Côte d’Ivoire’s ambassador in Paris, Ally Coulibaly, has promised the family of vanished French-Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer that “the whole truth” will be told about his disappearance in Abidjan seven years ago.
The diplomat received Kieffer’s wife Osange Silou-Kieffer and daughter Canelle, in Paris Wednesday — along with Aline Richard, president of the Association Vérité pour Guy-André Kieffer, and two representatives of Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) – who wanted to know what chance there was of further investigation of the case with the departure of President Laurent Gbagbo.
"I can only give you assurances,” Coulibaly replied. “Everything will be done to support your position. The truth has been obscured for a long time and those who kidnapped him were protected by the government. This situation has now ended and justice will be done,” he said. "I will speak to the minister of justice tonight about the matter. President Ouattara wants to put an end to impunity and establish the rule of law in Côte d’Ivoire.”
Mrs Kieffer told the ambassador she hoped all those mentioned in the case-file – Kadet Bertin, Patrice Baï, Michel Legré and many others – would be questioned “very soon,” noting that new President Alassane Ouattara had backed the family from the time the journalist vanished.
Kieffer was abducted on April 16, 2004 by a group of men in a supermarket car-park in Abidjan after being lured there by Michel Legré, the brother-in-law of the then-president’s wife, Simone Gbagbo. The case has long suffered from the difficult relations between France and Côte d’Ivoire, problems of investigating on the spot and the secrecy surrounding the main figures in the case, who were all associates of the Gbagbos.
A silent march to remember Kieffer will be held in Paris on April 16 (Place de la Bourse at 14:30), the seventh anniversary of his disappearance.
