I Coast: Hard line with UN
2004-04-23 19:28
Abidjan - President Laurent Gbagbo and his firebrand loyalists have hardened their line against the United Nations just weeks after a new peacekeeping mission arrived in Ivory Coast to steer it towards reconciliation after 19 months of conflict.
Denouncing the world body's "flagging credibility with the Ivorian people" in an open letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan published on Friday, Gbagbo also criticised the UN's inaction in addressing human rights violations committed since an armed uprising in September 2002 plunged the country into war.
"There is growing scepticism among the Ivorian people about the (UN's) handling of this crisis, especially with respect to human rights," the president wrote.
Friday's letter was a far cry from the warm reception he gave in late February to the unanimous decision by the UN Security Council to deploy some 6 000 troops to the restive state in the run-up to elections planned for October 2005.
And it comes on the heels of a lacklustre five-day visit by UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno aimed at jumpstarting the peace process in the one-time regional powerhouse, whose cocoa-based economy has taken severe hits since the crisis began.
Once a haven of stability and prosperity in a restive region, Ivory Coast has tumbled into chaos since rebels failed in their bid in 2002 to oust Gbagbo from the presidency.
The crisis was compounded last month when an opposition demonstration, called to protest Gbagbo's failure to implement a January 2003 peace pact, was violently quashed.
Opposition parties have since quit a unity government and refused all communication with Gbagbo, whom they blame for the clashes during and after the March 25 demonstration which they say left as many as 500 people dead.
The official death toll has been set at 37.
A second march by the opposition coalition, including an ecumenical prayer service to honor the victims of the March rally, is planned for Saturday. Organisers of the demonstration have said that UN peacekeepers will help to ensure security at the Parc des Sports, in Abidjan's Treichville neighbourhood.
Tensions between the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) and the UN have reached such a high pitch that Gbagbo's wife Simone, who is the current leader of FPI's parliamentary group, demanded during talks she held with Guehenno that the head of the UN civilian operation, Albert Tevoedjre of Benin, be dismissed, local media reported.
Another hardline member of the presidential camp, Mamadou Koulibaly, the head of the national assembly, refused to even meet with the UN envoy.
And Rights Minister Victorine Wodie early this month accused the United Nations of making a biased and ethnic-based interpretation of the rights situation in the west African country.
"All of this could lead to insubordination and the destruction of the foundations of the government," Wodie said in a statement released April 5.