ANARQUISMO na Costa do Marfim

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ANARQUISMO na Costa do Marfim

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Ivorian tax-free rebel city flourishes

By John James
BBC News, Bouake

An itinerant salesman in a baseball cap wanders the streets of Ivory Coast's second city, Bouake, touting counterfeit perfumes.

"Here no-one can say to you: 'No, that's pirated' or 'You can't sell that here,'" he tells me when I ask if he ever has any trouble from the authorities.

"If we were in the south of the country, you could complain that no customs tax has been paid for example, but when you're in the New Forces-zone everything can come in and be sold," he says.

The north of Ivory Coast - an area covering 60% of the country and a zone bigger than England and Wales - remains under the authority of an ex-rebel group, the New Forces, who split the country in two after a rebellion in 2002.

[...]

"Things are a lot cheaper than in the south - we see that people from the south often come here to stock up, above all the military who come for all their electronics - mobile phones, DVDs, televisions, everything," he says.

Trading places

Members of the government's armed forces formerly aiming to recapture Bouake now profit from the duty-free shopping.

"Yes, they've become friends. It's their colleagues who are in charge of controlling the dividing line between the two zones so they can get through quite easily," Mr Doumbia says.

No-one in the rebellion envisaged this outcome when they staged their coup on 19 September 2002.
[...]

When civil servants fled south, volunteer teachers, like Ali Ouattara, stepped forward to try to keep things going.

"We didn't want the kids to become child soldiers, so we tried to give them something. This is how we became teachers," says Mr Ouattara, who lost his job at the university at the start of the crisis.

Most of the volunteer teachers had limited qualifications and no experience of teaching.

At first they had almost no resources as the schools had been ransacked and the lawlessness meant they were scared to discipline their pupils, who were sometimes armed.

Gradually with contributions from parents, the ad-hoc schools helped save a generation of children, and in some years the rebel zone got better results in national exams than the government zone.

Other volunteers helped cover for the absence of the state in other ways: setting up an ad-hoc postal service; their own television stations and some basic policing.

The New Forces do collect taxes in some areas - like from cocoa and cotton producers but most areas of business are unregulated in the city.

Banned boom

For example, Bouake now has a booming business in motorbike taxis - illegal under Ivorian law.
“ They took their motorbike to make a living and at least feed their family ”
Scooter owner Kone N'ze Siaka

But here it is a sector that has kept hundreds of young men off the streets.

The problem is they will not have a place in a reunified Ivory Coast, what with their untaxed scooters, unlicensed businesses and lack of driving licences.

"We created our union so that if the state comes back, we can continue," says Kone N'ze Siaka from the Union of Moto Taxi Drivers and owner of three scooters.

"There are some of us who used to be civil servants but who lost their jobs with the crisis," he says. "They took their motorbike to make a living and at least feed their family."

UN observation points along the former ceasefire line have already been dismantled but the most delicate part of reunification - handing over guns and control of taxes - still seems a long way off.

And, seven years without traffic lights, taxes or utility bills develops habits that are hard to budge.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8446994.stm
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