Former Associate Professor of Linguistics at the National University of Côte d'Ivoire in Abidjan, I was fired on the 15th of January 1988, without any hearing whatsoever, from my tenured professorship by a presidential decree issued in the name of the late president of Côte d'Ivoire, Mr. Félix Houphouët-Boigny. 

In October 1991, I was appointed by Mr. Laurent Gbagbo as the Representative of the FPI in the United States of America. In that capacity, I have been a staunch political activist on behalf of this major Ivoirian political organization here in the U.S. In that context, I created three chapters of FPI in the Washington metropolitain area (DC, Maryland and, Virginia), in the New York metropolitain area (New York City and New Jersey) and in the Delaware Valley (Delaware and Pennsylvania). 

I organized two visits to the U.S. of Mr. Laurent Gbagbo, an member of the Ivoirian Parliament and the current President of the FPI. During his latest visit in June 1997, the leader of FPI forcefully declared at the National Press Club that basic human rights violations, micro-management of the judiciary branch, and attempts at gagging the private press have lead to perverting the whole democratic process in Côte d'Ivoire where the ruling party is both judge and judged (Excerpts of his address).

The greatest achievment of my tenure as the US-FPI Representative occurred after the 18th of February 1992, when Laurent Gbagbo, several officials of Ivoirian opposition parties, human rights organizations advocates and, leaders of teachers' unions were harsely arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison for having organized and actively participated in a peaceful demonstration to protest against human rights abuses that occurred on Abidjan University campus, where female students were raped. 

With the precious assistance of some Washington and New York-based human rights agencies my organization lobbied the US Congress and succeeded in obtaining a letter of support for the political prisoners. The letter endorsed by 6 U.S. senators and 7 U.S. representatives was mailed to Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire, on the 29th of April 1992. In this letter the U.S. Congressmen expressed their grave concern about the government actions to intimidate peaceful opposition parties and damage the overall climate for free political participation in Côte d'Ivoire. This action on the part of the U.S. Congress put pressure on the Ivorian Government to release immediately the convicted political leaders from prison. 

Since January 9, 1998, I am an American citizen. But, as a former Ivorian citizen, I do have first-hand knowledge of the socio-political situation of Côte d'Ivoire that is supported by the credentials I have just spelled out in the previous two paragraphs and mostly by my book entitled: Le Front Populaire Ivoirien: de la clandestinité à la légitimité, le vécu d'un fondateur (Paris, L'Harmattan, 1999: 240p. ISBN 2-7384-6219-7). Therefore, I do solemnly declare that the statement that follows below is fair, well balanced and not biased. For the sake of clarity, the statement is organized into four main points. 

Index

• The Konan-Bédié Government's treatment of opposition members and their leaders; 
• The Konan-Bédié Government's abuses of Ivoirian citizen's human rights; 
• The Konan-Bédié Government's use of informants to monitor activities of members of opposition parties; 
• The Konan-Bédié Government's use of the security forces to intimidate leaders, and members of opposition parties.

After 30 years of independence from France in 1960, finally a multiparty system was legalized in April 1990 in Côte d'Ivoire, a West African nation of 15 million inhabitants. Since then, there have been two presidential and legislative elections (1990 & 1995). The Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire, PDCI, then the only legal political party, continues to have a stronghold in every single aspect of the daily life of the Ivorian citizen. The 1995 presidential race, which was an unfair election, witnessed the extensiveness of the control and dominance of the PDCI over the country. Prior to the election, the PDCI (with President Konan-Bédié's approval) wrote an electoral code based on parental requirements for presidential contenders. This tailored electoral code was enacted to exclude Konan-Bédié's most viable rivals from the race since candidate Konan-Bédié was not himself submitted to these parental requirements. The widespread rumors that he could be the illegitimate son of Houphouët-Boigny, that his mother could be from Ghana (The New York Times, 12/3/1995), and that his father could be from Benin (La Voie 4/3/1995) went unchecked while some contenders such as the late Djeni-Kobina were not able to enter the race because of these parental requirements. 

The Konan-Bédié government has imposed more severe restrictions on freedom of expression than did the government of the late Houphouët-Boigny during the last years of his tenure. The Ivorian judiciary is not independent from the executive, particularly in political matters. Several cases witnessed the seamless relationship between the executive and judiciary branches of Côte d'Ivoire's Government. For instance, in December 1995, the judiciary had to rule a case under the law stipulating that it is a crime, punishable by three months to two years in prison, to offend the President or other high-ranking government officials or to defame state institutions. This controversial law was used to arrest, convict and sentence to 2 years of prison Abou Drahamane Sangaré, the current Secretary General of FPI and the second-ranking official of the FPI. I regard as untenable the assertion, made by the law under which he was charged, that as a publisher he was responsible for two articles in his newspaper, supposedly considered as an offense against President Konan-Bédié. For their part, the 2 journalists who wrote the incriminating articles were also sentenced to 2 years of prison. Their articles suggested that President Konan-Bédié's attendance at the African Champions Cup final brought bad luck to the Ivorian soccer team. 

These kinds of controversial laws are written by a parliament overwhelmingly dominated by PDCI representatives because of the unfairness of the election process. The number of parliament seats are not assigned by the ratio of the population but according to the districts where the PDCI is certain to win these elections. In this respect, the unfairness of the electoral map is quite astonishing. For instance, Yamoussoukro-Commune, the electoral stronghold of PDCI is endowed with 2 parliament seats for only 5000 inhabitants. However, Gagnoa-Commune, the electoral stronghold of FPI is also endowed with 2 parliament seats for 50000 inhabitants, that to say, with 10 times more inhabitants. AboboGare-Commune is endowed with 2 parliament seats 150,000 inhabitants, that is to say, 3 times more inhabitants than Gagnoa and 30 times more inhabitants thanYamoussokro. This is the micro-management of the electoral system as used by the PDCI to obtain absolute majority in the two previous legislatures:165 out 175 seats in 1990 and 150 out of 175 in 1995. 

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2. The Konan-Bédié Government's abuses of Ivoirian citizen's human rights: 
 

Serious human rights abuses continue in Côte d'Ivoire and the conditions for such abuses to go on have not been reduced. To the contrary, they have increased. Actually, before the creation of the second important opposition party, the RDR (The Rassemblement of the Republicains), there were two targeted social groups used by the PDCI to persecute members of opposition parties. On one hand, there is the Bété-group because of Laurent Gbagbo who is Bété and the historical leader of the FPI which put pressure on Houphouët-Boigny and the PDCI to start a democratic reform process in 1990. On the other hand, there is the Attié-Group because of the historical opposition of the late Ernest Boka, an Ivorian Supreme Court Judge who in the 1960s did not see any evidence of an organized plot against the sitting president and who was killed in prison. In 1971, Houphouët-Boigny publicly acknowledged that there had never been such an organized plot against him. Today, the Dioula-group has been added as a third target through which opposition members from this social group are politically persecuted and discriminated against jobwise. For instance, a former teacher at the Agricultural High School of Odienne in north-western Cote d'Ivoire was fired overnight because of his FPI membership. In this case, his political views were used to determine whether he should carry on with his teaching career. Thus, he was put in such a situation that he had to flee his country to look for a job. He lives today in Colorado. 

Even though the current view at the U.S. Department of State on Côte d'Ivoire seems to be that members of opposition parties and of the Federation Estudiante et Scolaire de Cote d'Ivoire (FESCI) are no longer submitted to human right abuses, all the information I am able to gather from Ivorian newspapers and personal contact, in Côte d'Ivoire, seem to indicate that human rights abuses have worsened during the past six years in Côte d'Ivoire. For instance, there are a series of facts showing that the Konan-Bédié government has vigorously pursued an often brutal campaign of persecution against opposition parties and FESCCI students that have criticized the government and have pressed for the need of a more democratic government in the multiparty system to which the PDCI has said it was committed. However, the Konan-Bédié government continues to arbitrarily arrest citizens and submit them to a prolonged detention under harsh and sometimes life-threatening prison conditions. 
 

In August 1996, police burned a dormitory room where FESCI students were holding a meeting. In December 1996, FESCI students were harassed and beaten at the airport where they arrived to pay their respect to the returned body of a FESCI leader who died in self-exile. In December 1996, four FESCI leaders were arrested at the office of the Minister of Security where they were invited to come. In January 1997, 3 of the 4 were convicted and sentenced to 2 years of prison under laws against disturbing the public order. In January 1997, a FESCI student was killed in a clash with police on Abobo campus in the suburb of Abidjan. More recently, in March 1998, a similar incident occurred in the University of Daloa in the center-west of Côte d'Ivoire. These few facts show that human rights abuses in the Konan-Bédié government have been sustained and ruthless. 

Courts and police usually view physical abuses on women (U.S. Department of Côte d'Ivoire country report 1997) as a mere family problem. Therefore, women harassments, beatings, tortures, and gang-rapes go unchecked. However, there are well-publicized cases of women who have been subjected to gang-rapes by the police because of their political opinion. The most publicized case was the one which occurred in May 1991 when the Ivorian military raided the University of Abidjan dormitories in Yopougon in the middle of the night. At the request of Houphouët-Boigny, then President, a National Committee investigated the raid and established that at least 3 female students were repeatedly raped by soldiers. Nonetheless, President Houphouët-Boigny refused to penalize either the military officers who ordered this raid or the soldiers who gang-raped female students and forced students to perform degrading acts, such as licking up the blood of injured students. 

Under oath, a citizen from Côte d'Ivoire who was recently granted political assylum the U.S. (February 23, 1999) deposed before the U.S. Immigration Court on March 9, 1997 that she was gang-raped by soldiers in 1989. This occurred after a peaceful demonstration she organized and participated in on September 12, 1989 at the University of Abidjan dormitories in Yopougon. This demonstration was organized in response to retaliatory action against students who had participated in an earlier demonstration against government action to cut tuition benefits, the unavailability of books and periodic closure of the university. Over the next few days, the government sent soldiers to the homes of all persons suspected of participating in the rally. The soldiers visited the lady's home and questioned her about her participation in the demonstration. She denied it but they told her they knew she was lying because they were aware she was a member of FPI. Then, they requested to be alone with her. The lady asked her children go outside with her maid. After the children went outside, she was forced into her bedroom where the soldiers gang-raped her. They left her house laughing and promising not to arrest her for the time being but they would come back. 

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3. The Konan-Bédié Government's use of informants to monitor the activities of opposition parties: 
 

The Konan-Bédié government, like the Houphouët government before it, uses unemployed people as informants to monitor opposition party activities. The use of informants to establish files on political opponents is quite well known in the Ivorian political landscape even though there are no well-documented reports about it. There are scores of these repugnant practices. I shall only mention the ridicule one in which I was personally the target. 

During a professional trip to Paris in the Spring of 1987, I was meeting on the first floor of the Café-Cluny in the "Quartier Latin" with Laurent Gbagbo, then a political refugee in France. As soon as we sat down at the table a young woman whom we did not know passed by and greeted us. Over the next few days, when I was back in Cote d'Ivoire, I was asked by a high-ranking officer of the PDCI to tell her who I met in Paris and what I discussed with him. Having refused to tell her anything, she then told me the Ivorian Security Branch of Police Force had information on me since 1982 as being an "ideologue". In December 1987, I was fired from my tenured professorship, as I indicated at the beginning of this affidavit. 

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4. Konan-BédiéGovernment 's use of the security forces to intimidate the opposition parties, their leaders, and their members: 
 

According to LaVoie, an Ivorian newspaper associated with the FPI, the Bedie government has created a "political militia", which are new police stations and units in preparation for the year 2000 elections. On the one hand, these new security forces are intended to intimidate the opposition parties, their leaders, and their members. On the other hand, they are designed to legitimize the informants hired by the Bedie government. Thus, these informants are insured that they will be protected against possible retaliation of groups of citizens who, at least in a well-publicized case, took the law into their own hands and beat to death one government informant. A student was stoned by his peers when they found out he was the government informant on FESCI's activities. This was one of the unfortunate results of the failure on the part of the judiciary branch not to ensure due process when students and others are viciously beaten and detained for extended periods without trial. 

The Konan-Bédié government records on human rights abuses have not improved at all. These abuses seem even to have worsened for the last six years, since Konan-Bédié became president of this West African country in 1993. Recently, a young Ivoirian with a doctorate degree in history from Paris-Sorbonne University was prosecuted for denouncing what he thought was a financial mismanagement by high officials in the Ivoirian Embassy in Paris. Now Ivory Coast has a new constitution and the country has just elected a new President.

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