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Last Updated: Jul 4, 2009 - 8:25:21 AM |
Côte d’Ivoire: What’s Needed to End the Crisis,* the latest policy
briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the fragile 2007
Ouagadougou Peace Agreement, which ended five years of fighting and
territorial partition between the government and the rebel “Forces
Nouvelles”. National and local authorities need to dramatically
increase the tempo of electoral preparations, administrative
reunification and disarmament of armed groups or the country could
slide back into open conflict.
“Ivorian leaders must ensure that the country will vote in a peaceful
environment”, says Rinaldo Depagne, Crisis Group Senior Analyst. “It
has been suffering for the better part of the last decade and is on the
edge of destroying its one hope for exiting the conflict situation”.
The 2007 peace deal has been mismanaged by all sides. The result is
that Côte d’Ivoire remains a divided country. The construction of a
national administration is incomplete. Although the military zone
commanders in the north, the so-called “com’zones”, have relinquished
their administrative power, they still oversee local independent
security forces and have large militias at their disposal.
The disarmament process is at a standstill, with 9,000 former rebels
yet to be integrated into reorganised police and armed forces, and up
to 20,000 pro-government militias also still in place. Arms destruction
has been negligible, limited to a small amount of weapons. The economic
crisis aggravates the situation by putting legions of poor and idle
young men at the disposal of the “com’zones” and government militias.
The important election registration process has moved too slowly. Two
fundamental steps – identification and enrolment of voters – have been
only partially completed. The procedures, underfunded and
ill-conceived, are held hostage by politicians and government
officials, a very dangerous scenario in a country that has recently
used war as a means to resolve problems of national identity and power
legitimisation.
The international community should start using its financial leverage
to get the process back on track, pressing for disarmament and
administrative reunification to resume. President Blaise Compaoré of
Burkina Faso, who brokered the peace agreement, needs to restore
momentum to the facilitation effort. If they are not disbanded in time,
the armed groups will have the power to intimidate the voters and
manipulate the results. An effective national administration is an
important prerequisite for any real progress towards a stable peace.
“Time is pressing for a relaunch of the Ouagadougou Peace Agreement. A
slide back into open conflict must be avoided”, warns Daniela Kroslak,
Deputy Director of Crisis Group’s Africa Program. “Côte d’Ivoire is
today in a situation of neither war nor peace that is both worrying and
unpredictable”.
Source:Ocnus.net 2009
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