the cocoa and coffee plantations, the collapse of agricultural commodity prices and subsidies to cocoa farmers resulted in increasing friction between the immigrant plantation workers and the Ivorian villagers who had sold or rented them land. In the midst of the economic crisis and facing diminished popular support in the lead-up to the 1990 elections, particularly from his traditional constituency in the agricultural sector, Houphouët-Boigny’s government introduced residence cards for non-nationals in 1990 in a bid to gain more state revenue and increase PDCI votes. While the measure did shore up PDCI support in the short-term, assisting Houphouët-Boigny to win the election, the perception that immigrants had been granted illegitimate status through fraud was to contribute to considerable future problems. Many northern Ivorians and Burkinabé immigrants dated the start of institutionalized harassment and extortion by state security forces to the issuance of these residence cards in 1990.5 For many northern Ivorians the card checks were particularly galling because the southerner-dominated state security forces did not distinguish between northern Ivorians and immigrant residents. In addition, many members of the security forces used the opportunity of card checks to regularly extort money from both groups.6 Ivoirité: ethnic discrimination for political gain Ethnically, Côte d’Ivoire can be described as a crossroads, with most of the major ethnic groups migrating from neighboring countries over the centuries.7 While there has been substantial mixing of these populations geographically, particularly in Abidjan, Daloa and other urban centers, the country remains roughly divided into regional blocs. The center and east are mainly occupied by the Baoulé and Agni, both part of the Akan migration from Ghana. The north is largely home to two main ethnic groups: the Malinké and Dioula (part of the northern Mande group) who migrated from Guinea and Mali, and the Senaphou and Lobi people (part of the Gur group) who migrated from Burkina Faso and Mali. The west is populated by the southern Mande group—largely the Dan or Yacouba and Gouro ethnic groups, who migrated from southern Guinea and Sierra Leone. Finally, the southwest is home to the Krou peoples, including the Bété and Wê (a sub-group of whom are known as the Gueré) who are believed to be among the earliest migrants from the southwestern coast. The death of Houphouët-Boigny in 1993 marked the onset of overt political tension in Côte d’Ivoire and the end of the fragile ethnic balance he had maintained.8 Candidates representing the key major ethnic groups, including Houphouët-Boigny’s Baoulé successor, Henri Konan Bédié of the PDCI, Laurent Gbagbo the Bété leader of the Popular Ivorian Front (Front Populaire Ivoirien, FPI), and Alassane Dramane Ouattara of the Rally of Republicans (Rassemblement des Républicains, RDR) began vying for the presidency in the run-up to the 1995 elections. Bédié’s 1995 campaign was based on an ethnic platform aimed at undermining support for Bédié’s main rival: Ouattara, a former prime minister under Houphouët-Boigny and the candidate of the largest opposition party, the heavily northern-supported RDR. The RDR boycotted the election after Ouattara’s candidacy was barred on the grounds that he held Burkinabé nationality and was not a native Ivorian, and Bédié won the election.9 Following Bédié’s accession to the presidency, the relationship between the immigrant—mainly Burkinabé— community and the Ivorian government changed for two main reasons. First, it rapidly became clear that the new 5 Numerous individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch noted this as the beginning of years of harassment and extortion by state security forces demanding bribes and sometimes destroying or confiscating their identity documents. 6 Some analysts go even further and point to the introduction of residence cards as the institutionalization of a division not only between citizens and foreigners, but also a social division between north and south. See Ousmane Dembele, “Côte d’Ivoire: La Fracture communautaire,” Politique Africaine: La Côte d’Ivoire en guerre, No. 89, March 2003, p. 40. 7 One student of Côte d’Ivoire’s post-colonial transition noted, “Although the country is the confluence of four African civilizations, it is the center of gravity of none. Ethnic groups have greater cultural and social affinities with tribes living outside the country than with one another.” Aristide Zolberg, One-Party Government in the Ivory Coast, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p.5. 8 For many Ivorians who experienced the PDCI’s lengthy rule, the dominance of coastal, southern ethnic groups in Ivorian politics was a virtually unchallengable reality. The notion of an Ivorian president from the north or west was inconceivable until Ouattara—and Robert Guei—emerged as real political options in the 1990s following Houphouët-Boigny’s death. 9 Laurent Gbagbo’s FPI also boycotted the election. Human Rights Watch 7 August 2003, Vol. 15, No. 14 (A)