A recent call from President Alassane Ouattara asking the former ruling FPI party to repent and demand pardon as part of the reconciliation process in Cote d'Ivoire has sparked reactions in the press today.
Soir Info (p. 4) carries an interview with FPI general secretary, Richard Kodjo, who said, "People who look for others to beg pardon are those who destroy the country." Kodjo denounced a scenario in which "the butcher is calling him or herself a victim."
Kodjo's reaction has also prompted commentary in Soir Info (p. 5) which reports observers as saying that the political dialogue between the government and the party of former Ivoirian president Laurent Gbagbo is "deadlocked" as the two sides are accusing each other of being responsible of the violence that erupted after the 2010 presidential runoff. The pro-government newspaper Le Nouveau Reveil (p. 8) also quotes Sebastien Danon Djedje, a leading member of Gbagbo's FPI party as saying, "Why should we beg for pardon?"
"It is Ouattara who should demand pardon," writes pro-opposition daily Notre Voie (p. 4), which claims that people loyal to the Ivoirian president took up arms to help him get into power during the 2011 political crisis.
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