Mbeki raises Ivory Coast stakes

2005-07-24 20:21

Pretoria - South African president Thabo Mbeki, the main mediator in Ivory Coast's peace process, said on Sunday that Pretoria was heightening its intervention in the west African nation to pave the way for elections later this year.

"We are ... deploying more people into the Ivory Coast - police, military people and people to work directly with the office of the prime minister," Mbeki told a news conference in Pretoria.

He said the South Africans sent to Ivory Coast would implement "decisions to do with disarmament and the presidential election in October ... and creating a climate for the reunification of the country."

"We are working in a troika of the prime minister, who heads a government of national reconciliation and national unity, the UN forces and ourselves."

Promulgated

Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo promulgated new election laws on July 14 - just hours before the expiry of the deadline set by a South African-sponsored agreement, including the creation of an independent electoral commission to oversee the presidential vote, which is slated for October 30.

In addition to establishing the electoral commission, the laws also concern nationality, a contentious issue since citizenship laws were tightened to exclude one of Gbagbo's main competitors from the 2000 presidential race, former prime minister Alassane Ouattara.

Ivory Coast, once a haven of stability in west Africa and the world's top cocoa producer, has been split in two since a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002, pitting rebels from the Muslim-dominated north against the Christian-populated south.

South Africa began spearheading international efforts to ensure that progress is made towards reunification after a 2003 peace deal stalled, with sanctions threatened against the country if an agreed timetable is not kept.

- SAPA