On April 26, Basil Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the national trade union center Dignité in the Ivory Coast, was arrested at his Abidjan home and taken into detention.
The union office was sacked, and many union officers have gone into hiding.
Since then, the IUF and other international and national trade unions, including the Ivory Coast’s national center UGTCI as well as the Director General of the ILO, have contacted the government authorities to demand his release and guarantees of his physical wellbeing.
To date, the government has refused to respond, or even to disclose the charges on which he is being held.
Please take a moment and send off your message of protest:
http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=573
Thanks very much!
Eric Lee
Eslkevin's Blog 
To Mr. Alassane Ouattara, President of Ivory Coast
(copies to the Ambassadors of Ivory Coast in Belgium/France)
Dear President Ouattara,
On April 26, Basil Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the national trade union center Dignité, was arrested at his Abidjan home and taken into detention. The union office was sacked, and many union officers have gone into hiding.
According to our information, he is being held by police in the Williamsville quarter of Abidjan
We are deeply concerned for his safety and physical integrity, and by the government’s failure to date to respond to numerous interventions on his behalf, including from the Director General of the ILO. Basil Mahan Gahé’s detention is a violation of international law and of your own commitment to national reconciliation, and I accordingly demand his immediate and unconditional release as well as firm guarantees for his physical safety. I will closely follow your government’s actions in this regard.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Stoda