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Conclusion

The FESCI problem can’t be attributed to the FPI alone. The PDCI also contributed to what they have become today. So it’s become a national problem that goes beyond a single party or a single government ministry. People need to recognize the problem that FESCI has become and that it is the fault of all the parties who both used and persecuted them. The war with the rebels was an open crisis, but FESCI is a slow burning underground and internal war. Some people don’t see the slippery slope we are on due to the war and upcoming elections, but it’s a problem we will have to face in the future.²⁶⁴

No Ivorian government in the last twenty years has managed to find a way to deal responsibly with both legitimate student activism and inappropriate politically and criminally motivated student violence. Labeled as “terrorists” and “wolves” in the 1990s by the ruling PDCI party, FESCI was banned from existence, its leaders were jailed, and police were sent in to raid campus dormitories. When the FPI party took power in 2000, the government went to the opposite extreme, turning a blind eye to, and at times even being complicit in FESCI’s more nefarious activities. As Côte d’Ivoire moves closer to peace, relative normalcy, and presidential elections, it is critical that FESCI be held accountable under the law – and treated according to law.

To begin to create “the best school” for democracy and a culture of respect for human rights, the Ivorian government, civil society, and student groups need to work together to find a way to allow student groups, pro-government or otherwise, the space to enjoy rights to freedom of expression and association, while at the same time appropriately sanctioning any violence and criminality in which their members are implicated.

To be sure, the impunity that FESCI has exemplified since the 2002 crisis erupted mirrors a much larger national problem. Nevertheless, measures to combat impunity within the relatively restricted domain of the state-run university system might prove instructive in helping to find solutions on a broader national level. Putting an end to this impunity will be key to increasing freedom of expression, tolerance of dissent, and acceptance of competing groups and interests on campus, which are important not only to the future of Ivorian universities, but to the long-term health of Ivorian democracy as well.

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