OP-ED ON IVORY COAST: ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS
The power of the Second Republic-led by H.E. President Laurent Gbagbo has been in place since October 26th, 2000, after a difficult military transition but which bequeathed to the Ivory Coast People a consensual Constitution adopted with more than 86 % of popular vote.
The Government which resulted from it met the big challenges of the moment, namely to:
- form a government of large consensus associating all significant political party (FPI, PDCI, UDPCI, RDR, PIT),
- set up the Institutions of the
- restore the confidence, on one hand, between the very natives of Cote D’Ivoire by the political dialogue and the democratic opening, and on the other hand between the natives of the Ivory Coast and the foreign communities through the organization of a Forum for the National Reconciliation;
- renew ties with the financiers and the international financial Community (U.E, IMF, BM, BAD, CFD), to restructure the state economy and recreate growth;
- and begin the consolidation of the State of right through the modernization of the Judiciary and the promotion of the freedom of the media.
This satisfactory picture was even greeted by the General Secretary of the Nation United, Mr. Kofi Anan during his brief stay in
However, for the sake of peace President Gbagbo accepted to negotiate with the rebel groups at the request of the ECOWAS and France. And hence, starting with the MARCOUSSIS ACCORD (France) of January 2003, many other peace agreements (never respected by the rebel groups) were signed between the government of President Gbagbo and the rebels Group including the TSHWANE ACCORD, the most recent Peace accord, signed in South Africa on April 6th under the leadership of H.E President Thabo M’Beki mandated by the U.N. and U.A.
Unfortunately, the rebels –who never really gave up their will to seize the power by force throughout a military coup - once again refused to implement their part of the agreement; and continue to demand that President Gbagbo resign after October 30th, 2005 while, at the same time, they continue to refuse to disarm, and hence preventing the democratic process to take place through fair elections.
It is under such climate of mutual distrust, and having seen the true face of the rebellion and considered all the sacrifices made by President Laurent Gbagbo and the people of Ivory Coast, that The International community led by the U.N and the African Union came to the conclusion that it was finally time to uphold the legitimacy of the legal institutions of the IVORY COAST.
The U.N. Resolution 1633 (2005) was thus adopted by the Security Council at its 5288th meeting, on 21 October 2005 in part to implement the rule of law throughout democratic process and avoid another genocide just like it was the case in Rwanda in 1994.
S/Res/1633 (2005), as it is called, Re-affirmed its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity of , and recalled the importance of the principles of good neighborliness, non-interference and regional cooperation. It also requested the creation of an International Working Group, on the basis of paragraph 10, articles (iii) and (v) of the decision of the Peace and Security Council, to verify that the Prime Minister has all the necessary powers and resources described in paragraph 8 above and immediately to report to the Security Council any hindrance or difficulty which the Prime Minister may face in implementing his tasks and to identify those responsible. S/Res/1633 (2005), on the basis of paragraph 14, also demanded that the rebels proceed without delay with the DDR program in order to facilitate the restoration of the authority of the State throughout the national territory, the reunification of the country and the organization of the elections as soon as possible.
A Prime Minister “acceptable to all” – Mr. Charles K. Banny – and with the necessary powers to implement the DDR program in order to facilitate the restoration of the authority of the State throughout the national territory, the reunification of the country and the organization of the elections as soon as possible was appointed on December 4th, 2005 with the active support of the international community particularly Presidents Obasanjo (of Nigeria) and Chirac (of France).
Mr. Banny formed his cabinet on December 28, 2005 with the mission to do just that: implement the DDR program in order to facilitate the restoration of the authority of the State throughout the national territory, the reunification of the country and the organization of the elections no later than October 31st, 2006. President Gbagbo, the People of Ivory Coast, friends of
Nowhere in this resolution was the International Working Group given the authority to supersede the institutions of the Ivory Coast, a sovereign nation and member of the U.N. Alas, instead of making sure that the Prime Minister respects and implements –within the allotted time- the road map for which he was appointed, the International working Group headed by Pierre Schori (special envoy of Secretary Anan) is instead creating new controversies that will certainly worsen the current situation and impede the peace process. Why in the world will Mr. Schori want to dissolve the parliament of the , a sovereign nation, or remake it to the likening of the rebels? What makes Mr. Schori (be it the special envoy of the U.N Secretary General) believe that he can impose his will on the People of Ivory Coast by violating its constitution? The fact of the matter is that Mr. Schori and President Chirac do not want democratic elections to take place in the
But they will not succeed in their ill-fated mission because the Ivorian People will not waver and will stand as one person to fight for their political and economic independence against the neo-cons personified by Mr. Chirac and his government.
Ladies and gentlemen, this letter formally invites you friends of the and democrats around the world to take an active role in the current crisis in order to bring about a peaceful resolution. By and large, the international community (concerned mainly with the war) seems to be ignoring the tragedy unfolding before their very eyes in the . The same way a civil war (facilitated by the French government) was largely ignored in
Sadly though, more than a million innocent Rwandan nationals have already perished due largely to the inactions (or actions) of the UN and international community, and nothing – not even I’M SORRY of Mr. Anan – will bring them back.
Your silence and inactions (or actions) vis-à-vis the current plight of the People of Ivory Coast makes you co-conspirators of Mr. Chirac and his army.
Will you be for political, economic, social independence and democracy in the and throughout all Africa or will you stand by and watch French President Chirac and his government deny those basic rights to Africans throughout neo-colonialism and the war his army is waging in the ?
As far as I and the People of Ivory Coast are concerned, the fight for freedom marches on whether
MM. Schori and Chirac like it or not. And God is watching us all!