I Coast 'must pass reforms'
2004-11-23 13:04
Paris - The head of the International Francophone Organisation (OIF) on Tuesday urged Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo to pass electoral reforms to help pull his country out of a deepening cycle of violence and political crisis.
"The only thing that can unblock the situation is for President Gbagbo to make the National Assembly vote on Article 35" of Ivory Coast's constitution, which calls for reforms to electoral laws that would allow key opposition figures, such as Alassane Ouattara, to run for president, OIF chief Abdou Diouf said.
"If President Gbagbo and the majority that backs him vote to amend Article 35, immediately afterwards, the entire international community will mobilise for the second objective: disarmament, reunification of the country, a referendum to approve the constitution and move towards elections," said Diouf, a former president of Senegal.
Ivory Coast has been divided into the rebel-held north and pro-Gbagbo south since September 2002, following a failed attempt to oust Gbagbo that boiled over into a low-level civil war.
Former colonial power France brokered a peace pact to end the conflict and reunite the country in January 2003, under which the constitution was to be reformed, rebels and the political opposition were brought into a transition government, fighters from both sides disarmed, and Gbagbo to have ceded some of his powers to a prime minister.
But the pact has never been fully implemented, with rebels and the opposition accusing Gbagbo of refusing to abide by many of its terms.
Disarmament was to have begun in October but was delayed, with the rebels refusing to lay down their weapons unless political reforms agreed to in the peace accord were implemented.
Two weeks later, Ivory Coast's civil war escalated sharply, with Gbagbo's troops bombing rebel-held cities in the north.
The OIF, an umbrella-group of French-speaking nations, is poised to begin its 10th summit meeting Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, on Friday.