Despite mass arrests of dissidents, open condemnation of the Government s corruption and ineptitude is on the increase. By reducing the price paid to farmers of cocoa and coffee by almost a half, the President has alienated farmers. Between them, cocoa and coffee account for over 80 per cent of Ivory Coast s foreign-exchange earnings. In the city of Yamoussoukro stands a 300-bed luxury hotel, a championship golf course and an international airport which deals with one local flight a day. Looming above the city is the dome of the newly-built Our Lady of Peace, the largest basilica outside St. Peter s in Rome.
Ivory Coast is one of the world s most heavily indebted countries.
It has just made a new rescheduling agreement with the Paris Club. Social and economic conditions are worsening. The President has the prop of a detachment of French troops whose duty is to protect the status quo in line with the Franco-Ivorian military pact. Although the President has been playing this down, he is apparently deeply worried about ethnic divisions and so will not relent in his call for national union in the name of a one-party state. The health of people in poor countries is more likely to be improved by combatting poverty, poor sanitation and the most basic diseases than by sophisticated drug cocktails.