IVORY COAST - Enemies Within
February 2003 - 24 minutes
Rebels have taken the north. The governments been calling on young men to join the army.
PTC: in the last few days the fighting has been escalating and the government says they are now fighting on too many fronts They need more soldiers. Potentially this is a high risk strategy putting weapons in the hands of young men.
We followed them to the recruitment centre.
Peace talks were at a critical stage, but all the preparations had been for war
[Mobs attack the car]
Thousands had gathered to sign up. They were angry, fired up to fight the rebels. We became their target.
They blame foreigners for arming the rebels and the foreign press for supporting them.
Ivorians have always felt a cut above their African neighbours. Theyve opened up their economy. Theyve courted investors. But their dream of wealth is evaporating. Everyone has someone to blame.
Nat sound - police
We called on the police for help. They arrested us and took our camera. We left it rolling.
No ones proud of whats happening here.
TITLE
ENEMIES WITHIN
After three hours the police released us. We raced through the streets of Abidjan towards our hotel.
PTC: Weve got about 20 minutes now till the curfew kicks in. Its a very bad time to get a puncture. After seven oclock the police have orders to shoot on sight anyone moving around the city who seems suspicious ..
SYNC: This guy is in serious trouble oh hes left his car
Staying out late means risking death.
WILL SYNC: People running see that .
This city of 3 million was the commercial centre of French speaking West Africa, its wealth grounded in the international chocolate trade and Ivory Coasts cocoa plantations.
Armed police were crouching by the roadside.
Since September Abidjan has been on a knife edge. When rebel soldiers took control of the north they also tried to shoot their way to power here.
PTC: Even just a few months ago this was a city that had a thriving night life. Theres lots of night clubs in Abidjan, very good restaurants. It was a city that lived as much by night as by day, but no longer.
Next morning the news was grim.
PTC: The British, we have just learnt, have started to advise their citizens to leave the country. They see the government army recruitment campaign as a sign that the country is moving a step further away from a political solution and a step closer, potentially, towards national disaster.
Local journalists warned us if we filmed openly on the streets we risked being beaten up. We kept the camera in the car and set off to see the editor of one of the leading newspapers.
Maite Sindou has been outspoken about the causes of the civil war. Hes paid a price for that last month his offices were wrecked by pro-government thugs.
SYNC: Hes showing us a couple of computers which were smashed .
Walking
Since one party rule ended a decade ago Ivory Coast has been led by a succession of southern Christians. Theyve all manipulated voting and nationality laws to keep their northern rivals from power.
So when a group of disaffected northern soldiers attempted a coup last september, the country was ripe to split in two.
Maite condemns the rebels methods, but says the government has a lot to answer for
MAITE: Hes saying that since President Gbagbos election an enormous number of abuses people persecuted, the gendarmerie persecute people, people are arbitrarily put in prison, arbitrarily executed, but none of this has been punished. There is an atmosphere of complete impunity
Among those with the most to fear are immigrants. They make up a third of the 16 million people in Ivory Coast. Many have been here for 3 generations. Regardless - they are now labelled foreigners.
We headed for a shanty town where immigrants from the neighbouring countries Mali and Burkina Faso live.
PTC: Scattered all over Abidjan there are little communities of Malians and Burkinabes They call them precarious communities
You can see why. Scenes like these have become dangerous to film. From a hiding place we recorded all that remained of a nearby immigrant community.
Security forces had driven off its inhabitants and bulldozed it flat. The rebels in the North are mainly Muslim. Muslims in the South are paying the price.
Cupboard
We found a man whose house had been destroyed living in a cupboard at his employers house. He darent show his face.
PTC: Hes saying that they started by coming to the neighbourhood, knocking on the door in the middle of the night, asking for his permit to reside. When he didnt have any money they started taking things. Thats how it all began.
Thunder and lightning
Around 2/3rds of Abidjans population is under 30, many without jobs or prospects. One man has tuned into their grievances: Charles Ble Goude.
To find Ble Goude, we went to a bar used by supporters of his youth movement. At the click of his fingers he can bring thousands on to the street in support of the government.
Whatever its faults, they said Ivory Coast had a form of democracy. To them the rebels were a coalition of Muslim immigrants, ambitious northerners, funded by sinister multinationals.
One of them agreed to help me.
SYNC: Hes going to come and find us tomorrow morning to take us to meet Charles Ble Goude, hopefully.
SYNC: Hes here
Ble Goude is emerging as a key figure in the governments campaign to quash the rebellion.
WILL SYNC: Some people call you the general dont they?
CBG: Yeah they do.
He dismisses any notion the rebels are fighting for the rights of the mainly Muslim North. To him, they are a bunch of renegade soldiers backed by foreigners, whose sole aim is to grab power.
He was about to address an army recruitment rally. We went with him.
WILL SYNC: What are you planning to tell the youth today?
CBG SYNC: I am planning to tell them that when the country is in such a serious situation young people will have to play an important role, they will have to fight for their country
WILL SYNC: Are you not afraid that a lot of your countrymen are going to die?
They are dying already.
As we approached the rally we saw a breakaway crowd. Ble Goude asked the driver to stop. He wanted to find out what was going on.
They began to chant Ble Goudes name. To Abidjans disaffected pro-government youth, hes a hero.
It turned out the recruitment station had been overwhelmed. These young men had been turned away. Ble Goude reassured them their chance would come.
WILL: Are you confident theres time to train these boys properly before they get sent to combat?
CBG: Yes I am
For all Ble Goudes nonchalance it was clear we were heading into a volatile situation. We stopped outside the state television station and Ble Goude sent one of his men, Narcisse, to pick up an armed guard.
Ble Goude is not a member of the government. But he acts as if he is. The strength of his youth movement has given him a direct line to the president.
Tens of thousands of men had turned up to join the army.
Many were Ble Goudes followers. His critics see in them the makings of an ethnic militia.
The crowd was angry. Theyd seen Ble Goude on television calling for recruits.
But there were more than the army could cope with. Ble Goude got out to calm them. His gunman followed and suddenly we were left alone.
For many of these men joining the army was their first chance to earn a wage. Ivory Coast has followed most of the rules laid down in the west that are supposed to make economies grow. But these men remain poor and desperate. They feel the rules are stacked against them and their anger turned on us.
We had to get out of there.
We drove through the crowd, scattering them.
We made our escape the wrong way down a dual carriageway.
We needed to track down Ble Goude.
WILL: Our friend Narcisse is trying to get back in touch with him.
Here we go again
We picked up another gunman.
Ble Goude met us just outside the recruitment centre. We hid the camera and he got us inside.
We filmed from behind the car. Even in here, the army could barely control the situation.
If you take poverty and disaffection, weak political structures and then stir in ethnic and religious differences, this is the kind of explosive melee you get. Outside thousands still clamoured to get in. We were beginning to attract attention.
PTC:Itll be a relief when were able to get out of this
PTC: Were waiting for the crowd to clear before we can get out of here
Yet again we concealed the camera and with Ble Goudes help escaped.
WILL SYNC: What about the ethnic content to all this. Is there not a danger that recruiting a such a time when passions are so high you create an army from the south, that you are splitting the country further?
CBG: Since this crisis there is no problem in the army. There is no problem between soldiers coming from the north against those coming from the south .
WILL: But there werent many people from the north in that crowd
CBG: Yeah but they are not from our army
He insisted he wasnt exploiting the countrys divisions. It was the rebels who were doing that. But it would be a brave muslim who attended a Ble Goude rally.
PTC: Were setting off north today up towards rebel held territory hoping to be able to cross the front line into the town of Bouake which is rebel headquarters. Normally it should be a jourrney of about 4 hours, but people say that the road block on route a likely to delay us a bit.
There was barely a car on the road
PTC: This country has by far the best road network in the region and usually this would be the busiest trade route in West Africa.
DRIVING SHOT
VILLAGE
Economic crisis has created the conditions for civil war. Cocoa and Ivory Coasts dependence on it has played a role in that.
PTC: These are the cocoa pods that have just been harvested.
The government used to buy and sell the whole cocoa crop. Four years ago they stopped, under pressure from the World Bank, which argued that the state was taking too much of the profits.
Actuality PTC eating cocoa bean
The farmers were left at the mercy of international markets. The price of cocoa fell. Millions of people saw their incomes plummet.
Now these villagers fear war.
A few hours later we began to run into government checkpoints. We were closing on the front line.
PTC: So far on this journey weve sped through five or six road blocks. On each occasion weve left behind hundreds of Ivorians waiting to be frisked. ur luck held.
Near the city of Yamoussoukro we encountered a patrol of French peacekeepers heading for the front line. We tagged along.
At the governments request troops from the old colonial power are holding the two sides apart.
They stopped near Yamoussoukros cathedral. It was built by the government in the eighties - a reminder of Christian dominance.
Eventually we reached an area under French control.
PTC: It is too risky to go to Bouake so we are going to stay nearby in Yamoussoukro for the night.
In the morning we entered the no-mans land that separates the front lines.
PTC: The road is beginning to get a bit spooky now. The villages we have been passing are increasingly deserted and the only traffic we are seeg is military. We are actually coming up to an area where there was some very heavy fighting at the beginning of this crisis.
Nearly a million have been displaced and hundreds killed.
We turned a corner and saw the rebels.
While our papers were checked, I went over to talk to two rebel fighters. They said the government had made them foreigners in their own land.
Weve talked about it enough. There has been enough dialogue. It is with force now that we are going to resolve it.
They let us pass.
Down the road was Bouake, the countrys second city, mainly muslim. Weeks before it had been a battlefield. Many local Christians fled. We searched for Cherif Ousman, the rebel commander controlling the city.
He was once a sergeant in the Ivorian army.
Hes saying hes a soldier and today he is fighting for his identity.
Hes saying even if they have to fight against helicopters and tanks with stones and knives they will do so and win. Hes saying because they are fighting for their identity and to become Ivorian.
The fuels running out. The local economy has collapsed. But most people I spoke to identified with the rebel cause despite the hardship.
Will: The problem is that they cant get any money the banks are shut and the big traders have also shut their shops.
Curfew approached. People are trapped here. The rebels say they wont disarm until the government scraps identity laws that make it difficult for northerners to vote.
COMM: The next morning we prepared to start our days filming. Rebel gunmen told us to follow them. We sped through city in convoy.
PTC: Were just entering what appears to have formerly been a school which has been taken over by the rebels. In fact all the schools have been shut in Bouake since the rebellion started.
There was Tuo Fozie, the military commander of the rebels, a man who helped plot the revolt from exile in Burkina Faso. Wed asked to meet him. The rebels had obliged.
I asked him about the scenes wed witnessed in Abidjan.
TF SYNC: He does have a message for young recruits and says the sooner they hear it the better
He pointed out that when the government tried to retake Bouake they were repulsed with heavy losses.
TF: The solution remaining is not to send boys from the street. The solution is round the negotiating table.
TF: The solution is for there to be an Ivory Coast for everybody and for there to be real democracy and transparent elections.
Ivory Coast was one of Africas greatest hopes. A peace deal has now been struck but the difficult task rebuilding trust remains. For now Ivorians are doing what many others are doing across the globe: withdrawing into identities that seem to offer security in a hostile world - but end up fuelling wars.
DINGO SYNC: Hes saying he grew up with the little Frenchman, the Ghanaian, Guinean, the Burkinabe, in peace. They went to school together. Today they are looking at each other. They are no longer friends.
He feels ill at ease.
He says has no weapon, just his guitar and his voice to put across his message of brotherhood and friendship.
DINGO SINGS
Ends
CREDITS:
REPORTER: William Wallis
EDITOR: Danny Davis
MUSIC: Jason Osborn
PRODUCER: Eamonn Mathews
FILM DIRECTOR: Callum Macrae
Production company = MBC (Mentorn Barraclough Carrey)
February 2003 - 24 minutes
Rebels have taken the north. The governments been calling on young men to join the army.
PTC: in the last few days the fighting has been escalating and the government says they are now fighting on too many fronts They need more soldiers. Potentially this is a high risk strategy putting weapons in the hands of young men.
We followed them to the recruitment centre.
Peace talks were at a critical stage, but all the preparations had been for war
[Mobs attack the car]
Thousands had gathered to sign up. They were angry, fired up to fight the rebels. We became their target.
They blame foreigners for arming the rebels and the foreign press for supporting them.
Ivorians have always felt a cut above their African neighbours. Theyve opened up their economy. Theyve courted investors. But their dream of wealth is evaporating. Everyone has someone to blame.
Nat sound - police
We called on the police for help. They arrested us and took our camera. We left it rolling.
No ones proud of whats happening here.
TITLE
ENEMIES WITHIN
After three hours the police released us. We raced through the streets of Abidjan towards our hotel.
PTC: Weve got about 20 minutes now till the curfew kicks in. Its a very bad time to get a puncture. After seven oclock the police have orders to shoot on sight anyone moving around the city who seems suspicious ..
SYNC: This guy is in serious trouble oh hes left his car
Staying out late means risking death.
WILL SYNC: People running see that .
This city of 3 million was the commercial centre of French speaking West Africa, its wealth grounded in the international chocolate trade and Ivory Coasts cocoa plantations.
Armed police were crouching by the roadside.
Since September Abidjan has been on a knife edge. When rebel soldiers took control of the north they also tried to shoot their way to power here.
PTC: Even just a few months ago this was a city that had a thriving night life. Theres lots of night clubs in Abidjan, very good restaurants. It was a city that lived as much by night as by day, but no longer.
Next morning the news was grim.
PTC: The British, we have just learnt, have started to advise their citizens to leave the country. They see the government army recruitment campaign as a sign that the country is moving a step further away from a political solution and a step closer, potentially, towards national disaster.
Local journalists warned us if we filmed openly on the streets we risked being beaten up. We kept the camera in the car and set off to see the editor of one of the leading newspapers.
Maite Sindou has been outspoken about the causes of the civil war. Hes paid a price for that last month his offices were wrecked by pro-government thugs.
SYNC: Hes showing us a couple of computers which were smashed .
Walking
Since one party rule ended a decade ago Ivory Coast has been led by a succession of southern Christians. Theyve all manipulated voting and nationality laws to keep their northern rivals from power.
So when a group of disaffected northern soldiers attempted a coup last september, the country was ripe to split in two.
Maite condemns the rebels methods, but says the government has a lot to answer for
MAITE: Hes saying that since President Gbagbos election an enormous number of abuses people persecuted, the gendarmerie persecute people, people are arbitrarily put in prison, arbitrarily executed, but none of this has been punished. There is an atmosphere of complete impunity
Among those with the most to fear are immigrants. They make up a third of the 16 million people in Ivory Coast. Many have been here for 3 generations. Regardless - they are now labelled foreigners.
We headed for a shanty town where immigrants from the neighbouring countries Mali and Burkina Faso live.
PTC: Scattered all over Abidjan there are little communities of Malians and Burkinabes They call them precarious communities
You can see why. Scenes like these have become dangerous to film. From a hiding place we recorded all that remained of a nearby immigrant community.
Security forces had driven off its inhabitants and bulldozed it flat. The rebels in the North are mainly Muslim. Muslims in the South are paying the price.
Cupboard
We found a man whose house had been destroyed living in a cupboard at his employers house. He darent show his face.
PTC: Hes saying that they started by coming to the neighbourhood, knocking on the door in the middle of the night, asking for his permit to reside. When he didnt have any money they started taking things. Thats how it all began.
Thunder and lightning
Around 2/3rds of Abidjans population is under 30, many without jobs or prospects. One man has tuned into their grievances: Charles Ble Goude.
To find Ble Goude, we went to a bar used by supporters of his youth movement. At the click of his fingers he can bring thousands on to the street in support of the government.
Whatever its faults, they said Ivory Coast had a form of democracy. To them the rebels were a coalition of Muslim immigrants, ambitious northerners, funded by sinister multinationals.
One of them agreed to help me.
SYNC: Hes going to come and find us tomorrow morning to take us to meet Charles Ble Goude, hopefully.
SYNC: Hes here
Ble Goude is emerging as a key figure in the governments campaign to quash the rebellion.
WILL SYNC: Some people call you the general dont they?
CBG: Yeah they do.
He dismisses any notion the rebels are fighting for the rights of the mainly Muslim North. To him, they are a bunch of renegade soldiers backed by foreigners, whose sole aim is to grab power.
He was about to address an army recruitment rally. We went with him.
WILL SYNC: What are you planning to tell the youth today?
CBG SYNC: I am planning to tell them that when the country is in such a serious situation young people will have to play an important role, they will have to fight for their country
WILL SYNC: Are you not afraid that a lot of your countrymen are going to die?
They are dying already.
As we approached the rally we saw a breakaway crowd. Ble Goude asked the driver to stop. He wanted to find out what was going on.
They began to chant Ble Goudes name. To Abidjans disaffected pro-government youth, hes a hero.
It turned out the recruitment station had been overwhelmed. These young men had been turned away. Ble Goude reassured them their chance would come.
WILL: Are you confident theres time to train these boys properly before they get sent to combat?
CBG: Yes I am
For all Ble Goudes nonchalance it was clear we were heading into a volatile situation. We stopped outside the state television station and Ble Goude sent one of his men, Narcisse, to pick up an armed guard.
Ble Goude is not a member of the government. But he acts as if he is. The strength of his youth movement has given him a direct line to the president.
Tens of thousands of men had turned up to join the army.
Many were Ble Goudes followers. His critics see in them the makings of an ethnic militia.
The crowd was angry. Theyd seen Ble Goude on television calling for recruits.
But there were more than the army could cope with. Ble Goude got out to calm them. His gunman followed and suddenly we were left alone.
For many of these men joining the army was their first chance to earn a wage. Ivory Coast has followed most of the rules laid down in the west that are supposed to make economies grow. But these men remain poor and desperate. They feel the rules are stacked against them and their anger turned on us.
We had to get out of there.
We drove through the crowd, scattering them.
We made our escape the wrong way down a dual carriageway.
We needed to track down Ble Goude.
WILL: Our friend Narcisse is trying to get back in touch with him.
Here we go again
We picked up another gunman.
Ble Goude met us just outside the recruitment centre. We hid the camera and he got us inside.
We filmed from behind the car. Even in here, the army could barely control the situation.
If you take poverty and disaffection, weak political structures and then stir in ethnic and religious differences, this is the kind of explosive melee you get. Outside thousands still clamoured to get in. We were beginning to attract attention.
PTC:Itll be a relief when were able to get out of this
PTC: Were waiting for the crowd to clear before we can get out of here
Yet again we concealed the camera and with Ble Goudes help escaped.
WILL SYNC: What about the ethnic content to all this. Is there not a danger that recruiting a such a time when passions are so high you create an army from the south, that you are splitting the country further?
CBG: Since this crisis there is no problem in the army. There is no problem between soldiers coming from the north against those coming from the south .
WILL: But there werent many people from the north in that crowd
CBG: Yeah but they are not from our army
He insisted he wasnt exploiting the countrys divisions. It was the rebels who were doing that. But it would be a brave muslim who attended a Ble Goude rally.
PTC: Were setting off north today up towards rebel held territory hoping to be able to cross the front line into the town of Bouake which is rebel headquarters. Normally it should be a jourrney of about 4 hours, but people say that the road block on route a likely to delay us a bit.
There was barely a car on the road
PTC: This country has by far the best road network in the region and usually this would be the busiest trade route in West Africa.
DRIVING SHOT
VILLAGE
Economic crisis has created the conditions for civil war. Cocoa and Ivory Coasts dependence on it has played a role in that.
PTC: These are the cocoa pods that have just been harvested.
The government used to buy and sell the whole cocoa crop. Four years ago they stopped, under pressure from the World Bank, which argued that the state was taking too much of the profits.
Actuality PTC eating cocoa bean
The farmers were left at the mercy of international markets. The price of cocoa fell. Millions of people saw their incomes plummet.
Now these villagers fear war.
A few hours later we began to run into government checkpoints. We were closing on the front line.
PTC: So far on this journey weve sped through five or six road blocks. On each occasion weve left behind hundreds of Ivorians waiting to be frisked. ur luck held.
Near the city of Yamoussoukro we encountered a patrol of French peacekeepers heading for the front line. We tagged along.
At the governments request troops from the old colonial power are holding the two sides apart.
They stopped near Yamoussoukros cathedral. It was built by the government in the eighties - a reminder of Christian dominance.
Eventually we reached an area under French control.
PTC: It is too risky to go to Bouake so we are going to stay nearby in Yamoussoukro for the night.
In the morning we entered the no-mans land that separates the front lines.
PTC: The road is beginning to get a bit spooky now. The villages we have been passing are increasingly deserted and the only traffic we are seeg is military. We are actually coming up to an area where there was some very heavy fighting at the beginning of this crisis.
Nearly a million have been displaced and hundreds killed.
We turned a corner and saw the rebels.
While our papers were checked, I went over to talk to two rebel fighters. They said the government had made them foreigners in their own land.
Weve talked about it enough. There has been enough dialogue. It is with force now that we are going to resolve it.
They let us pass.
Down the road was Bouake, the countrys second city, mainly muslim. Weeks before it had been a battlefield. Many local Christians fled. We searched for Cherif Ousman, the rebel commander controlling the city.
He was once a sergeant in the Ivorian army.
Hes saying hes a soldier and today he is fighting for his identity.
Hes saying even if they have to fight against helicopters and tanks with stones and knives they will do so and win. Hes saying because they are fighting for their identity and to become Ivorian.
The fuels running out. The local economy has collapsed. But most people I spoke to identified with the rebel cause despite the hardship.
Will: The problem is that they cant get any money the banks are shut and the big traders have also shut their shops.
Curfew approached. People are trapped here. The rebels say they wont disarm until the government scraps identity laws that make it difficult for northerners to vote.
COMM: The next morning we prepared to start our days filming. Rebel gunmen told us to follow them. We sped through city in convoy.
PTC: Were just entering what appears to have formerly been a school which has been taken over by the rebels. In fact all the schools have been shut in Bouake since the rebellion started.
There was Tuo Fozie, the military commander of the rebels, a man who helped plot the revolt from exile in Burkina Faso. Wed asked to meet him. The rebels had obliged.
I asked him about the scenes wed witnessed in Abidjan.
TF SYNC: He does have a message for young recruits and says the sooner they hear it the better
He pointed out that when the government tried to retake Bouake they were repulsed with heavy losses.
TF: The solution remaining is not to send boys from the street. The solution is round the negotiating table.
TF: The solution is for there to be an Ivory Coast for everybody and for there to be real democracy and transparent elections.
Ivory Coast was one of Africas greatest hopes. A peace deal has now been struck but the difficult task rebuilding trust remains. For now Ivorians are doing what many others are doing across the globe: withdrawing into identities that seem to offer security in a hostile world - but end up fuelling wars.
DINGO SYNC: Hes saying he grew up with the little Frenchman, the Ghanaian, Guinean, the Burkinabe, in peace. They went to school together. Today they are looking at each other. They are no longer friends.
He feels ill at ease.
He says has no weapon, just his guitar and his voice to put across his message of brotherhood and friendship.
DINGO SINGS
Ends
CREDITS:
REPORTER: William Wallis
EDITOR: Danny Davis
MUSIC: Jason Osborn
PRODUCER: Eamonn Mathews
FILM DIRECTOR: Callum Macrae
Production company = MBC (Mentorn Barraclough Carrey)