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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D IVOIRE: Mediators to discuss country's uncertain future
ABIDJAN, 22 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - High-level meetings on the faltering peace process in Cote d'Ivoire are scheduled in the next few weeks ahead of the expiration of a United Nations-backed peace plan with no clear indication of who is to govern the country.
The mandate of President Laurent Gbagbo, which was already extended by 12 months under the peace plan last year, expires on 31 October. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) aims to work out a plan to move the peace process forward ahead of a crucial UN Security Council meeting in October.
Gbagbo says he will work out his own peace plan and will stay in office until elections are held. But rebel leader Guillaume Soro said this week after a mini-summit in New York on the divided country that Gbagbo must step down by the end of October to allow for a transitional head of state.
"There is no question of maintaining Laurent Gbagbo, who has shown his incapacity over the last four years to lead the peace process," Soro told Radio France Internationale (RFI). "We need a transitional head of state...who isn't from any political party and doesn't intend to run for president."
Soro's comments came hours after talks on Wednesday with the two main opposition leaders of Cote d'Ivoire, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and African mediators on the margins of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. No statement was issued after the meeting.
Gbagbo refused to attend the summit, saying the peace process has failed and the time for negotiations is over.
Asked whether the mini-summit on Cote d'Ivoire had failed because Gbagbo had stayed at home, a spokesman for Annan said the meeting, although lacking in tangible results, had been "far from a failure".
A group of mediators known as the International Working Group said last month a new peace plan should include strengthened powers for Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, who has been charged with organising elections.
Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara of the Rally of Republicans (RDR) echoed the call.
"We think the prime minister should have full executive powers, that he should now be supported in this task ... but that no candidate can interfere with the electoral process," he told RFI.
Diplomats say Gbagbo is likely to remain head of state. However, if mediators decide to defer him to a more ceremonial role, his militant youth movement could once again take to the streets, they say.
"For the next few weeks, we are entering completely uncharted territory," a Western diplomat told IRIN.
The pro-Gbagbo Young Patriot movement, which accuses foreign mediators of meddling in Cote d’Ivoire’s internal affairs, went on a massive looting spree in 2004 and violently attacked UN facilities last January.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Cote d'Ivoire has said urgent humanitarian intervention is needed to help thousands of internally displaced people in the west of the country.
Saber Azam said aid agencies need to focus their activities on the western region, ranging from the southwestern town of Tabou near the Liberian border to the volatile Guiglo area, where thousands of migrant cocoa farmers have sought refuge in a camp for internally displaced.
"Those people are living under difficult circumstances and we must swiftly respond. The response must incorporate all UN agencies," Azam said this week.
UNHCR estimates that 700,000 people are displaced in the government-held region.
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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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