COTE D'IVOIRE: Former Prime Minister returns home

ABIDJAN, 4 January 2000 (IRIN) - Former Ivoirian Prime Minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara was welcomed by chanting supporters at the Felix Houphouet Boigny International Airport when he returned from France on Wednesday. Ouattara, who heads the Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR), had remained in France for about three months, during which top members of his party had been imprisoned and a warrant issued for his arrest. All political prisoners have been freed and the warrant annulled by a court following the overthrow of the government of President Henri Konan Bedie in what Ouattara said, was “not a coup d’etat”. “This is a revolution supported by all the Ivorian people,” the BBC quoted him as saying. “The previous regime was a dictatorship, so the changes that have taken place have helped to liberate the country and given the prospect to build a democracy.”