Ivory Coast Calls U.N. Biased As Peacekeeping Mission Begins

http://www.unwire.org/News/328_426_22544.asp

Ivory Coast Calls U.N. Biased As Peacekeeping Mission Begins
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Ivory Coast's human rights minister accused the United Nations yesterday of
encouraging rebel groups to defy government authorities by dint of its view
of the human rights situation in the West African country.

In a statement timed to coincide with a ceremony marking the deployment of
U.N. peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, Human Rights Minister Victorine Wodie
said, "It has been noted that certain attitudes and written statements by
the U.N. tend to encourage defiance of the Ivorian authorities."

"In the same vein, a biased and sometime ethnic interpretation of the human
rights situation in Ivory Coast can be seen in the activities of the U.N.
organs in Ivory Coast," she said, adding that this could incite
insubordination and the destruction of the government's foundations
(News24.com, April 6).

On Friday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights announced plans to
investigate rights abuses in a March 25 government crackdown on opposition
protesters demonstrating against Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo (U.N.
Wire, April 2).  According to government reports, 37 people died in the
violence, while the opposition believes as many as 500 people were killed
(News24.com).

The atrocities appear to have been carried out by paramilitary forces loyal
to Gbagbo rather than regular members of the police and army, according to
Integrated Regional Information Networks.  Ivory Coast Security Minister
Martin Bleou has said that such forces have begun terrorizing the
inhabitants of many of the suburbs worst affected in the civil war that has
raged in Ivory Coast since 2002, with rebel forces and opposition parties
fighting those loyal to Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) Party (IRIN,
April 5).

U.N. Takes Helm Of Peacekeeping Operations

In a ceremony yesterday in the commercial capital of Abidjan, the United
Nations assumed command of 1,300 West African troops mustered by the
Economic Community of West African States and sent to Ivory Coast early last
year.  The U.N. peacekeeping force will gain another 5,000 between now and
July and work alongside a 4,000-strong French force operating in the country
with U.N. authorization.  The French troops will serve as a rapid
intervention force for the U.N. peacekeepers.

At the ceremony yesterday, U.N. Special Representative Albert Tevoedjre read
a message from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urging national
reconciliation.  He called on the opposition parties to rejoin the
Government of National Reconciliation as soon as possible and asked Gbagbo
to submit to the National Assembly draft laws required by the January 2003
Linas-Marcoussis Agreement (U.N. release, April 5).

According to IRIN, while opposition parties and rebel groups are not on good
terms with Gbagbo, opposition leaders and Gbagbo loyalists were seen
mingling at yesterday's ceremony.  Attending were Alphonse Djedje Mady,
leader of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast
(PDIC); Andre Dakoury-Tabley, deputy political leader for the New Forces;
and leaders from another opposition group, the Rally for the Republic.

Gbagbo was absent from yesterday's ceremony.

In early March, the PDIC quit the Government of National Reconciliation
formed by Ivory Coast Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, claiming Gbagbo had
overridden the authority of PDIC ministers.  Following the March 25
demonstration, several other opposition parties also quit the government (IRIN).


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