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| Africa: West | |
| BBC: Clear the air Ivory Coast talks | |
| 2004-01-12 | |
The rebels had withdrawn from the government, accusing President Laurent Gbabgo of not implementing peace accords. The country has been divided between north and south - between rebels and national army - since September 2002.
- I’m drawing a blank here. I can’t think of a referendum that was not controversial. At the weekend, a senior Ivorian army figure urged politicians to take the pursuit of peace seriously and "stop playing with people’s destinies and lives". Lieutenant Colonel Kone Madi, who works closely with the chief of staff, said that the army did not want to fight anymore but that politicians had not yet shown a real desire for peace. "The politicians will be obliged to follow us, as there is no other solution if we are to get out of this war," he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme. I don’t fully understand, but I think he is saying that the politicians can not fight a war without some armies participating - maybe has found the elusive secret of peace. Lokk for Dennis Kucinich to quote Col Madi. He also said he felt a call from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for the Security Council to approve the sending of an additional 6,000 more peacekeepers was not enough. Mr Annan said the forces should only be deployed if all parties involved in the conflict had made sufficient progress towards peace by early February. Deploy forces only if peace is at hand. That’s pretty non-intuitive. There are already 5,500 French and West African troops monitoring a shaky peace deal, but Colonel Madi said that the total figure was still several thousand short of what was required. Compared to this quagmire, NATO seems to be moving along pretty quickly in Afghanistan. Last week, military figures in the Ivory Coast reached agreement on how a disarmament and demobilisation programme could go ahead. You first. Elections are set for October 2005. Hey, how come the UN gets to hold off for another year while the coalition has to take care of business on the fly? | |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #1 see old coffee Anan's doing all he can again,weird logic that guy works by,perhaps he'll only send peace keepers in future trouble spots when everyones allready dead.Great that is.Annan seems so slow its incredable. |
| Posted by: Jon Shep U.K 2004-1-12 5:53:25 PM |