French Raelian Murdered in Ivory Coast

LAS VEGAS, May 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to a statement released this morning by the International Raelian Movement, Philippe Remond, a professor at the Institut National Polytechnique Felix Houphouet Boigny in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, and a member of the Raelian Movement, was found murdered in his hotel room in Yamoussoukro the day after Alassane Ouattara's forces took control of the country.

"Philippe Remond was one of those French nationals who regularly denounced French interference in Ivory Coast issues," said Brigitte Boisselier, spokesperson for the IRM, adding that an example of Remond's eloquent protests may be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAmMBPEgJNo

"When he became a Raelian, he also actively conveyed Rael's ideas concerning the African continent," Boisselier added. "On an Ivory Coast TV channel as well as in his preceding press releases, he openly condemned the French intervention of siding with Ouatarra [now the country's new president]."

She said members of the Raelian Movement in Ivory Coast are wondering whether Remond was assassinated on orders from Paris.

"He was a fervent advocate of Rael's peaceful solution to the crisis in Ivory Coast, a solution without military intervention," Boisselier explained, adding that another leader of the Raelian Movement in Ivory Coast, Zadou Azael, who is also its doyen, "was manhandled by Ouatarra supporters."

"Guide Zadou Azael was molested, assaulted, humiliated and threatened with death, then robbed of his money and his car, which were stolen by the armed, republican forces of President Ouatarra," she said. "And it should be noted that Zadou Azael belongs to the Bete ethnic group, the same ethnic group that former President Gbagbo belonged to. Was he threatened because of his ethnicity or because of his political and religious beliefs?"

For decades, Boisselier said, "African Raelians have been advocating a peaceful solution for conflicts on the continent."

"We're calling for the abolition of colonial borders and restoration of the borders used by ancient kingdoms, which was land division based on ethnic groups," she explained. "The return to those pre-colonial divisions will help restore the harmonious, interethnic relations that prevailed in Africa before Western countries imposed their new, arbitrary borders. This restoration [of original boundaries] could be achieved through the establishment of the United Kingdoms of Kama [Kama was the indigenous, precolonial term for Africa.]

"Philippe Remond has paid dearly for daringly proposing and defending these generous and conscious solutions that displease the settlers," Boisselier concluded. "In view of his death and the aggression suffered by the doyen of Ivory Coast Raelians, and considering the way French Raelians are mistreated in France, we are genuinely concerned for the lives of Raelians in Ivory Coast. We therefore call for an end to military and paramilitary French Army operations in that country!"

SOURCE Raelian Movement

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