Open World Conference of Workers

In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights

Final Verdict of the Special Session Concerning the Tragic Developments in Cote D'Ivoire and West Africa 

JANUARY 26th, 2001


A special session of the International Tribunal to Judge those Responsible for the Deadly Evolution that Threatens the very Existence of Workers and Peoples of Africa was held in Paris (France) on January 26th, 2001, in order to judge those responsible for the tragic evolution of the situation in Cote d'Ivoire.

This special session was organised by the Permanent Committee of the Tribunal on Africa, set up in Los Angeles (United States) on February 6th, 2000, on the occasion of the first session of the Tribunal.

The Permanent committee was thus answering the appeal launched by trade union and political leaders of West Africa, who declared in their meeting of Bingerville (Cote d'Ivoire) last August 20th:

"Together, we decide to call upon the Permanent Committee of the International Tribunal to Judge those Responsible for the Deadly Evolution that Threatens the very Existence of Workers and Peoples of Africa. Called by the International Liaison Committee of Workers and peoples, which met in Los Angeles (United States) on February 5 and 6th, 2000, this tribunal established who was genuinely responsible for the violence threatening our sub-region.
"Together, we decide to use the verdict of the Tribunal on Africa as a basis for holding the conference of the peoples of the sub-region."

The jury members were:

François Grandazzi, trade unionist, member of the Permanent Committee (France)

Louisa Jan, trade unionist, France

Patrick Gustave, peasant trade-union, Guadeloupe,

Jean-Charles Marquiset, trade unionist, France,

Miguel Cristobal, International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples.

The jury took note of the fact that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the European Union and the French government sent no representatives, in spite of the convocation sent to them in due time, in conformity with the international principles concerning the rights of defendants;

After hearing the indictment act pronounced by Mr. Paul Nkunzimana, dean of the psychology institute of the Burundi university and president of the Burundi university workers trade union,

The jury sat to discuss and decide its verdict.


o It first established, on the basis of testimonies and documents, the real situation affecting Cote d'Ivoire and West Africa.

It concluded that the fears expressed by the indictment act concerning the threats upon the very existence of people in that region of the continent were legitimate.

Murderous conflicts in West Africa, from Senegal (Casamance) to Gambia, from Guinea Bissau to Guinea Conakry, from Sierra Leone to Liberia in the centre of this region, threats upon the unity of Nigeria and the destabilisation in Cote d'Ivoire, lead to fear a generalised explosion of violence, of which thousands of men, women and children are already the victims, dying from the direct consequences of this violence or from poverty, famine, and the illnesses it causes.

The jury considers it necessary to strongly underline the crime which represents the more and more massive use of child-soldiers forced to go to war in that region. Most of them are under the age of ten, and they are forced to become child-soldiers and live through the horrors of the conflicts agitating Africa. They have to live beside corpses and mutilated bodies - quite often those of members of their own family. This tragedy is to be added to generalised illiteracy, poverty and rampant illnesses.

The jury considers that the accusation concerning Cote d'Ivoire in particular is well founded. Ivory Coast had experienced before political stability and relative wealth, and is now undergoing convulsions, in a sub-region were threatening signs are accumulating, as a consequence of manipulations on an ethnic basis, of multiplied and open or nearly open calls for hatred and regional and/or religious division.

They jury concluded that the facts denounced in the indictment act were true: the IMF, the World Bank, the European union and the French government play a central role in the implementation of the policies which led Cote d'Ivoire to the present situation. Three examples show the evidence :

o First, the IMF and the World Bank dictated the liquidation of the Stabilisation Fund (CAISTAB), that is to say the destruction of the mechanisms and institutions regulating the production and sale of coffee and cocoa, which were the basis of Cote d'Ivoire's wealth, as it is the first cacao producer in the world.

The CAISTAB mission was first to organise national solidarity towards producers. The CAISTAB (the State) defined a single buying price "off field border" for producer peasants, whatever be the distance to trading centres. Thus a peasant in Man, 700 kilometres from Abidjan, was paid the same price as the peasant of Adzopé, 60 kilometres from Abdijan. Traders were selected after study of their proposals, and paid transportation expenses, which were then refunded by the CAISTAB.

This was a solidarity mechanism, which had also an invaluable political function: it established equality between all inhabitants of Cote d'Ivoire. This function was all the more important as the participation of the State in the selling of coffee and cocoa provided the administration with funds allowing it to set up of one of the best roadway networks in Africa. One should add that the CAISTAB provided peasants with the necessary credits for their work, which turned out profit once a year, and meant prior investments a peasant could hardly afford.

This institution was liquidated because of the IMF and World Bank's harassment measures (and that of the European union, whose loans were conditioned by the implementation of the World Bank and IMF conditionalities).

In October 1998, the mechanism of State control for buying prices for coffee was liquidated. Then it was the turn of cocoa prices on August 12th, 1999. Dramatic consequences were felt immediately.

First, without the stabilisation mechanism allowing to wait before selling, cacao production was on the world market only at the time of harvest, and congested the world market. This situation was used by big multinational to lower cacao prices. They fell from 1700 dollars a ton in 1998 to 1000 dollars in 1999.

The second result was that the producers found themselves isolated in front of powerful multinationals. The cacao price, which was about 500 CFA francs for a kilo (1 dollar) - "off field border", fell to 300 CFA francs (0,6 dollar) or even lower. This spelled ruin and poverty for peasants.

The third result was that without a common buying price throughout the country, producers in more far off regions had to pay the difference in terms of transport cost. Therefore producers suffered losses on the selling price, or stopped producing, or still tried to lower production costs by lowering quality. This production therefore lost on the market.

The fourth result was to bar peasants from access to credit (no banks make loans to peasants) and therefore created difficulties to begin the production process again.

This meant the ruin of peasants, and therefore of the State. One should know that another dictate of the IMF and World Bank was to lower the "single rate of export duties" (DUS). It fell from 200 CFA francs to 150 for one kilo, for the profit of multinationals. The last two years, the Cote d'Ivoire state has thus lost 435 billion CFA francs (2.6 billion dollars)

o Then there is the disaster provoked by the devaluation of the CFA franc :

The present situation in Ivory Coast and in all this region of Africa cannot be dissociated from the consequences of the IMF, World Bank and French government's decision to devaluate the CFA franc by 50% in the nigh of January 11th to 12th, 1994. The CFA franc is the common currency of fourteen African countries, linked to the French franc (and may be to euro tomorrow) by a fixed change rate.

The devaluation established the change at 50 CFA francs for one French Franc. For Cote d'Ivoire as for all other countries of the CFA franc zone, the result was disastrous : the foreign debt amount doubled. The debt of Cote d'Ivoire itself rose suddenly from 3998.8 billion CFA francs (239.9 billion dollars) to 7827.43 billions (469.9 billion dollars) in 1994.

This led to a disastrous situation for the Cote d'Ivoire State : in 1994, the debt service payment reached 77,3% of its expenses. In 2000, 36% of the total export receipts were used for paying the foreign debt.

This had dramatic social consequences. The price of many basic food items doubled. This was also the case for medicines, most of them being imported. Wages in the public and private sectors were frozen following the orders of the Bretton-Woods institutions, and a majority of families were ruined in the name of the debt payment.

Wage amount in the State budget fell from 72,3% to 48,3 % between 1993 and 1994, in spite of new debts contracted.

Since January 1994, Cote d'Ivoire is submitted to this "good governance" regime, meaning to budget cuts to pay first of all the foreign debt.

The State was ruined, national economy was ruined : if the 50% devaluation of the CFA franc led to double the amount of the foreign debt, it divided by half the real value of the State internal debt towards the firms whose bills were in CFA francs.

As a consequence, most of these firms had to pay their own debt to foreign lenders at a price double of the sum they received as payment from the State. By the way, many firms are now "in the red" for several years, or purely and simply bankrupt, or have even "disappeared".

The foreign debt payment's pressure was used by the Bretton-Woods institutions to implement an even more brutal structural adjustment plan. Basic food prices became uncontrolled, and most of all, there was a generalised privatisation of public firms.

The IMF organised the privatisation of 50 public firms sold at low prices. These State firms intervened in key economic sectors such as oil and energy, telecommunications, agriculture, tourism, air and boat companies, cotton production, transports. All these firms were sold for a song.

o Third point : destruction of the Labour code and the civil servants statute.

Labour code and civil servant statute had a central role in Cote d'Ivoire, not only concerning public services for all, but because they helped set up Cote d'Ivoire as an independent nation, for they gave common guarantees to all workers, whatever be their native region.

Under the permanent pressure of the IMF and World Bank and Co., this protection has been jeopardised. It is in fact the international experts of the IMF and World Bank who wrote the new labour code and the new statute of public servants.

Since that time, a series of repressive laws fell upon the Cote d'Ivoire workers. On September 11th, 1992, a law was passed to do away with the monopoly of the Labour Office on hiring (which insured that the State controlled that hiring was in accordance with the law and collective bargaining conventions). It was handed out to private offices, or even directly to employers, on the basis of their own criteria.

In 1991, teachers were hired on the basis of this new statute of Public servants. Since 1992 therefore, a new kind of teacher is born, who are paid half the salary of their elder colleagues. This new statute says when a person recruited with a first diploma acquires a second diploma, this person is not upgraded. The right to strike is limited, especially through a six days delay obligation.

As for professional mobility, one can do any job. A teacher can get the job of a nurse. A teacher trade union leader can therefore be in charge of another sector than education. There is no longer specific links between job and profession. For instance in secondary schools, there was a gradation of disciplinary measures and several possibilities to make appeal in the former statute, as one was always regarded as innocent if not proved guilty. In the new statute, the suspicion of a fault leads to an immediate suppression of your salary. A simple appreciation that "your service is not good" is enough for getting no longer your salary. This has opened the way for arbitrary, promotions or on the contrary degradation of "individual" statute and the introduction of regional clientele criteria. Thus the basis of national unity was deliberately destroyed, and opened the way for the conflicts which are undermining today Cote d'Ivoire.

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o The jury established that there was a tight link between the developments threatening Cote d'Ivoire and the situations of violence and conflict affecting the right to live in peace of all peoples in that region. According to the UN High Commissariat for Refugees, there are 200,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia, countries destroyed by war, in Cote d'Ivoire alone. There are 500,000 refugees from Sierra Leone packed in camps in Guinea, Liberia and Gambia. And millions of people have been delocalised inside their own country, after they have left everything behind to fly from death, famine, illness and poverty.

o Whereas the World Bank documents show that, far from the official pictures of the wars and conflicts developing in Africa, these ethnic and religious conflicts are indeed promoted by people linked to international markets and financial systems, as well as to big multinationals, for instance the World Bank document titled "The political economy of modern war" where one can read:

"One can consider superficially the conflicts which have been affecting several African countries these past years as the action of armed gangs killing unarmed civilians to take over food and tradable goods, or simply survive or get personal profit, and sometimes have large scale confrontations between factions of with units of the regular army. Still under the surface of apparent chaos and haphazard, powerful economic forces are sponsoring theses struggles. One of the key forces concerns basic economy, essentially raw material export incomes, which are feeding the organisation of the warring factions. The major part of these incomes are tightly controlled by the leaders of these factions, and transferred to foreign countries, either through arm payments, or on private accounts."

o Whereas a document of the World Bank called "Economic Reconstruction Strategies" acknowledges itself the role of structural adjustment plans in the birth of these conflicts and wars :

"The implementation of these structural adjustment policies in countries where conflicts ceased was often criticised because it undermined State institutions and weakened their ability to solve these conflicts, maintain law and order, and build anew the essential infrastructures and services. Structural adjustment increased inequalities, and in consequence aggravated political tensions."

u Whereas the situations of wars and violence are now considered by international financial institutions as a normal mean of management, as shown by the book given by the World Bank to its employees, where one can read concerning countries affected by war and violence :

"When there is an active portfolio, the Bank information basis develop through regular operations. Analysis of the factors affecting this development is decided, and a budget defined to that end by means of aid strategies and sector-based and economic work, through day to day operations. Setting up a special survey is not necessary in such countries. This special control is only necessary in places where normal relations with the Bank has been stopped and where supplementary budget resources and people are necessary." (Post conflict reconstruction : the role of the World bank)

o Given the role of great powers which participate in fomenting and arming warring factions against people wishing for peace, through the use of military councillors (United States) or the sending of armed soldiers in Sierra Leone (Great Britain), Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire,

The tribunal session held in France has listen to testimonies showing the continuity of France's African policies throughout the changes undergone in this country the last twenty years. The jury considers that the French State has a major responsibility in the conflicts developing in Africa, either through selling arms to those at war, or by sending military forces in these countries.

o Given the role of these same great powers, as that of the international financial institutions in the deployment and financing of the so-called "non-governmental organisations" (NGOs), of so-called humanitarian aid with no other aim - according to a UN report - than feed and perpetuate situations of conflict.

This UN report acknowledges indeed that :"Both the government and those who fight against it try to turn humanitarian aid into a tool serving their own political ends, allowing them to get economic advantages or retain the means to go on fighting. One of the greatest problem is to avoid aid being in the end abusively exploited to perpetuate the conflict." (The causes of conflicts and promoting long term peace and development in Africa, report of the UN General secretary).

o Given the biased and very often false picture media usually give of events in that region of Africa, aiming most often at overshadowing the will of the peoples in that region to live in peace and make believe that violence there results from "historical traditions" of African people,

The tribunal considers that there is the reality lived by a continent torn apart and about to collapse, and the "official picture" some show. In other words f this continent is in this situation, it would be because the majority of people there are Blacks. As if being Black condemned you to poverty, illness, wars. As if Black people were not able to govern themselves and would therefore be necessarily condemned to the worst. Thus the whole situation in Africa and the deliberately falsified picture given today to "justify" domination and oppression of the Black peoples, as in the past they were used to justify slavery, not only in Africa, but also in the Americas and Caribbean islands.

This picture even denies sometimes that there is a murderous evolution in Africa. For instance, a special issue of the French newspaper Le Monde diplomatique published in June 2000 an article "Africa reborn", which explained:

"In spite of the hellish image of wars and calamities in the medias, disasters and violence's, Black Africa remains a continent with extraordinary assets, and which looks confidently towards its future... Many sectors - transports, energy, mines, distribution, communications, tourism, etc. - are blossoming ... Foreign investors are darn to Africa, not only because of its natural wealth, but also in the service sector. An important re-conversion is going on, with extended mutations, a palpable amelioration of the political climate of some countries, the quality of local diplomas, the modification of the macro-economic foundations, the relative prosperity of some regions, and the more active participation of the private sector, draw a sociological and economic framework which is not known enough and provide hope for a genuine rebirth of Africa."

u Whereas this editorial as many others not only denies the evident reality and deliberately minimises the consequences of violence, but has more over the clear aim to overshadow the disastrous consequences of what it calls modestly "the modification of the macro-economic foundations", in fact the structural adjustment plans imposed by the IMF, the Worded bank, the European Union and great powers.

On this basis, the jury adopted the following verdict:

The IMF, the World Bank, the European Union, the great powers and France especially, as well as the multinationals operating on this continent and the governments submitted to these institutions are guilty.

o Guilty of deliberately leading Cote d'Ivoire and West Africa countries towards wars and dismemberment ;

o Guilty of implementing a strategy deliberately aiming at jeopardising the life of population for the benefit of multinationals operating in particular in the diamond and oil production sectors.

o Guilty of the systematic organisation of the dismantling of West Africa States by means of war, in order to allow multinationals to operate on the continent with no regard for national sovereignty, especially for national labour laws as well as international norms as defined by the ILO conventions.

o Guilty of organising war against the peace, a peace which peoples in Africa long for, as shown by the common declaration of water and electricity trade unions of eight West African countries in October 2000, saying :

"We, workers and peoples of the sub-region, we refuse to see our countries divided by the manoeuvres of international institutions and great powers, whose only aim is to sow confusion in order to go on plundering resources which are essential for developing our nations.

"This plunder is accomplished essentially through the payment of the foreign debt, which has been already refunded thrice by means of the payment of the debt service.

"We, workers and peoples, want peace, unity and democracy.

"We declare together :
… - Let us support the unity of the peoples of the sub-region in opposition to division
… - Let us support the fight for peace and brotherhood tin opposition to violence
… - Let us support democracy, sovereignty, the right of workers to set up and maintain their own organisations which are the only mean to defend their dignity, to control and manoeuvres.

"We decide together to fight for unity and peace in the sub-region."

The jury adopt this appeal as its own.

What is at stake is peace, the right to live for African peoples threatened by massacres, poverty and famine.

We are all concerned by this situation, because the murderous developments inflicted on African peoples cannot be separated from the general offensive against peoples and workers the world over.

If that offensive is going further and faster on the African continent because it is because from the beginning, this continent was the victim of slavery and colonialism, which have weakened it.





ANNEX TO THE VERDICT


The jury of the special session of the International Tribunal concerning the dramatic evolution in Cote d'Ivoire and the West African sub-region,

After having heard the testimony of Lybon Mabasa concerning the role of the UN in the conflicts tearing Africa apart (see enclosed)

Having been informed of the initiative of the UN and its general secretary to convene a world summit against racism and xenophobia in Johannesburg (September 2001);

Considering that there can be no struggle against racism outside a fight for peace and peoples' sovereignty,

Whereas the balance sheet of UN interventions in Africa is more and more questioned as to the real aim of these interventions,

Decides :

* To commission an additional inquiry concerning the role of the UN in Africa

* To send to M. Kofi Annan the verdict of this special session and the intervention of M. Lybon Mabasa

* To ask M. Kofi Annan to receive a delegation of the Permanent Committee of the Tribunal on Africa

* To report on the results of this additional inquiry on August 2001 in a public meeting to be held in Johannesburg.

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