COTE D'IVOIRE: Ivorians pessimistic about future of peace deal
ABIDJAN, 31 March 2004 (IRIN) - After the violent repression of a banned opposition demonstration last week, in which dozens of civilians were killed by security forces, Ivorians are wondering whether a 15 month old peace accord can be salvaged.
“It is a real setback for democracy. I am deeply pessimistic because the government refuses all dialogue. I am also disappointed in the international community because it has been passive in the crisis,” one student studying politics and English at an Abidjan university told IRIN.
Life has, by and large, returned to normal in the main city Abidjan. Less than a week ago tens, possible hundreds, of civilians were killed in the city’s poorer suburbs by security forces battling to prevent a banned march for peace.
But until the political players within the year-old government of reconciliation are able to work together, residents of Abidjan have slim hopes that peace will be restored.
“The leaders need to leave the political scene because they cannot get along,” said a young man who works as a security guard and lives in the working class suburb of Abobo – one of the ‘hot spots’ of last weeks violence. “As long as they are around, we will have no peace,” he warned.
The government’s heavy handed repression of the protests resulted in the worst bout of political violence in Abidjan since President Laurent Gbagbo signed a ceasefire with rebels occupying the north of the country in May last year.
Gbagbo justified the security forces’ tough response by describing the demonstrations as “an armed insurrection.”
However, there is little evidence to suggest that any of those killed were bearing arms.
Privately diplomats said they believed many people had been killed by militia-style pro-Gbagbo youth organisations known as the “Young Patriots” acting alongside the army and police.
But nearly one week after the bloodshed, the death toll remains unconfirmed and the rebels and the two main opposition parties in parliament are refusing to talk to the president.
They have long accused Gbagbo of failing to implement fully the French brokered Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement, signed in January last year.
Now, all three have walked out of the broad-based coalition government led by independent prime minister Seydou Diarra, leaving Gbagbo and his Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party in full control of the reins of power.
A numbers game
The opposition parties which defied a government ban on demonstrations to organise last week’s protest have estimated that 350 to 500 people were killed in two days of street violence and police raids on the homes of suspected opposition activists.
The Ivorian Movement for Human Rights said at least 200 were killed 400 wounded.
But the government continues to insist that the death toll was only 37.
“Let’s stop the numbers’ game. One dead is one too many”, a presidential source told IRIN, accusing the parliamentary opposition and northern rebels of wanting to capitalise politically on the disputed death toll.
The next step
“The next step needs to come from the president”, Amadou Kone, a senior official of the New Forces rebel movement told IRIN from the rebel capital Bouake in central Cote d’Ivoire.
The rebels joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April last year. However, they have now suspended that role for a second time following the latest violence in Abidjan.
The rebels staged an initial three-month walk-out between September and December last year in protest at Gbagbo’s unwillingness to implement all the political reforms demanded by the Marcoussis peace agreement.
The Rally of the Republicans party led by exiled former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, which is broadly sympathetic to the rebels, also withdrew its ministers after police and troops fired live ammunition into crowds of unarmed civilians while helicopters sprayed tear gas on demonstrators from above.
The largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI) of former president Henri Konan Bedie, had already suspended its participation in the government of national reconciliation on 4 March, saying the government was “malfunctioning” because Gbagbo was using “underhand tactics” to undermine the authorities of its ministers.
More than half of the cabinet has now pulled out, with only 20 of the 41 ministers still occupying their seats.
“Apparently (implementation of the peace agreement) has been blocked. One thing is sure and that is that dialogue has stopped,” a senior PDCI official who once served as Cote d’Ivoire’s ambassador told IRIN.
Kone, a senior aide of rebel leader Guillaume Soro, said it was up to Gbagbo, as head of state to put the peace process back on track by holding a frank dialogue with the “G7” group of opposition forces.
Kone said such talks should focus on “lifting obstacles” to the implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis peace accord.
But he warned that rebel disarmament was off the agenda for now.
“We are not even talking about DDR (disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation) any more,” he told IRIN.
Officials within the presidency retorted that Gbagbo was doing everything the Marcoussis agreement required him to.
“The agreement is being implemented”, one official who declined to be named told IRIN.
“Rebel-ministers sitting in government - that is Marcoussis being applied. A disarmament programme - that is also Marcoussis. Negotiations toward peace - that is also Marcoussis being applied. If they want the presidency, they should just say so,” he said sarcastically.
Meanwhile, a question mark hangs over the role of a 6,000-strong UN peacekeeping force that has begun arriving in the country to supervise disarmament of the rebels and ensure fair play during presidential elections planned for October 2005.
The UN Security Council only agreed to send the blue helmets at the end of February after receiving assurances that progress was being made in implementing the Marcoussis peace agreement after several months of standstill.
The UN troops are due to work alongside 4,000 peacekepers from France, the former colonial power in Cote d’Ivoire. These have been patrolling a demilitarised zone between the government-held south and the rebel-held north of the country, to keep the two sides apart.
Now the political climate has deteriorated sharply and following the latest street violence in Abidjan, the United Nations has declared the city to be in security phase three – where non-essential staff and the spouses and children of UN employees are required to leave the country.
Foreign nationals among the dead
Neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali have expressed alarm at the Ivorian government’s iron fisted moves to smash last week’s protests, which resulted in the death of several of their nationals.
In Burkina Faso the foreign minister summoned the Ivorian ambassador to his offices to protest at the killing of at least four Burkinabe nationals during the disturbances. One was a woman who had travelled to Abidjan to attend a wedding.
Later the Burkinabe issued a statement condemning the killings and demanding an inquiry.
In Mali, a spokesman for the African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (SADI) party, which has one minister in the Malian coalition government, told the French news agency AFP that “dozens” of Malian nationals had been killed in last weeks violence.
He said that many of these victims had been killed while attending a mosque in the working class suburb of Abobo suburb and many more Malians remained missing.
Over the past 50 years millions of Malians and Burkinabe have emigrated to Cote d’Ivoire, attracted by the potential to earn higher wages in the country’s once booming economy than they could back home.
Immigrants from other West African countries and their offspring accounted for 30 percent of Cote d’Ivoire’s 16 million population before civil war broke out in September 2002.
However, they are now widely regarded as rebel sympathisers and have become the target of abuse and harassment in the government-held south. About half a million have returned to their countries of origin since the conflict began.
As diplomats wait for Gbagbo to start talking to the opposition again, people on the streets of Abidjan are still wary. Many hope the arrival of the UN peacekeepers will help restore an atmosphere of peace and security throughout Cote d’Ivoire.
“The country needs an army who protects all of us,” said a man in his mid-thirties, a self proclaimed PDCI militant who works for a mobile phone company.
“Disarmament needs to happen. People need to feel that they can talk without feeling threatened,” he added.
But the man, who declined to give his name, said that when he tried voice his opinion by joining last week’s demonstration, he was prevented from doing so by men in army clothing.
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