IVORY COAST: Funeral for former military ruler Robert Guei, nearly four years after he was shot dead during the coup of 2001

Record ID: 181950

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Funeral for former military ruler Robert Guei, nearly four years after he was shot dead during the coup of 2001
  • Date: 19th August 2006
  • Summary: (BN15) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (AUGUST 18, 2006) (REUTERS) IVORY COAST SOLDIERS WALKING HOLDING THE PICTURE OF GENERAL ROBERT GUEI; THE PICTURE OF GENERAL GUEI HELD BY TWO HIGH RANKING OFFICERS GUEI'S COFFIN LAID ON A TABLE ON ROLLERS PULLED BY FIVE OFFICERS GUEI'S COFFIN WITH THE IVORY COAST FLAG ON TOP RESTING IN AN ENCLOSURE PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO WATCHING THE COFFIN AS IT ARRIVES COFFIN WITH SOLDIERS PARADING IN THE BACKGROUND MILITARY PARADE GUEI'S FAMILY WATCHING THE SOLDIERS TAKING THE COFFIN 9 SOLDIERS LIFTING THE COFFIN MILITARY PUTTING THE COFFIN IN THE HEARSE HEARSE LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 3rd September 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: People
  • Reuters ID: LVA4UA45Y1KXERC5ITRNHM3HKRFW
  • Story Text: Ivory Coast held a funeral for its former military ruler Robert Guei on Friday (August 18, 2006), nearly four years after his body was displayed on national television lying in a ditch, shot dead, at the outset of the country's civil war.
    General Robert Guei, who ruled the West African state for nearly a year after a 1999 coup, was honoured with a military parade attended by the country's leaders and his relatives.
    Guei, his wife Rose and several other family members were shot dead hours after a failed coup against President Laurent Gbagbo which sparked the civil war on Sept. 19, 2002, which Gbagbo's government initially accused him of masterminding.
    A religious ceremony at St. Paul's cathedral followed, just a few hundred yards from Guei's Abidjan home, where he was due to be buried later in the day.
    Ivory Coast has been divided in two since rebels seized the north of the country in the brief war. A U.N.-backed peace process has made slow progress as all sides bicker over details.
    Guei's body lay in an Abidjan morgue for nearly four years. His native village -- where Ivorians tend to be buried -- lies in rebel territory, a factor believed to have contributed to the delay organising his burial.
    His family have also demanded the mysterious circumstances of his death be clarified. Family members rejected the initial government account that Guei had died fighting, saying he had been executed.
    Guei's body, shown on state television lying in undergrowth, is widely rumoured on the streets of Abidjan to be missing the tongue and genitals.
    The UDPCI political party, founded to support Guei in the 2000 presidential election which he tried unsuccessfully to steal from Gbagbo mid-way through vote counting, has campaigned for Guei to be buried in his native Kabacouma village, bringing it into conflict with Guei's son Franck. A small number of party militants began a hunger strike outside the cathedral on Thursday in protest against plans to bury Guei in the grounds of his Abidjan home.
    Guei is said to have fled to the same cathedral for sanctuary, fearing for his life when the civil war began, but he was subsequently caught and killed in circumstances that remain unclear.
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