POLITICS-COTE D’IVOIRE: Battling Through the Details of a Peace Agreement

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Fulgence Zamblé

ABIDJAN, May 14 2007 (IPS) - Signing a peace accord is one thing. Putting it into effect is quite another, as Ivorians are discovering.

The Mar. 4 agreement, reached in the Burkinabé capital of Ouagadougou, is the latest of several deals seeking to end the conflict that followed an attempted coup in 2002.

While rebel forces failed to take power in Côte d’Ivoire five years ago, they did succeed in seizing the north of the country. This region has remained in rebel hands, separated until recently from the government-controlled south by a buffer zone under the command of United Nations and French troops.

In terms of the Ouagadougou accord, national and rebel troops are to be integrated into a single army by next month.

But although weapons have been surrendered and forces cantoned, according to the defence ministry, only three combined brigades have been created of the six planned – something blamed on a lack of logistical support.

Military rank also threatens to complicate unification of government and rebel troops. In certain instances, rebels advanced through eleven ranks in five years, going from corporals to commanders – a rapid promotion not accepted by governmental army chiefs.

More optimistically, commanders of pro-government militias in the west of the country announced a few days ago that their demobilisation would start May 19.

Last month the buffer zone was removed. Since the end of April, combined patrols of government soldiers and former rebels have been operating in the area to ensure protection for people and goods – taking over from the U.N. and French soldiers present under Operation Unicorn (Operation Licorne).

However, insecurity is high in the region, where armed bandits are active. Police also extort money from travelers, who are forced to get out of their vehicles for inspection at each road block.

The Ouagadougou agreement further provides for the identification of voters who can take part in elections due in 10 months time.

Identification is a delicate issue in Côte d’Ivoire, where millions of northerners – descendants of migrants from neighbouring states who helped feed the post-independence boom – have been denied both land rights and citizenship.

The rise of xenophobic sentiment towards those of foreign descent is linked to the economic decline that took hold in the West African country during the 1990s. It also underpinned the events of 2002, with rebels claiming to have taken up arms to fight discrimination against northerners.

Under the Ouagadougou accord, the process of providing birth certificates and certificates of nationality to some two million people should have begun about a fortnight ago. But, it has yet to start.

“For almost two months we’ve been going round in circles,” Lepetifils Da Candy, leader of Citizen Legitimacy (Légitimité Citoyenne), a civil society organisation based in the financial hub of Abidjan, told IPS. “We are led to believe that we can move freely from north to south, but the reality is different, as people continue to experience the most inhumane treatment.”

The cost of identifying voters is put at three million dollars – part of the 29.4 million dollars that it is officially estimated the whole peace process will cost. This budget also includes 6.4 million dollars for general elections, and 8.6 million dollars for disarmament and demobilisation of troops.

Most of these costs will be have to be provided for by donors.

But, Da Candy has doubts about their faith in the peace process, saying parties to the Ouagadougou accord have much to prove: “There are declarations of good intentions, but militias in the west are still armed, the administration struggles to redeploy officials (in the north), the coffers of the state are under pressure, donors still have no confidence (in the peace process). How are we going to manage elections?”

He is also skeptical about the March agreement, describing it as “misleading, since it was made between two executioners of the Ivorian people,” this in reference to President Laurent Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces (Forces Nouvelles) – the rebel alliance.

“At present, the agreements presented do not convince us that it is possible to reunite the country and organise free and transparent elections,” Da Candy added.

Political analyst Maurice Zagol is more upbeat. “We are on the right track, despite certain small delays,” he told IPS. “The most important thing is to re-establish confidence between the ex-fighters. If this goal is attained, the rest of the process will be nothing more than a formality.”

Zagol does not foresee any additional obstacles to reunification.

“Nonetheless,” he adds, “we must prepare with the greatest haste for the redeployment of government officials (in the north), as they will have the responsibility of re-establishing the state’s authority and taking in hand the organisation of elections.”

Soro has been named prime minister in the power-sharing administration required by the Ouagadougou agreement.

Thousands of people – including civilians – have died in Côte d’Ivoire over the course of the past five years. The conflict has also led to several million others being internally displaced, or becoming refugees.