Freedom in the World 1998 - Djibouti

1998 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 5.5
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 5

Overview

Djibouti's people continue to be deeply divided on ethnic and clan bases, and a simmering Afar insurgency continues in the country's northern zones. The main schism is between the majority Issa (Somali) and minority Afar peoples. Competition among the Issa clans has also contributed to rising tensions over the succession to ailing octogenarian President Hassan Gouled Aptidon, whose term expires in 1999. Legislative elections in 1997 in this strategically positioned Horn of Africa country returned the ruling Popular Rally for Progress (RPP) party to power, thereby reinforcing the long dominance of President Aptidon's Mamassan clan of the majority Issa ethnic group.

Before receiving independence from France in 1977, Djibouti was known as the French Territory of the Afar and Issa. Afar rebels of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD) launched a three-year guerrilla war against Issa dominance in 1991. Ethnic violence has receded since the largest FRUD faction agreed in 1994 to end its insurgency in exchange for inclusion in the government and electoral reforms. Despite some concessions, President Gouled's sub-clan retains most power. Approximately 3,500 French troops are among 10,000 French residents of Djibouti. French advisors and technicians effectively run much of the country, and France is highly influential in Djiboutian affairs, although Paris has announced a reduction in its military presence.

President Gouled has ruled since independence with solid French backing. He controlled a one-party system until 1992, when a new constitution adopted by referendum authorized four political parties. In 1993, Gouled was declared winner of a fourth six-year term in Djibouti's first contested presidential elections. Both the opposition and international observers considered the poll fraudulent. The election was boycotted by the ethnic Afar-dominated FRUD, and nearly all of the candidates were of the Issa ethnic group. Today, Gouled's nephew and cabinet chief Ismail Omar Gelleh is widely considered to be the de facto head of government and his uncle's most likely successor in a closely controlled 1999 presidential election.

Djibouti's politics reflect the country's principal ethnic division between the Issa and related Somalian groups, which comprise approximately half of the population and are concentrated in the south, and Afar people who constitute approximately 35 percent of the population and occupy the northern and western regions. Somalis from Somalia and Yemeni Arabs comprise most the remainder of the population. In 1991, FRUD launched its rebellion with demands for an end to "tribal dictatorship" and installation of a democratic, multiparty system.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The trappings of representative government and formal administration have little relevance to the real distribution and exercise of power in Djibouti. Djiboutians have never been able to choose their government democratically despite the advent of limited multiparty elections. The 1997 legislative elections were marginally more credible than the plainly fraudulent 1992 polls, but easily reinstalled the RPP, which, in coalition with the legalized arm of FRUD, won all 65 National Assembly seats. President Gouled has sought the appearance of ethnic balance in government by appointing Afars as prime ministers. FRUD leaders joined the cabinet as part of the 1994 peace pact.

Political activities are sharply constrained. Freedoms of assembly and association are nominally protected under the constitution, but the government has effectively banned political protest. The judiciary is not independent due to routine government interference.

Security forces commonly arrest dissidents without proper authority despite constitutional requirements that arrests may not occur without a decree presented by a judicial magistrate. The fate of three FRUD officials arrested in Ethiopia in 1997 and handed to Djibouti authorities remains unknown. Prison conditions are reportedly harsh, although Red Cross delegates have been allowed access.

Despite constitutional protection, freedom of speech is severely curtailed. The government closely controls all electronic media. Independent newspapers and other publications are generally allowed to circulate freely, but pressure on the independent media increased in 1998. Islam is the official state religion, but freedom of worship is respected. In May, the newspapers Le Populaire and Le Renouveau were suspended for six months and their editors sentenced to three months imprisonment after they published allegations of governmental corruption. Two other journalists were detained for a week in February after criticizing the country's finance minister.

Despite equality under civil law, women suffer serious discrimination under customary practices in inheritance and other property matters, divorce, and the right to travel. Women have few opportunities for education or in the formal economic sector. There are no women in the cabinet or parliament. Female genital mutilation is almost universal among Djibouti's women, and legislation forbidding mutilation of young girls is not enforced.

The formal sector in the largely rural agricultural and nomadic subsistence economy is small. Workers may join unions and strike, but the government routinely obstructs the free operation of unions. Wages are extremely low. The country's economy is heavily dependent on French aid. Efforts to curb rampant corruption have met with little success.