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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Cote d'Ivoire runoff candidates expose top secrets |
| 2010-11-23 |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Violent festivities at the weekend between the supporters of the runoff candidates in Côte d'Ivoire have spurred their leaders to reveal secrets never heard of. Incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo started the ball rolling when he declared in one of his campaign speeches that his rival Alassane Ouattara had been the brainchild of all four failed coup d'états against him. The revelation took the nation by surprise since all eyes had been on the incumbent Prime Minister Guillaume Soro who headed an armed rebellion that sought to unseat Mr Gbagbo. In response, Mr Ouattara while also addressing a mammoth crowd of supporters in Abidjan , said an independent investigation in the liquidation of the former military junta leader Gen Robert Guei will find Mr Gbagbo responsible for the act. That stunning revelation also negated the widely held belief that the General was assassinated by his colleagues who were agitating for the army to give free reins to a democratically elected civilian government. These allegations have been judged as more incisive than the earlier one which Mr Gbagbo uttered accusing the third place winner (former president Bédié) of chasing Mr. Ouattara into exile. "If you love Ouattara then vote me because I brought him back from exile after he was chased away by former President Henri Konan Bédié," Mr Gbagbo said. Both the attempted and failed coup d'états and the liquidation of the general led to the death of scores of civilian and military personnel in the country that was eventually divided into a rebel-led north and the government-controlled south. United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society forces and French troops were jetted into the country at the height of the war in 2003 before a buffer zone was created between the belligerent factions and a timid peace installed throughout the country. |
| Posted by:Fred |