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CONTENTS:
COTE D'IVOIRE: Business as usual WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS to discuss Cote d'Ivoire coup MAURITANIA: Nouakchott to quit ECOWAS
COTE D'IVOIRE: Business as usual
Cote d'Ivoire's new military authorities on Monday lifted a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on Friday after the overthrow of President Henri Konan Bedie and held a meeting with political parties at which, a media source told IRIN, they said a new government would be formed next week.
The lifting of the curfew was announced on Monday on local radio and TV stations. Ivoirian and international media also reported that Bedie, who left Abidjan on Sunday for Togo, had arrived in Abuja on Monday. AFP reported that he had talks there with President Olusegun Obasanjo, one of the first African leaders to condemn the coup.
A source at a local newspaper told IRIN the new Conseil national de salut public (CNSP - National Public Salvation Council), headed by Brigadier General Robert Guey, a retired army officer, met with representatives of political parties and told them to hold internal discussions so as to come up with candidates for posts in the new cabinet.
"He said they should be people who love Cote d'Ivoire," the source told IRIN.
In a joint communique on 25 December, Nigeria and South Africa expressed "shock and dismay" at the military takeover and called for "the immediate restoration of the democratically elected government". Reuters reported that the United States, Britain and Canada also condemned the coup and called for a return to constitutional legality or early democratic elections.
Within Cote d'Ivoire, however, there has been widespread support for the coup from the public and politicians.
The Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) said in a communique that it was "pleased that the takeover by the Conseil national de salut public took place without bloodshed.
"The RDR also extends its sincere thanks to our armed forces and to the (CNSP) for the release of the members of its leadership and its activists who had been arrested and jailed arbitrarily on 27th October 1999, following a peaceful and authorized demonstration."
Bedie's overthrow followed a mutiny begun Thursday by a section of the army, ostensibly over the non-payment of peacekeeping dues. One of the first things the mutineers did on Friday after the ouster was announced, was to free political prisoners, including 16 RDR leaders and militants who had been sentenced to one to two years in prison under a law that holds organisers of demonstrations liable for any violence accompanying such protests.
CNSP member Gen. Lansana Palenfo met on Sunday with the heads of the various security forces, and called on them to be vigilant and to resume work on Monday. He also called on security personnel to hunt down troublemakers.
According to media reports, thousands of common criminals escaped when the mutineers opened the prison doors on Friday. AFP reported that 24 prisoners died in the rush to get out.
Meanwhile, the former ruling Parti democratique de Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) said Sunday in a communique broadcast on state radio, Radio Cote D'Ivoire, that it "noted that the CNSP has pledged to guarantee the safety of people and property, to restore state authority, and is envisaging to initiate broad-based consultations with political parties with the view of forming a government of national unity.
"The PDCI calls on its activists and sympathizers to remain calm and serene and await any instructions from the leadership of their party," it said.
WEST AFRICA: ECOWAS to discuss Cote d'Ivoire coup
The ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council will meet Wednesday in Bamako to discuss Friday's coup in Cote d'Ivoire, AFP quoted an official source in the ECOWAS Secretariat in Abuja as saying.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Mediation and Security Council is made up of foreign ministers of 10 countries: Benin, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, as well as Cote d'Ivoire.
The meeting has been convened at the behest of ECOWAS Chairman President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali, AFP quoted the source as saying.
MAURITANIA: Nouakchott to quit ECOWAS
Mauritania decided on Sunday to withdraw from the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Prime Minister Cheikel Afia Ould Mohamed Khouna announced in Nouakchott.
AFP reported him as telling parliament that the measure had been taken in response to the "latest decisions of the community". AFP said he gave no details but that "observers said plans for an ECOWAS single currency could have caused Nouakchott to abandon the group".
At a summit on 10 December, ECOWAS leaders proposed the creation of a single currency for nations outside the franc zone, with a view to arriving eventually at a common ECOWAS currency.
Under the community's statutes, Mauritania is required to give the ECOWAS secretariat one year's notice in writing of its intention to pull out. If after this period the notification is not withdrawn, Mauritania will no longer be a member. Until then, it has an obligation to comply with the community's treaty.
ECOWAS, founded in 1975, comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
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Item: irin-english-2203
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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