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Cote d�Ivoire accuses Mills of shielding pro-Gbagbo coup plotters The New Statesman can report that powerful elements in la Cote d�Ivoire are accusing President JEA Mills of Ghana of shielding pro-Gbagbo dissidents and alleged war criminals still bent on overthrowing the new Ouattara government. According to the 14 May edition of the pro-Ouattara newspaper Patriote, the pro-Gbagbo henchmen who have now found a safe haven in Accra have a �crazy dream� to return to power. The report, written by the paper�s editor and a confidante of the Ivorian President, Charles Sanga, accuses President Mills of being �guilty� in what appears to be a coup conspiracy against Ghana�s neighbour. The report questions, what it calls, �the silence of Ghana�s head of state, John Atta Mills, because Ghana seems to be complicit in what has every appearance of a coup in preparation.� It continues, �For a country as democratic as Ghana, to serve as a base to destabilize a democratically elected president of another country is really incomprehensible,� Charles Sanga�s reports. Another report on the website of the New Forces, (www.fninfo.ci), Prime Minister Guillaume Soro�s rebel group, carries a similar story against Ghana, with the headline, �Le silence coupable d�un pays fr�re�, or �The guilty silence of a brother country.� That report, which would be publish in full tomorrow, begins, �Since the capture of the former Ivorian head of state, most of the chiefs of the former regime who were able to escape the mesh of Republican Forces of C�te d'Ivoire (FRCI)took refuge in Ghana, a brother border to the east of C�te d'Ivoire.� It continues, �There are persistent reports and increasing rumours that these refugees, whose hands are soaked in Ivorian blood are being allowed to prepare an uprising against Cote d�Ivoire from Ghana.� The report further accuses Ghana of allowing these alleged subversionists to be using Ghana to launch calls for hatred and popular uprising against the Ouattara government, without the high authorities of Ghana stopping this mess.� Again, the other report in the Patriote newspaper at the weekend reads further, �Despite the fall of their mentor Laurent Gbagbo, who is currently under house arrest in Korhogo in the north, some of his relatives and close associates still harbour the secret hope of returning to power.� The newspaper report said the men vanished �into thin air in Cote d�Ivoire only to reappear in Ghana, mainly in Accra.� The paper names former Defence Minister and military advisor to Gbagbo, Kadet Bertin, as the brain behind these alleged subversion plots in Ghana. According to the paper�s source, Bertin Kadet, who was earlier hospitalised at the PISAM (Polyclinic Anne Marie) of Cocody in the wake of an afternoon traffic accident on Friday, March 25, took refuge on the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo in a clinic called Marcory. From there, �he escaped to Ghana, where he conducts subversive operations under the nose and beard of the Ghanaian authorities,� the paper alleges. What is also worrying is that the premises the paper claims the pro-Gbagbo coup plotters have chosen to their meetings is the Embassy of C�te d'Ivoire in Accra. The objective, the paper says, is �to destabilize the regime of President Alassane Ouattara.� Ghana, in the five months of Gbagbo�s intransigence by refusing to hand over power to the legitimately elected Ouattara, President Mills allowed Gbagbo�s ambassador to operate freely in Ghana and the embassy is suspected to be still under the control of pro-Gbagbo people. Independent checks made by the New Statesman suggest that associates of former President Gbagbo may be laundering millions of dollars through Ghana. Some live at the most expensive address in Ghana, Trassacco Valley, a situation which has seen the security of the gated community enhanced. Now, taxis are not even allowed in for fear of assassination attempts against the pro-Gbagbo residents. The Ivorian paper, Patriote, reports that Bertin Kadet had even confided in relatives that he and his comrades are still in control of aspects of the Ivorian political system. They further claim to �have enough money to create a rebellion against the current authorities of the country.� The paper refers to corroborating sources saying, the pockets of �resistance from pro-Gbagbo militias and mercenaries on the payrole of Laurent Gbagbo in Yopougon, were orchestrated from Accra by Bertin Kadet, and with the help of some elements of ex-SDS (Defence Forces and Security).� The paper identifies the hideouts of these �dogs of war� in deep Ivorian country, after their recent defeat in Yopougon, as Dabou Grand Lahou, Fresco, Soubr�, and San Pedro, among others. The hideouts, the paper alleges, were secured by the man in Accra, Bertin Kadet. Describing him virtually as an alleged war criminal, Le Patriote says of Kadet, �The man is the instigator of the killings perpetrated by the militias and Liberian mercenaries in this part of the country. No fewer than 120 people have already died.� In the paper�s view, the goal is obviously to create havoc, terrorize the population, and thwart the country�s return to normality. The New Statesman could not get any reaction from any source from Ghana�s Foreign Affairs office.