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Côte d'Ivoire: Containing the Crisis?
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Nov 16, 2004 (041116)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
The UN Security Council on November 15 voted to impose an arms
embargo on all parties in Cote d'Ivoire. The measure was strongly
supported by African leaders who fear not only new violence in the
West African country, but also setbacks for peace in the
surrounding region. Few observers have any confidence in the
potential for France to promote reconciliation in its former
colony. But even fewer believe that Ivorian President Laurent
Gbagbo is willing to abandon the effort to crush his opponents by
force, including recourse to hate appeals targeting not only the
French but also the rebels and other West Africans.
While the prospects of resuming the stalled and now interrupted
peace process are not high, the rapid international consensus
signals a felt urgency to contain the effect of the crisis as much
as possible. This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains several short press
statements and background reports, from UN agencies, Human Rights
Watch, and the All Africa Conference of Churches. For additional
background and links see
http://www.africafocus.org/country/cotedivoire.php
Cote d'Ivoire, for which the UN has received only 18% of its modest
2004 humanitarian appeal of $61 million, is one of the "forgotten
crises" noted in last week's launch of the 2005 UN humanitarian
appeal for $1.7 billion for crises around the world, not including
the Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Colombia. Another AfricaFocus
Bulletin today contains the section of that appeal for West Africa.
As of this month, the full 2004 consolidated appeal for $3.4
billion is only 55% funded.
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Security Council imposes immediate arms embargo against Cote
d'Ivoire
15 November 2004 - Seeking to end the violence in Cote d'Ivoire,
the United Nations Security Council today imposed an immediate,
13-month arms embargo against the country and gave the parties
there one month to get the peace process back on track or face a
travel ban and a freeze on their assets.
Under a resolution adopted unanimously, the additional sanctions
will go into effect on 15 December unless the Council determines
before then that the signatories of two peace deals are working to
implement them. Those measures would remain for one year.
The 2003 Linas-Marcoussis accord halted fighting between the
Government of President Laurent Gbagbo and rebels who control most
of the north, and created a government of national reconciliation.
The second pact, reached this summer in the Ghanaian capital and
known as the Accra III Agreement, focused on those parts of the
2003 pact that were still in dispute.
The latest unrest flared up on 4 November when the Government
violated the ceasefire by launching an attack in the Zone of
Confidence (ZOC) separating combatants. On 6 November, Government
aircraft bombed French peacekeepers in the area, killing nine
people and leading to French reprisals that destroyed the tiny
Ivorian air force. This in turn led to anti-foreigner rioting in
Abidjan, the country's largest city.
The Council text condemned the Government air strikes and demanded
that all Ivorian parties to the conflict fully comply with the
ceasefire. It also reiterated the Council's full support for the
action undertaken by the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and
French forces.
The 15-member body further demanded that the Ivorian authorities
stop all radio and television broadcasts inciting hatred,
intolerance and violence, and asked the UN peacekeeping mission to
bolster its monitoring role in that regard.
The arms sanctions require all countries to prevent the "direct or
indirect supply, sale or transfer" to Cote d'Ivoire of arms or any
related materiel.
Pending progress, the Council will also ban anyone "who constitute
a threat to the peace and national reconciliation process" from
travelling abroad, and "freeze the funds, other financial assets
and economic resources" of those designated by a Council committee
set up to enforce the measures.
The resolution provides for a number of humanitarian exemptions
designed to allow UN peacekeepers and relief workers to carry out
their operations on behalf of the Ivorian people.
Preparations for War Reported Despite UN Sanctions Threat
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
(http://www.irinnews.org)
November 15, 2004
Abidjan
The threat of sanctions loomed over Cote d'Ivoire on Monday as the
United Nations prepared to vote on an arms embargo and other
penalties on the West African nation. On the ground, however,
Ivorian rebel and government forces were reported to be preparing
for war.
"What we are getting is that all sides are trying to get new
offensive weapons," Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told
reporters on Sunday in Abuja, Nigeria, after four hours of talks on
the Ivorian crisis with his counterparts from Benin, Burkina Faso,
Ghana, Senegal and Togo.
France has been pushing fellow Security Council members to slap a
ban on the sale of arms to Cote d'Ivoire and impose travel
restrictions on Ivorian officials from 10 December. The French move
came after the Ivorian army shattered an 18-month ceasefire and
killed nine French peacekeepers in the process.
A diplomatic source told IRIN the vote, delayed from last week so
African leaders could hold crisis talks, might take place on Monday
afternoon.
South African President Thabo Mbeki and other government officials
held talks with Ivorian opposition leaders in Pretoria late last
week, while Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo was to have attended
Sunday's meeting in Abuja, but did not. Instead, he sent the
speaker of parliament, and did little to allay the regional
leaders' fears.
"Do you think I am going to leave my country with no air defence?"
he said in an interview on French radio broadcast on Sunday.
The African leaders threw their weight behind the draft resolution
at the weekend and even went one step further, calling for
sanctions to take effect immediately instead of giving Cote
d'Ivoire a month's grace period.
"We support the proposed UN resolution, particularly the arms
embargo in Cote d'Ivoire. This should be immediate," said Obasanjo,
who is the current chairman of the African Union.
Since rebels attempted to topple Gbagbo in September 2002, Cote
d'Ivoire has been split into a government-controlled south and a
rebel-held north.
In a move widely seen as favouring a military solution, Gbagbo
replaced the head of the army, Mathias Doue, with Philippe Mangou,
the man who oversaw this month's ceasefire-breaking assault on
rebel territory.
"We are just trying to reunify our country," Mangou - considered a
hardliner by many - told IRIN when the assault kicked off on 4
November. He repeated that line on state television on Sunday after
his appointment.
Reuters news agency quoted a military source at the weekend as
saying Gbagbo had already ordered new fighter jets and helicopter
gunships and some had arrived in nearby states. Virtually all of
Cote d'Ivoire's airforce was destroyed on 6 November by French
forces in retaliation for a bombing on one of their bases, in which
the nine French peacekeepers were killed.
On Monday there were fears of fresh attacks, given that electricity
and water to supplies to the north have been cut, as they were
before the first government offensive.
Military and diplomatic sources, humanitarian workers and residents
all said the supplies - which had been restored earlier in the week
- were cut again on Sunday afternoon, as African leaders were
meeting in Abuja.
"The alarm is that that used to be the prelude to an imminent
attack," Obasanjo said. "Both parties should not start anything
that will amount to a retaliatory attack. We call on everybody to
observe the ceasefire."
Civilians in the north are preparing to march on Wednesday from the
main rebel-held city of Bouake, across the buffer zone, to Abidjan,
some 400 km away, to demand Gbagbo's resignation. "Given that the
civilian population has been targeted and hurt, we have to take our
destiny in our own hands," Abel Dgohore Gbakayoro, one of the
organisers, told IRIN.
"We think we can get 24,000 people out on the street. The buffer
zone is for belligerents and we are not armed so it should be
fine," he said.
The streets in Abidjan were quiet on Monday, a public holiday, and
the flood of foreigners fleeing the country had slowed to a
trickle.
A spokesman for the French forces in Cote d'Ivoire said just one
evacuation flight was scheduled for Monday, and that there were now
only around 50 people taking refuge at the French military base,
which at one point had sheltered almost 2,000. An official at the
French embassy said the last evacuation flight would probably be on
Wednesday.
More than 6,000 foreigners, around 85 percent of them French, have
fled in the past five days after Ivorians, irate at Paris for
wiping out their airforce, went on a rampage, stripping expatriate
homes bare and torching businesses and schools. Foreigners were
attacked, some with machetes, and women were raped, according to
various sources
No expatriate deaths were reported, but Gbagbo's spokesman has said
62 Ivorians died and more than 1,300 were injured during
demonstrations against and clashes with French troops.
Cote d'Ivoire: Rein in Militias, End Incitement
U.N. Peacekeepers Must Be Ready and Willing to Protect Civilians
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org
(New York, November 11, 2004) - As the security situation in Cote
d'Ivoire deteriorates, the Ivorian authorities must ensure that
pro-government militias end all attacks and threats against
civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. The government must also
cease radio or television broadcasts intended to incite violence
against perceived government opponents, Human Rights Watch said
today.
United Nations peacekeepers, under Security Council resolution
1528, have the responsibility "to protect civilians under imminent
threat of physical violence." Both within Abidjan and the rural
areas, and most urgently in the western cacao-growing region, U.N.
peacekeepers should conduct frequent patrols and make their
presence felt in areas heavily populated by vulnerable groups. In
recent years, northerners, Muslims and West African immigrants have
come under attack from pro-government militias, which accuse them
of supporting the northern-based rebellion.
"Until they were evacuated, French citizens bore the brunt of the
militias' xenophobic attacks. Now we are concerned the militias
will turn their rage on their more familiar targets - Muslims,
northerners and West African immigrants," said Peter Takirambudde,
executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. "Given
the history of militia abuses during Cote d'Ivoire's political
crisis, the United Nations must anticipate such attacks and be
ready to respond."
Over the last few days, local Ivorian human rights activists in
hiding told Human Rights Watch about numerous cases of northern
civilians and opposition supporters whose houses and business in
Abidjan had been ransacked or burned by pro-government militias. On
Tuesday, pro-government militias attacked northerners and West
African immigrants in the western town of Gagnoa, killing at least
five of them.
Speaking on state radio and television, government officials and
militia leaders have disseminated continual messages inciting the
militias to attack French civilians after French forces destroyed
Ivorian aircraft. These messages recently spread to private radio
stations. There has been at least one instance in which a
broadcaster incitement of an attack included the number plate of a
vehicle said to be driven by French nationals.
"The U.N. peacekeepers must be also prepared to silence broadcasts
that incite or provide directions for violence," said Takirambudde.
Since 2000, when Gbagbo took over in flawed elections during which
some 200 opposition supporters were killed, the pro-government
militias and state security forces have largely ceased to work for
the protection of the general population. Instead, they have become
partisan supporters of the ruling party, the Ivorian Popular Front
(Front Populaire Ivorien, or FPI), and its economic interests. The
government has increasingly relied on these militias for both law
enforcement and, following a coup attempt in 2002, to combat the
rebellion. Members of the militias, the largest of which is the
Young Patriots (Jeunes Patriotes), in recent months have reportedly
been undergoing military training in Abidjan and elsewhere.
Drawn mainly from youth supporters of the ruling party, the
militias have served as a lightly veiled mechanism to intimidate
and abuse members of the political opposition and those suspected
of opposing the government by virtue of their religion, ethnicity
or nationality. Those targeted include northerners, Muslims and
West African immigrants mostly from Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and
Guinea.
The pro-government militias have been responsible for numerous
serious human rights abuses. In March, they took part in a violent
crackdown against opposition supporters during a demonstration in
Abidjan, in which at least 120 demonstrators were killed. On
November 4, they attacked the hotel housing government ministers
representing the opposition New Forces (Forces Nouvelles), and
ransacked and burned the offices of at least two opposition
newspapers. Throughout the year, rural militias have conducted
lethal attacks against West African immigrant farmers in the
western part of the country.
The Ivorian government's failure to hold members of the militias
and security forces accountable for these abuses has only
strengthened the impunity of these groups and emboldened the
perpetrators, both in Abidjan and the rural areas. The U.N.
Security Council must therefore follow through with its commitments
to ensure that perpetrators of serious human rights crimes from all
sides to the conflict are held accountable. From 1999 onward, all
parties to the conflict - including the Ivorian military,
gendarmes, police forces, pro-government militias and combatants
from several rebel factions - have committed serious violations of
international humanitarian and human rights law with total
impunity.
On Tuesday a report by a U.N. Commission of Inquiry, which spent
two months investigating serious violations of international human
rights and humanitarian law, was due to be presented to the U.N.
Security Council. The report, which was sent to representatives of
the Ivorian government and rebel movement in October, is said to
contain recommendations on concrete steps the United Nations could
take to ensure accountability.
Human Rights Watch believes that holding accountable those
individuals responsible for the most serious crimes is crucial for
fighting the prevailing culture of impunity and indeed ensuring
that peace and stability take root in Cote d'Ivoire. The pursuit of
justice for victims must play a central role in all future peace
summits, negotiations and other efforts by the international
community to end the conflict.
Press Release on the War in Cote d'Ivoire
November 15, 2004
All Africa Conference of Churches
http://www.aacc-ceta.org
Tel: 254-20-4441483, 4441338/9 7 Fax: 254-20-4443241, 4445835
Email: secretariat@aacc-ceta.org
Waiyaki Way, P.O. Box 14205 , 00800 Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya
[reposted from Worldwide Faith News archives http://www.wfn.org]
The War in Cote d'Ivoire Threatens Peace in West Africa and Central
Africa
By Polycarp Omolo Ochilo
AACC Executive Secretary for International Affairs
Nairobi, November 14 - The on-going war in Cote d'Ivoire seriously
threatens the prevailing fragile peace in Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Guinea. The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) General
Secretary Rev. Dr. Mvume Dandala has said. Africa, he said, has
held her breath for some time now, that these countries will not
erupt into war again! But, he said, we were wrong again! War
has erupted again in Cote d'Ivoire .
Recalling his recent Pastoral visit to Sierra Leone and Liberia
last month, he said he saw hope, healing, and firm commitment for
the attainment of a lasting peace from the citizens of these
countries. This he said, is the momentum that other African
countries and the International Community should seize and hold on
to very firmly. These countries, others in Africa and the rest of
the world , he said, need peace rather than war, period!!
Over 27 people have so far been killed in Cote d Ivoire since the
war erupted. The number includes 10 French nationals killed in
the air strike by the Cote d'Ivoire's Air Force. It is also
estimated that over 1000 people have so far been wounded, and 37
Cote d'Ivoire loyalists, according to the presidential spokesman
Alain Toussaint, have been killed.
Dr. Dandala, on behalf of the 170 member churches of the AACC
expressed his gratitude to the quick response by the Chairperson
of the African Union who is also the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency General Olesegun Obasanjo in
mediating for peace in Cote d'Ivoire. He also paid similar
tribute to the South African President Thabo Mbeki for similar
efforts. The AACC membership he said, supports fully these
initiatives as the only way for the achievement of a lasting
peace. He further called for the continued combined efforts
towards peace by citizens from these countries, other countries
from the rest of Africa, the church in Africa and the
international community as well.
He called on the people of Cote d'Ivoire to give peace a chance and
urged them to offer God's love and friendship to each other as
citizens of one country and children of God. In war, he said we
kill each other, destroy civilizations, undermine our dignity,
spirituality, and we plant seeds of hate, distrust and
hopelessness among our people. We must, as Africans, refuse the
road to war, rather we must opt for positive hope, lasting peace
and God s love for all .
Dr. Dandala added that, it is time for African people to refuse war
and reject leaders who promote war. We must opt for democratic
and peaceful ways to power. This he said is one of the surest
ways of ensuring that our governments become accountable to our
people and respect for the sanctity of human life as God so
desired. Africa must lay firm foundations of peace now that we
shall bequeath our children of tomorrow and not the culture of
corruption, greed and senseless wars. The church in Africa is
called upon to use her prophetic voice in ensuring that peace
prevails in Africa.
Dr. Dandala regretted that religious conflicts between the
Christians and Muslims led to the deaths of people and destruction
of churches and mosques. He said, the firm faith-based
foundations that have worked so well for Christians and Muslims in
Liberia must not be destroyed. These instruments have served the
people of Liberia so well that we cannot accept voices of
destruction and wars to overshadow them. Christians and Muslims
must accept to live together in this shared world. This is God s
will.
Dr. Dandala was reacting to the events in Africa while in the
United States of America. His visit in the U.S.A. to meet with
AACC Partners in the U.S.A., Heads of Churches and Civil Society
groups was arranged by the Church World Service (New York office).
He proceeds to London for similar engagements next week before
returning to the AACC headquarters in Nairobi.
The All Africa Conference of Churches is a fellowship of 169 member
Churches and Christian Councils in 39 African Countries.
For further information, please contact:
Akinyi Lucy Ogot
AACC Communications and Advocacy Office,
Email: infodesk@aacc-ceta.org
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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