4. "The peace process in Cote d'Ivoire is irreversible." - President Laurent Gbagbo in Cotonou, Benin, quoted in Le Courrier d'Abidjan, a publication supportive of the president.
5. "We'll, at all cost, find means to organize clean and transparent elections... The peace process is moving forward and it won't stop," Gbagbo assured his host during his working visit to Benin.
6. While the Ivoirian leader is pushing hard to organize upcoming presidential election by December this year, the opposition parties are gripped by "doubt and panic," Le Courrier d'Abidjan tells readers.
7. Speaking to Nord-Sud Quotidien, the President of Ivoirian Workers Party (PIT), Prof Francis Wodie, says, "The Constitutional Court is not independent, and hence, cannot guarantee the transparency of the coming elections."
8. "Identification program: Gbagbo is preparing masquerade," reads a banner headline that runs across Le Jour Plus, a daily close to the opposition. It comments, "The success of the identification plan and the electoral process depends on the way public hearings will be conducted. The victory of the Head of State depends on how the presidential camp will control the process."
9. According to 24 Heures, a daily close to the opposition, the United Nations Mission in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) is to "support the electoral process and to ensure the identification process is conducted in conformity with international norms."
10. Le Nouveau Reveil, a daily close to the ex-ruling PDCI-RDA party, announces that "A delegation of the RHDP - a coalition of opposition parties - is to meet the Ivoirian Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, next week to discuss the issue relating to the organization of the upcoming presidential poll in Cote d'Ivoire."
11. In another development, the paper reports that Yves De Sery, Chief Editor of the daily Le Matin d'Abidjan, was "summoned" yesterday by the commander of the Gendarmerie following a story published by the newspaper entitled: "200 gendarmes quit their units."
12. "Gbagbo is a big leader," Notre Voie, a daily close to the ruling FPI party quote Jack Rosen, the President of American Jewish Congress, as saying. According to the paper, Rosen was in Cote d'Ivoire at the invitation of Gbagbo.
13. "Gbagbo deserves support," the state-owned daily Fraternite Matin quotes Rosen as saying after he was "decorated" by Gbagbo during the ceremony marking the celebration of Cote d'Ivoire's independence day.
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