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Document #1260536
ACCORD – Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (Author)
In response to your above request we may provide you with the following information:
Background information on the FESCI
According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) the “Fédération Estudiantine et Scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire - Federation of Students and School-students of Ivory Coast” - is a very active student movement created in April 1990. Serge Kouyo is the Secretary General, elected during the 4th Congress of the Students’ Union held on 12 May 2003 (ICG 28 November 2003, p. 50) As the US Department of State mentioned in March 2003, FESCI is close to the FPI, the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party (USDOS 31 March 2003, sec. 2.a.).
According to an Agence France Presse (AFP) article of 13 May 2004, the “powerful Fesci student union” supports the Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo.
Agence France Presse also refers to a UN report which stated that “state security forces and parallel militias, including Fesci and the firebrand "Young Patriots", acted on state orders to violently quash the opposition rally, which was banned by a presidential decree .” This report had been denounced by Fesci. (AFP 13 May 2004; on cooperation between FESCI and security forces see also HRW 28.08.2001, Chapter VI, “Security Force Collaboration with the FPI”)
Are members of FESCI in risk of persecution by the authorities of Ivory Coast?
The US Department of State states in its human rights report of 25 February 2004 that a student and FESCI member in Abidjan was shot on 18 September 2003 as the police opened fire on several hundred students who were protesting the Government’s failure to make a promised compensation payment for their living expenses. The Government apologized and began an investigation into the incident. According to the US Department of State there were no results by the year’s end (USDOS 25 February 2004, sec. 2.b.)
The US Department of State also mentions that on 23 August 2001 security forces in Baouake used tear gas and truncheons to disperse demonstrators from the FESCI; the authorities arrested 20 students and injured seriously 10 others. The students had been demanding an increase in the number of scholarships and a list of scholarship recipients. Following the incident, other students attacked 4 banks and damaged more than 30 cars. (USDOS 4 March 2002, sec. 2.b.)
According to the US Deparment of State’s human rights report covering 2000, in April 1999, the president of the University of Cocody banned all meetings and sit-ins on the campus; 2 days later the Council of Ministers ratified and extended the President’s action, banning all FESCI activities throughout the country. Following the December 1999 coup, the Guei Government allowed FESCI to resume operations. The US Department of State also notes that on September 25, 2000, members of the military beat students from the Federation of High School and University Students of Cote d’Ivoire (FESCI) on the university’s Cocody campus; three of the students who were alleged to belong to a branch of FESCI that supports the RDR were injured seriously. No action was taken against any members of the military (USDOS 23 February 2001, sec. 1.c., 2.a.). The US Department of State further reports:
“During student strikes in May 1999, police arrested student leaders Kouame Kouakou and Drigone Faye in Bouake on charges of inciting violence and destruction of property under the 1992 Antivandalism Law. Charles Ble Goude, the secretary general of FESCI, was arrested on August 17 and also was charged with inciting violence and destruction of property. None of the students were charged with a crime, and all three students were released by October 1999.” (USDOS 23 February 2001, sec. 1.d.; on the incidents in 1999, see also USDOS 25 February 2000, sec. 1.c., 1.d., 1.f., 2.a.; BBC News 18 August 1999)
This information is confirmed by Amnesty International (AI) which states in its Annual report 2000:
“Scores of student activists belonging to the Fédération estudiantine et scolaire de Cõte d’Ivoire (FESCI), Ivorian Federation of Students and School Pupils, were detained for weeks. Some were arrested during a series of university strikes in May. A number of FESCI leaders, including its Secretary General, Charles Blé Goudé, were detained under the 1992 anti-riot law. All were released without charge in October. Some of the detainees were tortured and ill-treated in Abidjan, at the Police Academy and the Direction de la sécurité du territoire (DST), Internal Security Office. Some students were reportedly handcuffed with their hands behind their backs for 10 days, beaten and forced to drink dirty water. There was no investigation into these allegations.” (AI 1 January 2000)
No further information regarding the actual treatment of FESCI members by the authorities could be found among the sources consulted by ACCORD.
As stated in a report of the “Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE)”, dated December 2003, there are an increasing number of paramilitary forces or militia in addition to the regular forces. Most of these militia are controlled by several hard-line youth groups, known as “Jeune Patriots”. As a result of their violent protests, these militiastyle youth groups have become increasingly dominant in disrupting and influencing the political environment in Côte d’Ivoire. The most powerful youth organisation, Congrès panafricain des jeunes patriots (COJEP) is closely linked to President Gbagbo (CRISE December 2003, p. 18, 19).
The International Crisis Group (ICG) also mentions the “Alliance des Jeunes Patriotes pour le sursaut national”. It is led by Charles Blé Goudé, who was FESCI president from 1998-2001 and who is a loyal supporter of president Gbabo (ICG 28 November 2003, p. 17).
As Human Rights Watch states in a report of August 2003:
“Blé Goudé played a crucial role in mobilizing the “young patriots” in Abidjan during the war, reportedly with full backing of the Gbagbo administration. […]The role of the FESCI student movement and the student leaders in Abidjan in inciting violence has grown clearer over the past eight months.” (HRW 5 August 2003, p. 42)
According to an IRIN article of 13 May 2004, the FESCI is closely linked to the militia-style pro-Gbagbo youth groups known as "Young Patriots." (IRIN 13 May 2004)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) also points out:
“Pro-government militia groups, known as the “Young Patriots” (Jeunes Patriotes), have proliferated in Côte d’Ivoire over the past 14 months. Membership is believed to number in the thousands, although precise figures are unknown. Several of the leaders of the umbrella group—the Group of Patriots for Peace (Groupement des Patriotes pour la Paix, or GPP)—are ex-student leaders from a national university students association, the Student and School Federation of Côte d’Ivoire (Fédération Estudiantine et Scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire, or FESCI). They appear to have built up membership from the student network and the youth wings of political parties, particularly the Ivorian Popular Front (Front Populaire Ivoirien, or FPI), the ruling party. Student activists have also played a prominent role in the rebel movement and within other major political parties.” (HRW 27 November 2003)
In an article dated March 18, 2004, Agence France Presse reports:
“The [US] embassy also denounced “a lack of respect for the law (and the) impunity some groups enjoy”, referring to the Young Patriots who on March 9 burst into the law courts and beat up lawyers and journalists. Youths in the Ivorian student union FESCI, which also backs the regime, took part in that raid, while the security forces simply stood by and, according to some reports, collaborated. (AFP 18 March 2004; see also CPJ 9 March 2004, “François Gombahi, Le Jour Plus, Marc-Antoine Kablan, 24 Heures, attacked”)
RDR, Rassemblement des Republicans, been recently accused of creating rebel groups fighting against the government
In an article of 31 October 2003, IRIN reports that leading figures in Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party have accused the RDR of supporting rebels who have occupied the northern half of Cote d’Ivoire since the country erupted into civil war in September last year. (IRIN 31 October 2003; see also IRIN, 22 October 2003)
The International Crisis Group states in a report of 28 November 2003:
“Supported by ultra-nationalist “patriotic youth” groups, some organised into urban militias, government security forces undertook a witch hunt against the major opposition party and those thought to support it. The president’s party charged that opposition party, the RDR, with masterminding the coup and supporting the rebellion.” (ICG, 28 November 2003, page ii)
No information on more recent accusations regarding the support of rebel groups by the RDR could be found among the sources consulted by ACCORD.
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the ACCORD within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
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