Paris demo for reporter ‘missing’ in I Coast

PARIS, April 15 (AFP) – Members of Reporters without Borders (RSF) on Friday threw buckets of liquid chocolate at the gates of the Ivorian embassy in Paris, demanding information about a journalist who vanished in Abidjan a year ago.  

“We’re throwing chocolate because it’s the government’s ‘slush fund’ and everyone knows that (Ivorian) President Laurent Gbagbo is responsible for the disappearance of Guy-Andre,” RSF secretary general Robert Menard told AFP.  

Guy-Andre Kieffer, a Franco-Canadian independent journalist, disappeared from a crowded shopping mall in Ivory Coast’s commercial hub Abidjan in April last year.   

The members of the international, Paris-based media watchdog group, wearing white jumpsuits, threw about 10 buckets of liquid chocolate at the embassy’s gates and then stuck fake dollar bills into the sticky mess.  

“Truth for Guy-Andre!” they shouted.  

“He was kidnapped and killed very quickly, it seems obvious to me. But that has to be said, it’s vital in order for the mourning process to begin,” said Sabine Mellet, a friend of Kieffer.  

The missing journalist’s wife Osange, present at the demonstration, said the lack of information about his disappearance could only mean the worst.  

“If the truth is being hidden from me, that’s because we know what happened. I think Gbagbo, who promised to tell me the truth, knows what happened, and is protecting people in his inner circle,” she told AFP.  

She also accused the French government of knowing what happened to her husband, but said she remained hopeful that he might someday come home.   

Michel Legre, the brother-in-law of Ivorian first lady Simone Gbagbo, was the last person to have plans to see Kieffer before he disappeared.  

Kieffer’s briefcase and portable computer were allegedly discovered at Legre’s home.  

Legre faces charges of complicity, kidnapping and assassination for his alleged role in the abduction of Kieffer, a long-time Abidjan resident.  

In one statement to a French judge, Legre implicated senior members of Gbagbo’s entourage including his spiritual adviser Pastor Moise Kore and Victor Nembelissini, head of the National Bank of Investment.

© AFP

Subject: French News