United States Embassy (Abidjan)
12 September 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. Despite an appeal from the Ivoirian authorities calling on the striking doctors to call off the movement, government's hospitals remained closed, prompting different comments in today's Ivoirian newspapers.
2. "Doctors renew their strike: A death threat hangs over Ivoirians," says a banner headline that runs across Notre Voie, a daily close to the ruling FPI party. According to the paper, "Ivorian doctors, who have embarked on a nationwide and indefinite strike action since last Wednesday in protest against a court decision that appointed an acting manager at the head of their syndicate, ignored the call from the government to resume work." The strikers, reports the paper, also "refused to provide a minimum service."
3. In another development, the paper announces that, "Workers at SODECI - Cote d'Ivoire's Company for Water Distribution - are threatening to cut water supply throughout the country on September 17 to protest a decision by the management relating to a deduction from workers' wages."
4. In a story on the front-page of Le Nouveau Reveil, the Ivoirian Labor and Employment Minister, Hubert Oulai threatens the striking doctors, "We'll cut your salaries." The Secretary General of the National Union of Senior Health Workers of Cote-d'Ivoire (SYNACASS-CI), Magloire Amichia responds: "We want our demands to be fully addressed."
5. As the minister and the union leader are visibly engaged in what the paper terms "a deadly standoff", it questions the meaning of what it calls, "The disturbing silence of Gbagbo and Soro."
6. Telling readers the "real motive" behind what it describes as "doctors' rebellion," Le Matin d'Abidjan, a daily close to Gbagbo, accuses some ministers in the current administration of "putting more oil on the fire." It suspects "some close collaborators of President Gbagbo to be part of the maneuvering."
7. On a front-page story, the state-owned Fraternite Matin lists measures, which are to be taken by the Ivoirian government to end the strike. These measures include, among others, "Suspension of salaries, prosecution and radiation from the public service of whoever tries to disrupt activities at the government's hospitals."
8. Speaking to the paper yesterday, the president of the Ivoirian Human Rights League (LIDHO), N'Gouan Patrick, said the decision by doctors to renew their strike was "regrettable." The civic right activist also explained that, "In the past, the government had never kept its promises," and argued that doctors should stop what he described as "useless standoff."
9. In a separate development, the paper reports that Coulibaly Seydou, publisher of Le Jour Plus and Alexis Noume, a journalist with the newspaper close to the opposition, were briefly detained yesterday by police. According to Fraternite Matin, the two journalists were arrested in connection with a story published by Le Jour Plus last week entitled: "Money laundering and illicit enrichment: CIA is chasing the Re-founders," with a picture of President Gbagbo illustrating the item.
10. "William Atteby threatens a journalist at a police station," says a banner headline that runs across, Le Jour Plus. The paper accuses Atteby, a leading member of the ruling FPI, of "Gross violation of free press." According to the paper, the publisher and a journalist with the daily, as well as the editor of Le Rebond, an Ivoirian weekly newspaper, were "briefly detained yesterday by the police in connection with a story relating to 'a scandal in the Ivoirian cocoa sector'."
11. "It's high time to speed up the peace process," Le Temps, a daily close to Gbagbo, quotes Boureima Badini, as saying. Boureima Badini, says the paper, is the Special Representative of President Blaise Compaore - facilitator in the Ivoirian peace process -in Cote d'Ivoire.
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