Sidi,
I love this one just send a comment on the issue before reading yours.You
will hear me on the Ivorian situation soon,not to keep you waiting.

For Freedom
Saiks
----- Original Message -----
From: Sidi Sanneh <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 4:40 PM
Subject: FWD: Ivory Coast - A multicultural mosaic in danger


> by Isabelle Ligner
>
>    ABIDJAN, Jan 29 (AFP) - Bamba Sekou owns a small shop in the working-
> class
> neighborhood of Adjame in Abidjan, and is a part-time poet.
>    A Malian born in Ivory Coast 36 years ago, he now sees his country of
> adoption as a "mosaic in danger."
>    "In the past," he said, "foreigners helped add life and joy to the
> country,
> but now we are all paralysed ... by fear."
>    Ivory Coast, long considered an economic and political success story,
is
> now awash in anti-foreign sentiment nurtured by the political
> establishment.
>    Bamba is proud of "his Abidjan" -- a cosmopolitan city peopled with
> Malians, who because they speak the Dioula language are difficult to
> distinguish from Ivorians from the north; Burkinabe traders and domestic
> workers; Guinean food stall holders; Senegalese craftsmen, Togolese
> restaurateurs; and Nigerian traders.
>    "At the same time the Ghanaian toutous (prostitutes) have brought a lot
> to
> the country," he said with a grin, referring to Ghanaian women who
frequent
> the city's Treichville and Yopougon quarters.
>    More seriously, Bamba says the situation "has deteriorated to the point
> where foreigners don't dare go out."
>    The Malian finds it ironic that state television daily runs
> advertisements
> aimed at promoting reconciliation, with a message proclaiming: "in Ivory
> Coast
> we vibrate together."
>    It should rather proclaim, he said: "We tremble, each one on our own."
>    According to the latest census -- in 1998 -- 26 percent of Ivory
Coast's
> population of 15.4 million are foreigners.
>    The percentage is believed to be in fact higher, due to illegal
> immigration, against which President Laurent Gbagbo has declared war.
>    Foreigners, who became a driving force behind Ivory Coast's economic
> growth
> in the 1970s and 1980s, have, however, become the scapegoats of successive
> governments since the economy started sliding in the early 1990s.
>    Following an abortive coup in Abidjan on the night of January 7, the
> government pointed fingers at foreigners, unleashing a wave of violent
> xenophobia that has sent thousands of foreigners -- mainly Burkinabe --
> fleeing the country.
>    Tidiane Diouf is a Senegalese craftsman. His small shop situated at the
> entrance to Abobo was destroyed by youths after the attempted coup, and
> last
> week he was threatened in the streets by youths angry at statements made
by
> Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
>    Wade said a week ago that "a Burkinabe in Ivory Coast is being treated
> in a
> way that a black person would not be treated in Europe" -- a statement
that
> provoked furious protests against Senegalese nationals living in Ivory
> Coast.
>    "We are blamed for everything," said Tidiane. "If we breathe the same
> air
> as the Ivorians, it's already a problem for them."
>    He said he was ready to leave at the next sign of trouble. Thousands of
> Burkinabe have already packed up and gone home in the past few weeks.
>    The same complaint is heard from foreign agricultural workers in the
> vast
> coffee and cocoa plantations in the west of the country.
>    Hundreds have fled or are getting ready to flee after being attacked or
> threatened by Ivorians.
>    Even Ghanaian fishermen, with their heavy but colourful fishing boats
> which
> have become a tourist attraction at the west coast town of Sassandra, have
> been told to "go find fish somewhere else."
>    According to the 1998 census, however, 47.3 percent of foreigners were
> born
> in Ivory Coast and know no other home.
>    Ivorian writer Maurice Bandaman says that "in searching to make
> foreigners
> responsible for their troubles, the people of Ivory Coast are sinking to
> bestiality -- just because a generation of leaders are incapable of
> analysing
> the situation critically and realising that they are driving the country
to
> destruction."
>    il/bp/jlr
>
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