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France: Foe Or Arbiter?

This Day (Lagos)
ANALYSIS
December 11, 2004
Posted to the web December 13, 2004
Lagos
As the ceasefire in the Ivoirien crisis recently snapped, claiming the lives of
a number of foreign nationals and armless Ivoiriens, Kunle Akogun who visited
the troubled country examines the role of France in the whole debacle.
To many, the on-going Ivoirien crisis is just a battle between Laurent Gbagbo's
Nationalist Government and the rebels based in the northern end of the country.
This is true to some extent because the afore-mentioned parties are indeed the
obvious rivals in the battle for the soul of the cocoa-rich West African
country. But beyond these obvious contestants is a latent party to the crisis:
the country's erstwhile colonial overlord, France whose role in the episode
appears difficult to understand.
However, the events of November 6, 7 and 8 at Yamoussoukro Airport,
Presidential Palace, Yamoussoukro, Abidjan Airport as well as Abidjan streets
and bridges appeared to have cleared all doubts as to where the interests of
the French lies in the Ivoirien debacle.
On those three days, images of Soweto and Cape Town .in apartheid South Africa
flashed back to minds as armless protesters mostly youths under the aegis of
Young Patriots engaged French armoured tanks in a battle for the control of the
nation's capital. The youths were angered by the previous day's destruction, by
the Force Licorne, soldiers of the French Military Base in Abidjan, of
virtually all the Ivoirien military and civil presidential aircraft parked at
Air Force Base in Abidjan, Yamoussoukro airport, as well as the Presidential
Palace in Yamoussoukro. They were also said to have been incensed by the
alleged attempt by the French troops to enter the Presidential Palace to effect
the forceful removal of President Gbagbo. The Force Licorne was said to have
acted in retaliation against the bombardment of the rebel strongholds in Bouake
during which French locations were allegedly hit and some French soldiers and
an American civilian reportedly killed.
For almost 40 years, Cote d'Ivoire was hailed as an African success story
following its independence in 1960 under the leadership of President Felix
Houphouet Boigny. With a well-developed infrastructure and highly mechanised
agriculture, Cote d'Ivoire, with about 45 per cent of total world production
ranks first among cocoa producers in the world and third in coffee production.
The country accounts for over 40 per cent of the economy of the entire
Francophone West Africa. She was seen as one successful post-colonial country,
which was located in the midst of a region beset by military and political
instability, with disastrous economic decline. Cote d'Ivoire's achievement of
economic success produced a political stability that was unique in the sub-
saharan region. It was all rosy till December 1999 when a coup led by General
Robert Guei seized power from Boigny's successor, Henri Konan Bedie.
The post-Houphouet Boigny power struggle was exacerbated by controversies over
nationality laws, eligibility for the Presidency, land ownership, conditions
for national elections and the disqualification of some prominent political
leaders, including Mr Alassane Ouattara in the Year 2000 elections.
Consequently, the dispute over the results of the presidential elections
resulted in violent clashes between the opposing political factions. The
Ivoirien Supreme Court finally declared the current President, Mr Laurent
Gbagbo, the winner.
On assumption of office, President Gbagbo initiated moves to address some of
the pertinent national concerns. Consequently, together with the main political
players, they agreed to create a broad based national electoral commission and
a national body to address the question of land ownership among other political
concerns.
The steps towards national reconciliation and reduction of tension were however
disrupted by the 19 September 2002 rebellion by a group of about 800 soldiers
in protest against their planned demobilisation. The crisis started with
simultaneous attacks on military installations in Abidjan, Bouake and Korhogo.
The civil war, which started as an army mutiny rapidly snowballed into a full-
scale rebellion. By the end of September, the rebel forces had consolidated
their hold on the northern half of the country and were operating under the
umbrella of a political movement calling itself the Patriotic Movement of Cote
d'Ivoire (MPCI).
The first successful peace initiative was brokered by the Senegalese Foreign
Minister, Cheik Gadio under the auspices of the ECOWAS community. A truce,
which was accepted by both government and the rebels, was signed on October 17,
2002. The truce was followed by talks in Lome, Togo, which was chaired by the
Togolese President Gnasingbe Eyadema who was the head of ECOWAS at the time.
The first peace accord was signed on October 31 2002 in which both sides agreed
to respect the ceasefire and to refrain from all other violations enshrined in
the accord.
In January 2003, a round-table meeting of the contending parties was held at
Linas-Marcoussis, France to find a solution to the Ivoirien crisis.
Participants at this meeting included over ten political factions in the
country. This meetingresulted in the signing of the famous Linas-Marcoussis
Accord on January 23, 2003 by all the political factions present. The Linas-
Marcoussis Accord stipulated, among others, the setting up of a new Government
of National Reconciliation, headed by elder statesman Seydou Diarra.
Ironically, the Accord, which was designed to chart the path to peace, has
invariably turned out to be the greatest obstacle to peace.
The government justified the air strikes on Bouake as a necessary step to
enforce the rebels' compliance with the Disarmament and Demobilisation of their
troops in line with Section 7 of the Linas Marcoussis Agreement which says if
the rebels refuse to disarm, the government can use force to disarm them.
President Gbagbo told a team of Nigerian journalists on fact-finding mission to
Cote d'Ivoire at the Cocody State House, Abidjan that he decided to hit the
rebels' base "to put an end to the organised and continuous looting of our
economy", adding that "the rebellion had paid no heed to the October 15
deadline fixed by the international community as the end of the disarmament
process."
But the leader of the Force Nouvelle, the military arm of the rebel groups, Lt-
Col Soumaila Bakayoko faulted this. "There is no justification at all for the
bombings", he told THISDAY at his Bouake base which incidentally was also hit
by the government bombers. He added that "from day one, we have accepted a
peaceful solution to the Ivoirien crisis. But it would have been illusory to
talk about disarmament by 15th October when in actual fact, none of the
preliminary steps had been taken by the government which never respects
agreements signed in the presence of the international community."
But President Gbagbo who said the objective of the air strikes was to liberate
Bouake, disarm the rebels and reunify the country, pointed out that "the
rebellion did not show any notable resistance, and there was no doubt about the
success of the Ivoirien troops' offensive."
He however, lamented that "it was at this precise moment that the French
military authorities announced that a bomb had fallen into their camp in Bouake
killing nine persons, comprising eight French soldiers and a US civilian."
This, the President said led to the destruction of all Ivoirien aircraft by the
French Operation Force Licorne.
Reports of these acts carried in the French media provoked the anger of
Ivoiriens who trooped to the streets and went to Abidjan airport, believing
that the attacks were aimed at destabilising the country" and causing the
downfall of their President.
Speaker of the Ivoirien National Assembly Mamadou Koulibaly could not hide his
indignation at what he termed "the obvious partiality of the French Government
since the outbreak of the Ivoirien rebellion."
Koulibaly told the visiting Nigerian journalists at the assembly chambers that
right from the onset, it was obvious that France had no regard for the Laurent
Gbagbo government.
He said this became noticeable when in the run-up to Linas-Marcousis Round
Table in France, President Jacques Chirac, initiator of the talks, refused to
specifically invite the Ivoirien Government. "Rather, Chirac decided to invite
only the political parties and the rebels," Koulibaly said, adding that "it was
not surprising that the delegates to the talks brushed aside all the germane
issues that necessitated Marcousis and pursued entirely selfish agenda at the
talks."
For instance, he said, "for former President Bedie who was in Marcousis, his
problem which he put forward at the talks was age. He thought he would be too
old to stand elections in 2005 so he canvassed the raising of eligibility age
from 75 to 78. Alhassane Ouattara complained about the problem of nationality
and identity while some political parties demanded financial support from the
government."
Koulibaly explained further that when the delegates came back, the National
Assembly was mandated to vote on the agreement, the parliament refused on the
ground that the problems that necessitated the meeting had been brushed aside
and entirely selfish agenda of the delegates were agreed upon.
"Whereas, the National Assembly and government wanted the issue of Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) thrashed out, the Marcoussis meeting
only discussed the delegates' political/presidential ambition. So when we made
amendments to the agreements and passed it, the rebels also refused to abide by
this.
"The government cannot sit back and watch rebels paralyse a section of our
country. So we had to hit their targets. But in arrant disregard of France's
claim to impartiality in this crisis, in reaction to our operation, 165 French
tanks came from the North to Abidjan, killing everybody on their way and tried
to make a coup. They destroyed Ivoirien military jets and paralysed our aerial
potential," he lamented.
The assembly speaker maintained that "the crux of the problem for Cote d'Ivoire
is not the rebels but the battle for the colonial interests of France," saying
however, that "for Cote d'Ivoire, the so-called Francophone solidarity is
nonsense because we think that Cote d'Ivoire is a free country and it could no
longer take directive from Paris."
But the Commander of Force Licorne in Abidjan, Gen. Henri Poncet rejected all
insinuations that the bombings of Ivoirien fighter planes and civil
presidential jet parked at Yamoussoukro airport and Abidjan Airforce Base were
an indication of French alignment with rebel forces against the Ivoirien
authorities.
He said the retaliatory bombing of Ivoirien planes was necessitated by the fact
that"the attack on French military base in Bouake was premeditated as the
planes hovered round the base twice, a fact which ought to have shown the pilot
clearly the Red Cross and French national flags on the building as distint from
the rebel base which they claimed was their target, so we retaliated by
destroying all the planes used and those that could be used in future".
On the shooting of armless protesters on the streets of Abidjan by French
troops, Gen. Poncet said his men acted in self-defence as "we were being
harassed in this camp and at Hotel Ivoire where many French men are putting up.
Because of the pressure, we were forced to leave Hotel Ivoire and while
leaving, we used non-lethal arms to protect ourselves."
The French military chief, however, called for the setting up of a commission
of inquiry to unravel the truth.
But the Ivoirien crisis is not unsolvable if only the warring brothers would
allow peace to reign in the interest of their fatherland, says a Nigerian
diplomat at the United Nations office in Abidjan.
The diplomat who refused to be identified in print said the solution to the
crisis rests with Ivoiriens themselves, advising that foreigners, "especially
the French, should hands off as their impartiality could no longer be
guaranteed as shown by the events of November 7 and 8." He said "France's
continued interest in Cote d'Ivoire is understandable as the country produces
40 per cent of the GDP in Francophone West Africa," adding "for every dollar
made from the country's cocoa, 75 cents are retained in the Stabilisation Fund
based in Paris. So you can see that the hegemony of France in West African
countries defines the position of that country in the world."
The UN diplomat said the events of November 7 and 8 should be condemned by all
right-thinking people," lamenting, however, that "Nigeria and other West
African leaders were found wanting at a time they ought to have vehemently
spoken up against the massacre of Ivoiriens by French soldiers."
He urged President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and African Union (AU) Chairman
to rise to the occasion by seizing the initiative to find an African solution
to an African problem, saying "the Ivoirien crisis is going to be the defining
factor for the Obasanjo administration and headship of AU."
In his own comment, the ECOWAS Special Representative in Cote d'Ivoire,
Nigeria's Ambassador Raph Uwechue opined that "peace should be restored in the
country as quickly as possible because whatever goes wrong here affects the
entire Francophone West Africa."
He told the visiting Nigerian journalists while hosting them to a dinner in his
residence that not only is Cote d'Ivoire important to West African economy, it
is also crucial to Nigeria's interest in the sub-region.
Uwechue expressed the hope that the United Nations would "get its acts together
and act rightly on the Ivoirien crisis."

   

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