UNOCI encourages the IEC to
sensitize

Nord Sud –
The spokesman for the United
Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), Hamadoun Touré, yesterday at the UN
institution's weekly press conference, encouraged the Independent Electoral
Commission (IEC) to conduct an awareness-raising and communication campaign on
the appeals process on the provisional electoral list, so that the population
take advantage of it."

Debates and special programmes
for presidential election: members of the commission entrusted with mission,
yesterday

Le Nouveau Réveil  –
The National Commission of debates and special programmes for presidential
election was officially launched yesterday. The ceremony, held at the conference
room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Plateau, was attended by accredited
diplomats in Côte d'Ivoire and several Ivorian personalities. Prime Minister
Guillaume Soro was represented by the Minister of Communications Ibrahim Sy
Savané. The National Council of Audiovisual Communication (CNCA), which
initiated the creation of the commission, wants to "ensure total transparency in
media coverage of the presidential election by associating all the parties
involved in or concerned by the elections," the chairman, Franck Anderson
Kouassi, said. He said that the ceremony held yesterday "is the achievement of
the execution of all the measures taken by both the CNCA and the IEC with a view
to implementing all the missions entrusted to the Commission during the
electoral period". According to Franck Anderson Kouassi, the National Commission
for Debates and Special Programmes will "draw up a modus operandi for the
holding of debates and special programmes; propose a theme for discussion;
Choose the moderators; propose the period for the holding of debates; Brief
participants and moderators". (...)

CNSI: Government gives 300
million

Nord Sud  –
300 million FCFA is the amount
that the government has just given to pay salary arrears related to the
identification operations. Next week, the CNSI's agents will be able to go to
the district treasury's payment centres to receive their money. This gesture
puts an end to months of strike action by agents to protest against non-payment
of allowances.

Tabou – presidential election
- Dr. Issa Malick (National Campaign Director for Gbagbo): "We want elections to
be held in October"

Soir Info  –
"We want the presidential
election be held in October. Almost all issues have been resolved, the manual
verification of the electoral list will start on 24 July", Dr. Issa Malick,
National Campaign Director for Gbagbo, said yesterday in Tabou. (...)

The new army: The city of Man
is waiting for its 1,200 volunteers

Nord-Sud
 - Since the cantonment of
volunteers for the new army (NVA) was officially launched in Korhogo on June 14,
the process has not effectively started in the city of the 18 Mountains.
According to Major Téa, chief commander of the Integrated Command Centre (ICC)
for the western region, the delay is mainly due to financial problems. "When the
means are available and the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Forces
Nouvelles will give us the programme and we will start the cantonment of the
volunteers who have been accepted" Major Téa said. (...)

The destabilization of West
Africa: Bédié mentioned in Sierra Leone's war.

Notre Voie
 -  According to French radio,
RFI, Issa Hassan Sesay, a former leader of the rebel army in Sierra Leone, the
RUF (Revolutionary United Front) has revealed on Monday that the former head of
the state of Côte d'Ivoire, Henri Konan Bédié was one of the supporters of his
movement. "Charles Taylor offered a residence to the RUF in Monrovia. Bédié too
did the same in Côte d'Ivoire for four years," he said before the International
Criminal Court for the Sierra Leone during the trial of former Liberian
President Charles Taylor. Mr. Taylor is accused of war crimes and crimes against
humanity in the conflict in Sierra Leone. He is suspected to have supported the
RUF rebels in Sierra Leone to seize the wealth of the country. In exchange for
diamonds, the accusations are that Taylor had provided the rebels with arms and
ammunition. The war in Sierra Leone lasted from 1991 to 2002. 200,000 people
died and thousands were disabled (...)

Murder of Mahe in Côte
d'Ivoire: Four (4) French soldiers returned to court

www.connectionivoirienne.net -
Four French soldiers, including a colonel, were transferred to the court of
assizes by a judge of the Military Court of Paris for the murder of Firmin Mahe,
a native of Cote d'Ivoire who suffocated to death in a French tank in 2005 in
Côte d'Ivoire, according to sources close to the case. General Henri Poncet, the
former commander of the Licorne force deployed in Cote d'Ivoire since 2002, who
had been indicted for complicity in murder, was acquitted, in accordance with a
request from the prosecution, the source said. Colonel Eric Burgaud and three
other soldiers, who were on board the light armored vehicle (LAV), were
transferred to the Court of Assizes, according to the sources. (...)