Hope for peace flares in troubled Ivory Coast

BOUAKE – A landmark visit by Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo to a former rebel capital has raised hopes for a new era in the west African nation’s tortuous quest for peace, experts say, but underline that much more work is needed on the ground.

Gbagbo, who visited the divided country’s second city on Monday for the first time since a September 2002 rebellion split the world’s top cocoa grower in half, declared the war over in a highly symbolic ceremony. Along with his prime minister Guillaume Soro, a former rebel who led the uprising, Gbagbo burnt weapons at a peace ceremony in a bid to definitely turn the page on the five-year civil war.The “flame of peace” is then to be carried to all 19 regions of Ivory Coast to symbolise national reconciliation.Experts yesterday said the event could be a turning point in the fortunes of a once model nation seen as an oasis of peace and stability in restive west Africa.”It is an important political event which has the potential to move the country a little further from armed conflict,” said Gilles Yabi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank based in Brussels.Aly Coulibaly, spokesman for the opposition Rally for the Republicans of former prime minister Alassane Ouattara – Gbagbo’s former arch-foe – described it as a “powerful action …(with) considerable repercussions”.But though symbolic and emotionally charged the ceremony is “very far” from being a major breakthrough in the fragile peace process, a European diplomat warned.”This morning, Ivory Coast woke up in the same state as the day before, still divided into two and with enormous problems to tackle to unblock the situation,” he said, adding: “Nothing has moved …”Five months after Gbagbo and Soro signed a new peace deal on March 4 brokered by neighbouring Burkina Faso, there have been no major advances in critical stumbling blocks such as voter identification ahead of new elections.Disarmament and army reforms remain sketchy while the return of the state administration in formerly rebel-held north has not progressed much.”It is a long-term process.It requires time to build confidence between the two camps towards peace,” Meite Sindou, Soro’s spokesperson said in response to criticism that the much vaunted peace deal had not yielded much.The impasse is partly due to the fact that the two former adversaries – Gbagbo and Soro – are out to protect their personal interests at the expense of the country’s 16 million people, their critics say.Gbagbo on Monday vowed to speedily organise elections, theoretically planned for early 2008 according to the latest peace agreement.Polls have been postponed twice already since October 2005 because of political bickering and deadlocks.By drafting in Soro as prime minister in a unity government, removing a buffer zone that kept the two warring sides apart and Gbagbo’s return to a former rebel fiefdom has shown that the latest peace accord appears to have gone further than earlier mediation attempts.The country’s former colonial ruler France, the United Nations, the African Union and a west African bloc have all tried to intervene unsuccessfully to end the country’s long-running unrest.The opposition warn that rushing to elections without addressing the underlying causes of the crisis in Ivory Coast including a new census, corruption and the feared pro-Gbagbo militias, could spell doom.The other demon Ivory Coast has to exorcise is the tenuous question of Ivoirite, or Ivorianness, first evoked to marginalise opposition leader Alassane Outtara – which unleashed a wave of xenophobia in the country.Many people in Ivory Coast are like Ouattara in that they have one parent who is either a foreigner or was born in a foreign country.The concept of Ivoirite moots that only those born of Ivorian parents are nationals and have the right to vote.Soro on his part Monday underlined a commitment to lasting peace.But his camp estimates that it will take more than a year to fulfil the objectives of the current peace process and hold the long-delayed elections which have extended Gbagbo’s stint in power.Nampa-AFPAlong with his prime minister Guillaume Soro, a former rebel who led the uprising, Gbagbo burnt weapons at a peace ceremony in a bid to definitely turn the page on the five-year civil war.The “flame of peace” is then to be carried to all 19 regions of Ivory Coast to symbolise national reconciliation.Experts yesterday said the event could be a turning point in the fortunes of a once model nation seen as an oasis of peace and stability in restive west Africa.”It is an important political event which has the potential to move the country a little further from armed conflict,” said Gilles Yabi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank based in Brussels.Aly Coulibaly, spokesman for the opposition Rally for the Republicans of former prime minister Alassane Ouattara – Gbagbo’s former arch-foe – described it as a “powerful action …(with) considerable repercussions”.But though symbolic and emotionally charged the ceremony is “very far” from being a major breakthrough in the fragile peace process, a European diplomat warned.”This morning, Ivory Coast woke up in the same state as the day before, still divided into two and with enormous problems to tackle to unblock the situation,” he said, adding: “Nothing has moved …”Five months after Gbagbo and Soro signed a new peace deal on March 4 brokered by neighbouring Burkina Faso, there have been no major advances in critical stumbling blocks such as voter identification ahead of new elections.Disarmament and army reforms remain sketchy while the return of the state administration in formerly rebel-held north has not progressed much.”It is a long-term process.It requires time to build confidence between the two camps towards peace,” Meite Sindou, Soro’s spokesperson said in response to criticism that the much vaunted peace deal had not yielded much.The impasse is partly due to the fact that the two former adversaries – Gbagbo and Soro – are out to protect their personal interests at the expense of the country’s 16 million people, their critics say.Gbagbo on Monday vowed to speedily organise elections, theoretically planned for early 2008 according to the latest peace agreement.Polls have been postponed twice already since October 2005 because of political bickering and deadlocks.By drafting in Soro as prime minister in a unity government, removing a buffer zone that kept the two warring sides apart and Gbagbo’s return to a former rebel fiefdom has shown that the latest peace accord appears to have gone further than earlier mediation attempts.The country’s former colonial ruler France, the United Nations, the African Union and a west African bloc have all tried to intervene unsuccessfully to end the country’s long-running unrest.The opposition warn that rushing to elections without addressing the underlying causes of the crisis in Ivory Coast including a new census, corruption and the feared pro-Gbagbo militias, could spell doom.The other demon Ivory Coast has to exorcise is the tenuous question of Ivoirite, or Ivorianness, first evoked to marginalise opposition leader Alassane Outtara – which unleashed a wave of xenophobia in the country.Many people in Ivory Coast are like Ouattara in that they have one parent who is either a foreigner or was born in a foreign country.The concept of Ivoirite moots that only those born of Ivorian parents are nationals and have the right to vote.Soro on his part Monday underlined a commitment to lasting peace.But his camp estimates that it will take more than a year to fulfil the objectives of the current peace process and hold the long-delayed elections which have extended Gbagbo’s stint in power.Nampa-AFP