Ivory Coast’s Ouattara steps up pressure on rival

ABIDJAN – The man whom most of the world recognises as Ivory Coast’s president pressed ahead yesterday with plans to force his opponent to relinquish power, including seizing the state treasury and taking control of government buildings.

Alassane Ouattara – whose victory has been acknowledged by the United Nations, United States, France and the African Union – plans to install his station chief at state television headquarters tomorrow. He also intends to hold a cabinet meeting in government buildings Friday.Both buildings are heavily guarded by Laurent Gbagbo’s security forces and any attempt to move in on them is likely to spark violence.But a financial strategy to destabilise Gbagbo’s increasingly isolated government is also being quietly pursued. Ouattara wants to cut off Gbagbo’s access to state funds, making it impossible to pay civil servants and soldiers.Such a move could set the stage for mass defections and turn the tide against Gbagbo, breaking the deadlock between the duelling presidents in this West African nation.Ivory Coast has been operating with two presidents and two governments since a disputed November 28 runoff. Ouattara was declared the winner by the country’s electoral commission, but the next day, the constitutional council overturned those results after invalidating a half-million votes from Ouattara strongholds.The dispute has raised fears of renewed unrest in the world’s largest cocoa producer, whose economy was destroyed by a 2002-2003 civil war that divided the country in two. Ouattara draws much of his support from the country’s north, while Gbagbo’s power base is in the country’s south.’We’re going to do everything to avoid a conflict,’ said Ouattara adviser Amadou Coulibaly. ‘If we can assume the state’s finances, that’s a big step.’Without access to those funds, Gbagbo’s government won’t be able to pay for the day-to-day expenses of running the state.’All this generalised insecurity has paralysed (Gbagbo’s) government’s control of finances so that the salaries of this month of December 2010 will all have to be borrowed,’ Guillaume Soro, Ouattara’s designated prime minister, said on Monday.Jean-Louis Billon, president of the Ivorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, estimates that N$1.22 billion flows into the state coffers each month, though December revenues are even higher because it is both the peak of the cocoa harvest and the holiday season. – Nampa-AP