Ivory Coast

9 August 2011 Last updated at 15:50 GMT Once hailed as a model of stability, Ivory Coast has slipped into the kind of internal strife that has plagued many African countries.

An armed rebellion in 2002 split the nation in two. Since then, peace deals have alternated with renewed violence as the country has slowly edged its way towards a political resolution of the conflict.

For more than three decades after independence under the leadership of its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast was conspicuous for its religious and ethnic harmony and its well-developed economy.

All this ended when the late Robert Guei led a coup which toppled Felix Houphouet-Boigny's successor, Henri Bedie, in 1999.

Mr Bedie fled, but not before planting the seeds of ethnic discord by trying to stir up xenophobia against Muslim northerners, including his main rival, Alassane Ouattara.

This theme was also adopted by Mr Guei, who had Alassane Ouattara banned from the presidential election in 2000 because of his foreign parentage, and by the only serious contender allowed to run against Mr Guei, Laurent Gbagbo.

Continue reading the main story Politics: Civil war in 2002 split country between rebel-held north and government-controlled south; 2007 power-sharing deal brought peace; 2010 presidential poll led to stalemateEconomy: Ivory Coast is world's leading cocoa producer; UN sanctions imposed in 2004 include an arms embargo and a ban on diamond exportsWhen Mr Gbagbo replaced Robert Guei after he was deposed in a popular uprising in 2000, violence replaced xenophobia. Scores of Mr Ouattara's supporters were killed after their leader called for new elections.

In September 2002 a troop mutiny escalated into a full-scale rebellion, voicing the ongoing discontent of northern Muslims who felt they were being discriminated against in Ivorian politics. Thousands were killed in the conflict.

Although most of the fighting ended in 2004, Ivory Coast remained tense and divided. French and UN peacekeepers patrolled the buffer zone which separated the north, held by rebels known as the New Forces, and the government-controlled south.

After repeated delays, elections aimed at ending the conflict were finally held in October 2010. But the vote ushered in more unrest when the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to concede victory to the internationally recognised winner, Alassane Ouattara.

The ensuing four-month stand-off was only ended when Mr Ouattara's forces overran the south of the country, finally capturing Mr Gbagbo and declaring him deposed.

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2 tons of elephant ivory seized in Hong Kong

HONG KONG — Hong Kong customs officers have seized a large shipment of African ivory hidden in a container that arrived by sea from Malaysia.

Hong Kong government officials said Tuesday that officers found 794 pieces of ivory tusks estimated to be worth $1.6 million.

The officers found the tusks, which were hidden by stones, on Monday after deciding to examine the shipment, which the officials said was labeled "nonferrous products for factory use."

The container arrived from Malaysia, but the officials did not say where it originated from. A 66-year-old man was arrested and officials are investigating.

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Headed to China?
The wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said the shipment appeared destined for mainland China, which the group considers the leading driver of African poaching. Ground-up ivory is often used in traditional medicine in China.

"The authorities in Hong Kong are to be congratulated on this important seizure, but it is now vital to ensure that all leads are followed to track down those responsible along the entire smuggling chain," said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s elephant and rhino program coordinator, in a statement on its website.

The statement said the ivory tusks, which weighed a total of about 2 tons, were from elephants.

Story: US art dealer busted in huge illegal ivory haul

Traffic said that since 1989, more than 17 tons of elephant ivory had been seized by authorities in Hong Kong.

The group said illicit trade in ivory had been increasing across the world since 2004, citing a number of examples:

Last week, more than 1000 ivory tusks were seized in Zanzibar, Tanzania, apparently en route to Malaysia. In Hong Kong in December 2009, 186 pieces of ivory from Nigeria were found inside a container shipped from Malaysia labeled as containing "White Wood."In 2003, Hong Kong authorities seized 275 tusks, weighing about 2 tons, transiting from Malaysia after being illegally exported from Tanzania.

Milliken said the latest seizure showed the importance of Malaysia as an intermediary country in the "illicit flow of African ivory to Asia."

Story: Ivory burned to make point about elephant killings

"It's time for Malaysia to get tough on international ivory smugglers, who are tarnishing the country's reputation," he said in the statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Rights group: mass displacements in Ivory Coast (AP)

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Hundreds of thousands of people are still too terrified to return home more than three months after the end of postelection violence in Ivory Coast, a human rights group reported Wednesday.

Amnesty International says in a new report that traditional hunters allied with President Alassane Ouattara continue to intimidate certain ethnic groups perceived to have supported former president Laurent Gbagbo. As a result, almost 700,000 people refuse to leave the refugee camps and remote villages where they went to flee the fighting.

The report said the group of hunters, known as the Dozos, carried out targeted killings and attacks in the months following Gbagbo's fall from power, together with rebels who are now integrated into the national army.

The rights group called for the demobilization and disarmament of all irregular fighters. Security throughout the country should be established by the national security forces to provide "conditions that will eventually support the safe and durable return of displaced persons and refugees," the report said.

Ouattara named a new army chief this month, but a half-dozen warlords who formed a coalition to bring him to power still each control sections of the country.

Gbagbo was arrested in April after six months of violence sparked by his refusal to accept defeat in a November presidential election. The United Nations and many rights groups have accused both sides of carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity during the ensuing political standoff.

The International Criminal Court has been asked to investigate. The U.N. and the Ivorian government also have ongoing war crimes investigations. Gbagbo remains in detention without charge in the north of the country.

Earlier Wednesday, Ouattara said during a visit to the U.N. that he is unfamiliar with a specific case of politically motivated violence that occurred on the banks of the Cavallay River in western Ivory Coast on May 22, the day after his inauguration.

The Associated Press reported this week that Ouattara loyalists massacred as many as 47 people in that region, known as a stronghold of political opponent Laurent Gbagbo.

"Once we get the report we will be able to say what happened," Ouattara said, referring to his country's national inquiry.

Ouattara met earlier Wednesday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and was to meet with President Barack Obama in Washington on Friday.

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Associated Press writer Anita Snow contributed to this report from the United Nations.

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US art dealer busted in huge illegal ivory haul

NEW YORK — Federal officials seized roughly a ton of ivory in one of the largest U.S. seizures on record and arrested the owner of an African art store accused of smuggling carved elephant tusks into the United States, authorities said Tuesday.

Victor Gordon, 68, pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn to charges of conspiracy, smuggling and violating the Lacey Act, an anti-trafficking law aimed at curbing illegal shipments of protected wildlife, including ivory from elephants and rhinos.

The indictment said Gordon paid a partner to purchase raw elephant ivory in west and central Africa and have it carved to his specifications. He also told the partner to dye or stain the carvings to make them look older than they were and to ship them to his Philadelphia art store, prosecutors said.

Authorities seized hundreds of tusks sold or owned by Gordon in Philadelphia and other places in Pennsylvania, and in New York, Missouri and Kansas, according to the indictment, in what was described as among the largest U.S. seizures of elephant ivory on record.

"The amount of the elephant ivory allegedly plundered in this case is staggering and highlights the seriousness of the charged crimes," said Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

If convicted on all charges, Gordon faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. He has been released on $1 million bail.

African elephants are listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Importing, buying or selling African elephant ivory brought into the United States after 1989 is illegal unless the items are more than 100 years old.

The law was intended to protect African elephants from the high global demand for ivory, which led to devastating and widespread poaching, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, officials said.

At a news conference in Philadelphia, authorities displayed what they said was roughly $1 million worth of intricately carved tusks at the center of the case.

"It is shocking. It is depressing. It is enraging," said Richard Ruggiero of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Story: Ivory burned to make point about elephant killings

Illegal ivory trading was largely responsible for a sharp decline of the elephant population in much of Africa, he said. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, the elephant population in 1979 was 350,000 to 400,000 but now is only about 12,000 to 15,000, he said.

Although the United States has implemented steps to crack down on the illegal ivory trade, officials said, prices and demand continue to create a market for the banned goods in international and domestic markets.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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