Complaints against Ivorian authorities make headlines

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Complaints lodged in Belgium for "crimes against humanity" against Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivorian Interior and Defence Ministers are the focus of Abidjan-based papers this week.
"Cote d'Ivoire Sued: religious leaders, radios recruited to denigrate the country," writes "Actuel", one of the papers owned by the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).
The paper, quoting a declaration of the Ivorian Defence Minister, Moise Lida Kouassi, considers these complaints as an "intolerable intoxication" campaign.
"All these accusations are due to jealousy aroused by the great success of President Laurent Gbagbo's visit to Europe and the resumption of European Union aid to Cote d'Ivoire," the paper points out.
The private daily, "L'Inter," devotes a whole page to the entire report by a Belgian NGO called Genocide Prevention on these complaints, illustrated by pictures of the mass grave of Yopougon, a working class district of Abidjan.
"JD", another Ivorian private daily, writes that an NGO formed by several Ivorians based in France has decided to express its indignation against these complaints which they consider as "a campaign of intoxication against their homeland".
"Le National", a daily close to President Henri Konan Bedie, who was toppled on 24 December 1999 by the military, also sees the complaints against the Ivorian authorities as a "defamation" orchestrated by the enemies of Cote d'Ivoire, in the forefront of which is Amnesty International.
"Salvatore Sigues and his Amnesty International friends should have kept their distance and confront their information with those from other sources.
Instead, they accepted them like the divine truth, thus tactlessly concealing their active militarism in favour of RDR leader, Alassance Dramane Ouattara", the paper adds.
The signature of the interim programme by Cote d'Ivoire and the IMF is also among the main topics dwelt on by the Ivorian press.
"Notre Voie", another FPI daily, interviewed the Ivorian Minister of Economy and Finance, Bohoun Bouabre, who said he was convinced that "the defined objectives will be attained".
"We are convinced that the efforts required within the framework of the programme are not insurmountable.
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There is no point in pursuing a programme for which all the measures have already been taken", he stresses.