Ivory Coast NOC Reported to be Safe

(ATR) Around the Rings can report that despite violence after therecent Côte d'Ivoire presidential elections , the country’s Olympiccommittee is safe.

In an email to ATR, Winslow Sone, an aide to NOC President Lassana Palenfo, says "the status quo holds sway. No change as of now."

"President Palenfo would surely complete his tenure" as president of the CNOCI, says Sone. Palenfo was reelected to the post in 2006.

The headquarters of CNOCI are located in Abidjan, the country’s most populous city, where much of the violence has occurred. The population of thewest African nation numbers 21 million.

Alassane Ouattara won the Nov. 28 election over incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo. However, Gbagbo refuses to vacate the office, and his loyalists include the country’s armed forces. Diplomatic efforts to end the violence have so far been fruitless. Nearly 250 people have died in the fighting.

Gbagbo first came to power in a 1999 coup. Since then, the country has been plagued by violence, and elections were routinely delayed since they were first called for in 2005.

Palenfo fully understands his country’s tumultuous past. He was second in command of the 1999 coup and spent time in an Ivorian prison soon after becoming an IOC member in 2000. The IOC intervened on his behalf for his release. An investigative report alleged that his release was contingent upon him voting for Beijing to host the 2008 Olympics. Palenfo, who still uses "Intendant General" as his title, was the leader of Côte d'Ivoire’s armed forces.

Turning70 this month, Palenfo will retire from the IOC after the Durban IOC Session in July.

He has been NOC president since 1999 and president of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa since 2005, his current term ending in 2013.

While maintaining an address with the CNOCI’s office in Abidjan, the IOC Directory lists his home address in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

The CNOCI was formed in 1962, and recognized by the IOC in 1963. Ivoirians have participated in every Summer Olympics since 1964, except the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, with most Olympians coming from athletics. At the Beijing Olympics, 23 Olympians represented the country, most of them from the men’s football team.

Written by Ed Hula III.