21 February 2003
U.S. Options for Cote d'Ivoire Outlined
(Professor offers suggestions to U.S. Lawmakers) (710)
By Jessica Allen
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States can take some steps to help bring
peace in Cote d'Ivoire, but current problems in that country are the
direct result of its leadership failing to engage fully in the
difficult task of nation building following the end of colonial rule,
a congressional committee was told.
Jeanne Maddox Toungara, a professor of history at Howard University,
made the point in testimony before the Subcommittee on Africa in the
U.S. House of Representatives February 12.
Toungara, whose research interests include Cote d'Ivoire and conflict
management, suggested that the United States "support the spirit of
the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement," signed on January 24 of this year.
That agreement, the result of an initiative of French President
Jacques Chirac, calls for the formation of a government of national
reconciliation and the establishment of a committee to monitor the
government's activities.
She then told the subcommittee that the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement
only became necessary because of the failure of President Laurent
Gbagbo to respond to mediation by African heads of state and the
ECOWAS organization.
"President Gbagbo has proven time and time again that he is unreliable
and incapable of promoting national unity," the professor told the
lawmakers. "He should not be given any opportunity to obfuscate,
distract, or ignore the demands of leadership. The U.S. must be clear
and persistent, and refuse to compromise on the basic principles of
democracy and human rights."
Additionally, she called on the United States to "make clear to the
president and citizens of Cote d'Ivore its support for international
efforts to achieve peace.
"Bilateral relations, which can divide or obfuscate the solidarity of
the international community should be avoided," Toungara cautioned.
The entire sub-region of Africa, Toungara noted, is suffering from
conflicts caused by the inability of leaders to provide their citizens
with "equitable and fair access to the opportunity to thrive within
their nation."
For that reason, she said, "The U.S. should collaborate with and fully
support " the multinational committee monitoring the Linas-Marcoussis
Agreement. U.S. support, she said, will demonstrate a "commitment to
democracy, development, and the peoples of the sub-region if Cote
d'Ivoire can serve as an exemplar of collaboration in this direction."
Additionally, Toungara insisted that the United States must show
leadership and refuse all efforts to release economic assistance to
President Gbagbo's regime until he complies with the conditions laid
down in the Marcoussis Agreement for the government of reconciliation.
Toungara also recommended that the U.S. continue to help foster a
civil society through humanitarian agencies such as USAID and the
Peace Corps. These agencies, according to Toungara, can provide
Ivoirians "with education on civic responsibility, and help eliminate
the 'Ivoirite' cultural nationalism used by politicians to
discriminate against foreign Africans and Ivoirian Northerners."
The Marcoussis Military Plan was also high on the professor's list.
Although she did not advocate that the United States send military
units to the region, she did suggest, "The U.S. participate in the
remaking of the Ivorian defense forces."
Toungara also proposed that the United States help in "providing for
the physical needs of the soldiers, their living wages (the initial
cause of several previous coups), and their re-education as a national
force." She added, "A military reform effort needs to include the
ethnic integration of all units."
The infringement upon citizens' rights she attributed to a corrupt
judiciary. To combat this problem, the professor told the lawmakers,
"The U.S. should support judicial reform and the replacement of
judges, who have proved incapable of carrying out the will of the
Constitution."
The professor also said Ivoirians have a poor concept of the terms
citizen and immigrant. Toungara believes the U.S. should involve
Ivoirian agencies, judiciary, and institutions of higher education in
assisting the citizenry of Cote d'Ivoire to accept practical
definitions of these terms.
The instructor's final proposal recommended that the U.S. lend
financial support to elections "wherever and whenever they are
called." According to Toungara, "elections and referendums as means of
conflict prevention are a lot cheaper than conflict resolution after a
civil war."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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