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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D IVOIRE: Anti-UN protests threaten fragile peace process
ABIDJAN, 17 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - Cote d’Ivoire’s frail peace process came under sharp fire on Tuesday as protests by pro-government youth targeting the UN peacekeeping mission went into a second day and the ruling party announced it was quitting the government, and hence the peace process.
On Tuesday, scores of angry youths blocked the entrance to the headquarters of the UN mission in the country’s main city, Abidjan, pelted it with stones and broke through an outer fence. Many claimed to be members of the Young Patriots movement loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo.
In repeated angry assaults in the afternoon against the hillside hotel hosting the UN offices and military centre, a crowd of up to 1,000 youths tried to break through walls, leading UN troops to shoot into the air and fire teargas grenades to disperse the crowd.
A UN military spokesman Captain Gilles Gombarieu told IRIN that as night fell, calm appeared to return. There were no casualties, he said.
The spokesman said Jordanian UN police had been called in as reinforcements along with French troops. Some 7,000 blue-helmets are currently stationed in the volatile West African country, backed by 4,000 French soldiers helping man a buffer zone between the rebel-held north and government south.
Elsewhere in the economic capital, traffic ground to a halt as protesters used stones and tree trunks to throw up roadblocks across several main roads.
In the commercial lagoon-side district Plateau, youths clambered out of green pick-up trucks to gather outside the French embassy.
It was the second day of trouble in the steamy city. Abidjan had ground to a standstill early on Monday as protests erupted following a weekend statement by international mediators overseeing a UN peace plan declaring parliament’s mandate over.
The Ivorian National Assembly’s five-year mandate ended 16 December and in a statement on Sunday, mediators overseeing plans to hold peace-sealing elections by next October deemed there was no call to extend it.
But protesting angrily against the decision, the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) accused the UN of “colonisation” and announced at an evening press conference that as a consequence it was pulling its seven ministers out of the transitional government and leaving peace talks.
In a statement signed by FPI leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan, the FPI said it was refusing “to continue to back the process of recolonisation launched under the aegis of the UN.”
The party “demands the departure from the country of all UN and (French) Licorne troops, which are forces of occupation, exploitation and subjugation of Cote d’Ivoire.”
It also called for “a government of liberation” to be set up to oust the rebel New Forces controlling the northern half of the nation.
The FPI said the International Working Group, a ministerial-level group set up to monitor and oversee UN Resolution 1633, a peace blueprint for Cote d’Ivoire, was “not competent” to make decisions about the fate of the parliament..
On Tuesday, most businesses remained closed and UN staff remained at home but some shops and supermarkets began to reopen.
"We are tired of foreign intervention," a girl sporting a T-shirt with the national colours of Cote d'Ivoire told IRIN at a barricade as she opened the trunks of passing cars to check what was inside. "We are tired of neo-colonial attitudes."
In the western town of Guiglo, an estimated 1,000 people invaded a UN military base held by Bangladeshi troops. "They are in the base but so far they are just dancing and chanting," a UN official told IRIN. "They demanded we take the UN flag down, though."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern and called for an immediate end to continuing disturbances in Cote d'Ivoire condemning the "orchestrated violence directed against the UN".
In an apparent warning to authorities linked with the protesters, Annan condemned "the inaction of some national authorities in responding to the situation."
And a statement from the Secretary-General in New York went on to say that he "reminds all Ivorian leaders of their individual responsibility for acts of violence carried out by their supporters and for keeping the peace process on track."
Although the demonstrations were small in size, economic activity slowed down in most towns in the government-run south. Cote d’Ivoire has been split between a government-controlled south and rebel-held north for more than three years.
In the southern towns of Daloa, Yamoussoukro and San Pedro, gangs of youth put up ramshackle roadblocks.
According to diplomats, the non-renewal of the mandate of the National Assembly has led to a power struggle between President Gbagbo and interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, who is backed by the international community.
"The ruling party barons in parliament won't just lose their salary, they'll also lose power and prestige," a western diplomat said. "The regime wants to show it still controls the nation. We'll have to see who comes out on top."
Banny was appointed by three African leaders to get the much-delayed peace process back on track and organise presidential elections before October 2006. The International Working Group consults with him and submits progress reports to the UN Security Council.
Under a previous peace plan, one of many that have failed in the last three years, elections were to have taken place last October, when President Gbagbo’s mandate expired. But when talks over disarmament broke down, the UN Security Council ruled elections were impossible and extended Gbagbo’s mandate an extra 12 months, provided he transferred most of his powers to a new prime minister.
Banny has not appeared in public since Monday, although he was reported to be holding talks with the Young Patriots, a nationalist movement that often uses violence and intimidation to express its support for Gbagbo.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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