IVORY COAST: BODY OF FRENCH JOURNALIST JEAN HELENE , KILLED IN ABIDJAN IS REPATRIATED HOME

Record ID: 183512

  • Title: IVORY COAST: BODY OF FRENCH JOURNALIST JEAN HELENE , KILLED IN ABIDJAN IS REPATRIATED HOME
  • Date: 23rd October 2003
  • Summary: (U4) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (OCTOBER 23, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF BUILDING 0.03 2. SLV PEOPLE GATHERING OUTSIDE BUILDING (2 SHOTS ) 0.11 3. WIDE OF PEOPLE SEATED IN PEWS WITH COFFIN CONTAINING BODY OF FRENCH RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE JOURNALIST JEAN HELENE IN FOREGROUND 0.15 4. SMV CHIEF OF THE FRENCH MILITARY IN THE IVORY COAST GENERAL JEAN PIERRE JOANA STANDING 0.18 5. CLOSE OF COFFIN 0.21 6. VARIOUS , FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO IVORY COAST GILDAS LELIDEC (ON THE LEFT) AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF RFI JEAN PAUL CLUZEL PAYING THEIR RESPECTS (3 SHOTS) 0.41 7. SMV , OFFICIALS BOWING IN FRONT OF COFFIN 0.48 8. SLV COFFIN IS CARRIED OUT OF BUILDING AND PLACED IN VAN, PEOPLE APPLAUDING (2 SHOTS) 1.06 9. SMV WEEPING MAN BEING COMFORTED 1.09 10. SLV VAN LEAVING/ PAN TO CROWD 1.16 11. VARIOUS , COFFIN BEING PLACED INTO FRENCH MILITARY PLANE (3 SHOTS) 1.30 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ivory Coast
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Reuters ID: LVA12HQXYUQT0TXKEAFAMVYRZOSL
  • Story Text: The body of a French journalist gunned down by a
    policeman in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan is being
    repatriated home.



    Mourners including friends, colleagues and public
    officials on Thursday (October 23) paid their last respects
    to Jean Helene, a correspondent for Paris-based Radio
    France Internationale (RFI), who was shot dead outside a
    police station by a policeman on Tuesday (October 21)
    night.

    General Jean Pierre Joana, who leads the French
    military forces in Ivory Coast, the French ambassador to
    Ivory Coast, Gildas Lelidec and the chief executive of RFI,
    Jean Paul Cluzel were among those who stood before the
    coffin containing Helene's body in a hall in Abidjan.

    Later the body was lifted on to a French military plane
    which later took off, bound for France.

    Helene had been waiting to cover the release of
    opposition party activists when he was gunned down on
    Tuesday.

    Ange Kessi, state prosecutor at Ivory Coast's military
    tribunal, rejected the policeman's version that his gun had
    gone off accidentally, saying Jean Helene had been
    deliberately murdered by a gunshot to the head.

    Kessi said the investigation would be completed in two
    weeks and that Sergeant Theodore Sery, who was held
    immediately after the shooting, risked 20 years in prison.

    The killing highlighted anti-French sentiment inflamed
    since a rebellion last year triggered civil war in the
    former French colony. The war was officially declared over
    in July but rebels still hold the northern half of the
    country.

    Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo's office on
    Wednesday strongly condemned the killing and said
    everything would be done to unveil the exact reason for
    murder.

    Gbagbo supporters and pro-government press have accused
    foreign, especially French, media of supporting the rebels.

    Media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters
    Without Borders, RSF) urged Gbagbo to shed light on
    Helene's death while rebel leader Guillaume Soro, blamed
    some politicians and local media for creating a culture of
    hatred.

    Gbagbo's supporters blame France, which has 4,000
    troops in the West African country, for not doing enough to
    beat back the rebels, while the rebels accuse France of
    propping up Gbagbo.

    Helene, who used a nom de plume and whose real name was
    Christian Baldensberger, was admired by colleagues as a
    quietly courageous reporter who covered African conflicts
    for more than a decade, including Rwanda's genocide and
    Somalia's anarchy.

    "France, demands that justice be exemplary," French
    President Jacques Chirac said after arriving in the West
    African country of Niger for a two-day visit.


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