I Coast crisis addressed

2005-09-29 08:27

Emmanuel Goujon

Lagos - West African leaders will meet on Friday to seek a way to relaunch the failed peace process in Ivory Coast and head off a political crisis after the abandoning of plans for a presidential election next month.

The special summit, initiated by the African Union chairman, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, will be held exactly a month before the official end of the mandate of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who has vowed to stay in office until an election is called.

"The idea is to review the situation and be able to make some recommendations for the AU on the way forward," Mohammed ibn Chambas, the executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), told AFP on Wednesday.

"The meeting is important because after the AU level its recommendations will go to the UN. That is the level where it should go, because while the situation in Ivory Coast concerns primarily people in Ivory Coast, it is also a concern for countries in the region and the AU."

Situation examined

On October 6 in Addis Ababa the African Union will hold a summit of the Peace and Security Councils of the continental body and the Ecowas "to examine the situation in Ivory Coast," he said.

In a televised broadcast late on Tuesday, Gbagbo said under the constitution presidential elections could not be held while national unity was endangered.

He said he would not take part in the Abuja summit and rejected any new mediation, arguing that the West African bloc had failed in previous efforts.

He demanded the application of past accords, notably those signed last June in Pretoria under the auspices of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who had been mandated by the AU as a mediator.

The spokesperson of the rebel New Forces (FN) holding the northern half of the country, Sidiki Konate, described Gbagbo's address as "a scratched record that has nothing new."

Speaking from Addis Ababa, where FN leader Guillaume Soro was meeting AU officials, he said the rebels were determined to bring about democratic elections, and Gbagbo could no longer be president after October 30.

The Ivorian opposition and the FN have demanded a period of transition of 14 months without Gbagbo in which to organise elections.

As far as international observers are concerned, however, the difficulty in staging the presidential poll and the end of Gbagbo's mandate are linked problems.

French President Jacques Chirac has urged United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to bring the world body into "serious involvement" in moves to organise elections.

This month Annan announced that the presidential poll could not be held because Ivory Coast has been split since September 2002 following a failed coup against Gbagbo.

He also warned that the Security Council might impose sanctions against personalities posing an obstacle to the peace process.

- AFP