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Gbagbo Snubs UN, New York Meeting

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
September 15, 2006
Posted to the web September 15, 2006
Abidjan
Cote d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo has said he believes the UN roadmap
meant to bring peace to the country has "failed" and he will not attend a
United Nations meeting in New York next week that was meant to yield a new way
forward.
"It is four years now that we are in this process and we are not reaching
peace. That means the process has failed," Gbagbo told hundreds of army troops
invited to a meeting at the presidential palace in the main city Abidjan on
Thursday evening.
African statesmen and the UN Security Council are scheduled to evaluate the
Ivorian peace process on the margins of the UN General Assembly meeting on 20
September, and to meet political leaders from the country.
Last week, the UN-appointed International Working Group, the body which
overseas the UN's peace blueprint for Cote d'Ivoire, called on the UN Security
Council to find a new transitional framework for the country. The IWG said
deadlock over disarmament and voter registration has made peace-sealing
presidential elections scheduled for 31 October elections impossible.
"I am not going to New York and I am not sending a delegation," Gbagbo said on
Thursday, greeted by applause and cheers. "I will not go to protest against the
impolite way [the international community] deals with the affairs of my
country. I will not support the farce of the United Nations."
"[The foreign mediators] want to lay into the President of the Republic and
then into the Constitution, meaning that all that has been elected annoys them.
But they annoy me," Gbagbo said on Thursday.
Many observers in Cote d'Ivoire and abroad favour suspending any parts of the
Constitution that hold up the peace blueprint and the organisation of the
elections.
The chief of the army, the powerful Colonel Major Philippe Mangou, agreed with
Gbagbo, accusing the international community of "a sickening partiality" and
"machiavelism".
Cote d'Ivoire has been split in two since a failed coup in September 2002. Four
years of negotiations have failed to reunite the country, rebel and pro-
government fighters have not been disarmed and a key programme to issue
identity cards to some three million disenfranchised Ivorians hangs in the
balance.
Under the UN's roadmap, adopted in October last year, Prime Minister Charles
Konan Banny was in charge of disarmament, identification and organising
elections. Gbagbo was allowed to remain in office for up to a year, on
condition that the country holds "free, fair, open and transparent" elections
and provided he worked alongside Banny.
Analysts say supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo are likely to challenge the
IWG's recommendations, which if carried out would see Gbagbo's powers reduced
when his current mandate expires on the 31 October.
But the UN's Schori told journalists on Thursday that a new strategy was
essential to overcome the obstacles that have plagued efforts to organize the
presidential elections and ending the crisis.
President Gbagbo also said on Thursday he would submit measures for a new peace
process to the African Union (AU) regional body, a move that analysts warn
could be a prelude for kicking the 8,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission (UNOCI)
out of Cote d'Ivoire when the transition period ends at the end of next month.
Gilles Yabi, a Dakar-based West Africa analyst for the Brussels-based
International Crisis Group (Crisis Group), the AU could help to relax tensions,
but would not likely to set out on another path.
"Gbagbo is isolated and he will certainly have more chance to be heard by the
African Union than by the international community," said Yabi, a Crisis Group
West Africa analyst based in Dakar.
"It seems that Gbagbo is trying something, maybe without a clear view of where
it is going," Yabi said.
"Gbagbo could ask for the departure of the UN peacekeeping force in Cote
d'Ivoire (UNOCI)," Yabi added. "He could ask the AU to help towards rebel
disarmament."
Congolese President and AU Chairman, Denis Sassou Nguesso, flew to Cote
d'Ivoire on Sunday for meetings but failed to break the political deadlock.
Determining that the situation in Côte d'Ivoire "continues to pose a threat to
international peace and security", the UN Security Council on Thursday voted to
extend the mandate of a three-person team monitoring an arms embargo against
the West African country.
The Group of Experts, which was established early last year to gather and
analyse information on arms caches and flows in the region, will continue
working through 15 December.
Cote d'Ivoire's government is currently in turmoil, after the entire cabinet
resigned last week amid public outcry over a toxic dumping scandal. Prime
Minister Banny was supposed to have appointed a new cabinet by the end of this
week.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]


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