WASHINGTON-Western Wireless International Corp., citing the still-unresolved dispute over the ransacking of its cell-phone operations in Cote D’Ivoire in 2003, urged Bush administration trade officials to take a hard look at that country’s telecom regulatory practices to determine whether it is in compliance with World Trade Organization rules.
The shareholders of the cellular licensee at issue-Cora de Comstar-are WW International Ivory Coast International (a subsidiary of WW International and indirectly of Alltel Corp.) and Modern Africa Two L.L.C. The latter entity is an investment fund backed by U.S. and foreign firms as well as the Overseas Private Investment Corp. a U.S. government agency that underwrites political risk insurance.
“Cora does believe that the Ivorian government has thus far failed to implement a telecommunications regulation regime that is transparent, non-discriminatory, based on clear enforceable regulations and subject to even-handed adjudication,” WW International told the U.S. Office of Trade Representative.
The USTR is examining whether the U.S. government’s trading partners are adhering to telecom trade pacts.
Cora management was forced to turn off its GSM mobile-phone network Oct. 12, 2003, telling its 200 employers to go home. The shutdown followed repeated intimidation in which employees were held at gunpoint for a week. The carrier had 40,000 subscribers, according to Cora investors. Western Wireless said the police physically and verbally assaulted Cora’s employees during the seven-day occupation of its headquarters, and the company’s safes, documents and assets were stolen.
Cora, at that time being the third and newest carrier in the country, was building its customer base by aggressively marketing prepaid service.
Cora officials have pointed the guilty finger at Alexandre Galley for terrorizing the company. They said Galley is a convicted felon and wanted by the United Nations for trafficking weapons for indicted war criminal Charles Taylor of neighboring Liberia. Cora investors said Galley, who changed his name to Raphael Gnadre Dago, claims to have an ownership stake in the Cora wireless system. But Cora investors’ exhaustive search proved that claim false. U.S. government and industry officials said they believe Galley used bribes to win the silence and complicity of Cote d’Ivoire authorities.
WW International and Modern Africa Growth & Investment Co. previously filed a $54 million expropriation claim against the government of Cote d’Ivoire in an effort to reclaim assets seized Oct. 9 by the government during an assault and occupation of the company. That is the same amount the Cote d’Ivoire government attempted to extract from WW International in license fees, according to WW International.
Last October, Cora urged the State Department against reinstating Cote d’Ivoire as beneficiary under the African Growth Opportunities Act.
Until a few years ago, Cote d’Ivoire was one of the most politically stable countries in Africa. In previous interviews, WW International said that for accounting purposes, its investment in Cora has been written down to nothing, even though the carrier still might recover plundered assets and resume mobile-phone operations.
Last week, unrest and riots in Cote d’Ivoire prompted the United Nations Security Council to condemn attacks against the U.N.’s operation in that country and threatened sanctions against individuals blocking the peace process.
WW International, noting that Cora invested more than $40 million in Cote d’Ivoire to secure a cellular license and construct its mobile-phone network, said Cora was close to reaching a settlement last summer when it learned a license purportedly had been granted to a new competitor, Atlantic Telecommunications.
“Cora believes that the Ivorian government resisted Cora’s efforts to learn the details of the Atlantic license in order to lead the shareholders of Cora into a disadvantageous settlement with the government,” WW International told USTR.
