UN warns I Coast on violence
2005-11-17 09:18
United Nations - The head of the UN sanctions committee on Ivory Coast said on Wednesday that he warned all factions during a recent visit to the war-divided west African nation that it might face strict sanctions if peace efforts didn't succeed.
Greece's UN ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis said he urged the government and rebel leaders to go "the extra mile" to reach an agreement on an interim prime minister and move toward elections next year.
He said: "Otherwise, the committee has no other alternative, but to assess the individual situation of each one of them."
Asked how the government and rebel leaders reacted, Vassilakis said "each one of them said the others are guilty".
AU tries to help
Ivory Coast had been split in two since rebels launched a failed coup bid in 2002.
The African Union and the security council had tried to help resolve the country's latest crisis, backing the prolongation of President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate for a year and calling for the appointment of a new, more powerful prime minister to help lead the country toward elections within one year.
That plan, however, immediately spurred heated argument about who would be prime minister and how much power the post would command.
Vassilakis said that before the sanctions issue was discussed, a prime minister needed to be named.
Security council
He said: "If the prime minister is not named, assuming in a week's time, then you will hear the security council president ringing a bell."
Russia's UN ambassador Andrey Denisov, the council president for November, said members would discuss all aspects of the crisis in Ivory Coast, including the political uncertainty and possible sanctions violations, in "the nearest future," possibly next week.
He said after a briefing to the council by the Greek ambassador that the situation in the west African nation "is very vulnerable and very uncertain" because rival factions had been unable to agree on a new prime minister.
Denisov said: "It's a big problem, and arms smuggling and sanctions is only one element."
Strict sanctions
If peace efforts didn't make progress, the council had said it might impose strict sanctions to complement an arms embargo in place since November 2004.
Denisov said any sanctions "must be more precise ... and must be more effective".
A UN report by experts monitoring the arms embargo, which was issued this week, said Ivory Coast's government had begun rebuilding its air force, one year after it was mostly destroyed by French forces in retaliation for an air raid that killed nine French soldiers.
It said that a 10-man team of technicians from Belarus and Ukraine was in Abidjan under contract by the Ivorian defence ministry to repair the aircraft.
Gbagbo's defence adviser, Kadet Bertin, said only civilian aircraft were under repair, intended for use by Gbagbo and visiting heads of state.
- AP