UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Security Council members agreed on a plan Thursday to send more peacekeepers and police to Ivory Coast in a bid to get the country's peace process back on track.
France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, the current council president, said a council resolution authorizing 850 more troops and 375 police would be put to a vote on Friday. It was virtually certain to be approved. France had wanted more troops to complement the 6,200-strong mission but faced opposition, including from the United States on the swelling costs of peacekeeping.
| No doubt the French offered to pick up the tab ... |
``It was the best compromise we (could) get, you know this is life in the council,'' de La Sabliere said. ``We have accepted, because we think there was a kind of urgency.''
Council members also agreed they could transfer troops from another U.N. mission in Sierra Leone if necessary. De La Sabliere said that could be some 1,200 troops for now.
Rebels aided and abetted by the French at times have controlled the northern half of Ivory Coast since a failed coup attempt in September 2002 sparked a civil war in the world's top cocoa producer. A French-brokered peace deal in January 2003 has failed to hold. In a peace accord signed April 6, warring parties agreed to end hostilities and disarm.
Two months after Ivory Coast's rebels and government signed the deal, the crisis in Ivory Coast has only gotten worse with rising tension and new violence. The two sides have agreed to meet in Pretoria, South Africa next week to try to jump-start the process.
| I'd get worried if the UN types start talking about a 'roadmap'. |
The draft resolution circulated Thursday backed those efforts and urged the two sides to get back to the peace process.
| That's going well, doncha think? |
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