New UN peace effort in I Coast
2004-04-04 18:27
Abidjan - The UN took over peacekeeping in volatile Ivory Coast on Sunday, just over a week after clashes between anti-government protestors and security forces left at least 37 people dead and further undermined the country's faltering peace process.
The changeover began with the transfer to UN command of 1 300 west African troops, who are already in Ivory Coast manning a buffer zone between the rebel-held north and government forces in the south.
T
he African force has been in Ivory Coast since early 2003, under the command of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Nearly 5 000 more UN soldiers are due to deploy in Ivory Coast between now and July, most of them from Bangladesh, Morocco, Pakistan and Ukraine, under a resolution approved by the UN Security Council on February 27.
The United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast (Unoci) will be tasked with overseeing a disarmament and reconciliation process in the west African country, which has been crippled since September 2002, when rebels rose up against President Laurent Gbagbo and plunged the nation into civil war.
The UN troops will operate alongside 4 000 French soldiers, who are in the country on the authorisation of the UN but who will remain a separate military force from the Unoci.
France has been deeply involved in the Ivory Coast crisis since it began, largely by dint of its status as the former colonial ruler of a country which was the region's economic powerhouse before the civil war.
France has a permanent military base in Abidjan, the main port in the south.
More French troops were dispatched to Ivory Coast shortly after the rebel uprising, first to protect French and other foreign nationals and then to police the ceasefire line. The soldiers' current role is to serve as a rapid intervention force for the UN peacekeepers.
A ceremony had been due to be held on Sunday to mark the start of the UN peacekeeping mission. But it has been delayed until Monday to enable Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, who is on a private visit to France, to attend, UN officials said.
The Security Council unanimously decided in February to send the 6 240-strong force to Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, for an initial period of one year from April 4.
France had repeatedly demanded the deployment of UN peacekeepers, hoping their presence will reduce tension with Gbagbo's camp, whose supporters accuse France of colluding with the opposition and even with the rebels.
The rebels say the aim of their seven-month uprising was to defend the rights of Ivory Coast's Muslims and ethnic minorities, both of whom, they insist, have been marginalised by Gbagbo's government.
The signature in January 2003 of a French-brokered peace pact has done little to heal the gaping wounds in the country, many of them the result of years of festering ethnic and religious distrust.
The peace deal stipulated that Gbabgo should cede some of his executive powers to the prime minister and brought opposition groups and rebels into a transitional government of national unity.
But tensions have remained high and they boiled over yet again in late March.
The political opposition say up to 500 people died when the army followed presidential orders and cracked down on an anti-government demonstration in Abidjan on March 25, called in defiance of an official ban on public protests.
The government has stuck to an official toll of 37 dead. Ivory Coast's security minister said there was "incontestable evidence" that atrocities had been committed after the protest but blamed them on "parallel forces".
The crackdown sparked the withdrawal from government of the opposition and ex-rebel parties and brought the peace process to the brink of collapse.
The UN said on Friday it was is preparing an inquiry into alleged human rights abuses during the protest.