6/20/08

Ivory Coast arrest several cocoa officials in corruption crackdown


ABIDJAN (AFP) — Police in Ivory Coast on Thursday arrested a top official involved in the country's cocoa industry, as part of a large corruption probe ordered by President Laurent Gbagbo.

Among those arrested was Lucien Tape Do, the long time director Ivorian Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) and a close Gbagbo ally, said a source at the Abidjan prosecutor's office said.

Ivory Coast is the biggest producer of cocoa in the world.

Tape Do was the third person connected with the industry to be picked up over the past two days.

Henri Kassi Amouzou and Theophile Kouassi two high-ranking officials of the FDPCC development fund for cocoa and coffee farmers, were picked up on Wednesday.

All three men figure on a list of 23 people charged by Ivory Coast prosecutors with "financial fraud and embezzlement". Prosecutor opened their investigation into fraud at the country's cocoa institutions on May 30.

When the list was made public last Friday the Abidjan prosecutor Raymond Tchimou told AFP that it was not exhaustive.

One of the people on the list is Angeline Kili of the cocoa and coffee marketing cooperative FRC, which has been accused of fraud following a transaction to buy a chocolate factory in Fulton in the United States.

Gbagbo ordered the probe into corruption at the cocoa institutions in October 2007 after allegations surfaced that the FRC had embezzled more than 100 billion CFA francs (152 million euros, 235 million dollars) earmarked for the purchase of the Fulton factory.

Ivorian prosecutors subsequently ordered an audit of the numerous cocoa institutions that were set up after the cocoa sector was privatized in 1999-2000.

The arrests and indictments follow recent comments by Gbagbo who likened corruption in the country to gangrene.

The probe seemed to have been put on the back burner as Ivory Coast struggled to recover from the crisis that followed the 2002 coup bid, which effectively cut the country in half.

Now however, is now back in full swing less than six months before long awaited presidential elections.

Several opposition newspapers denounced the probe as a move by Gbagbo to boost his popularity ahead of the November 30 elections.

Although the president has not officially announced that he is a candidate for another term, his party is already campaigning for him.

British NGO Global Witness, which investigates the use of natural resources to fund conflicts and corruption, welcomed the charges against the top industry officials.

But the group nevertheless accused the prosecution of letting key players "off the hook." It pointed out that no one from the state-owned Regulation Authority for Cocoa and Coffee ARCC had been indicted.

The London-based watchdog says the cocoa industry played a big role in fueling the low-level civil conflict that following the failed 2002 coup. Government officials had siphoned off funds from the national cocoa institutions to buy weapons, it alleged.

Ivory Coast, which holds some 40 percent of the world market in cocoa, provides a livelihood for some 6 million people in Ivory Coast.

Cocoa and coffee make up 40 percent of Ivory Coast's export income and 20 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP).






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