/ 21 December 2010

UN Security Council extends Côte d’Ivoire mission

The United Nations Security Council extended its peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire on Monday, hours after the United Nations’ (UN) top envoy in the West African country said armed men had been threatening staff in their homes.

Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat in last month’s election and his demand that peacekeepers leave have raised fears that UN personnel and other foreigners could be targeted in violence. Over the weekend, masked gunmen opened fire on the UN base there, though no one from the global body was harmed in the attack. Two military observers were wounded in another attack.

“Armed men have been coming to the personal houses of United Nations employees, asking them to leave and searching their houses under the pretext of looking for arms,” UN Special Representative Choi Young-jin said at a news conference in Abidjan.

A spokesperson for Gbagbo in Paris on Monday said he doubted soldiers or those supporting Gbagbo would be involved in such tactics.

Gbagbo has ordered the UN peacekeeping force to leave Côte d’Ivoire, claiming it is biased in favor of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara. The UN and the international community recognise Ouattara as the victor of last month’s presidential runoff vote.

The UN has refused to leave, and the Security Council resolution adopted unanimously on Monday extended the mandate of the 8 650-strong force until June 30, 2011.

“Members of the Security Council warn all stakeholders that they will be held accountable for attacks against civilians and peacekeepers and will be brought to justice in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law,” said a statement read at the end of the meeting by US Ambassador Susan Rice, the current council president.

‘Massive violations of human rights’
The council also extended the temporary deployment of up to 500 additional personnel until March 31, and extends by four weeks the temporary redeployment of three infantry companies and an aviation unit from Liberia to Côte d’Ivoire.

The council resolution stepped up pressure on Gbagbo to concede defeat, and urged all Ivorian parties and stakeholders “to respect the will of the people and the outcome of the election” in view of the recognition of Ouattara by the African Union and the West African regional group Ecowas.

The US State Department on Sunday ordered most of its personnel to leave Côte d’Ivoire because of the deteriorating security situation and growing anti-Western sentiment.

The UN says more than 50 people have been killed in recent days, and that it has received hundreds of reports of people being abducted from their homes at night by armed assailants in military uniforms. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said there is growing evidence of “massive violations of human rights”.

Toussaint Alain, an adviser for Gbagbo, said he didn’t believe soldiers or people close to Gbagbo would carry out such acts.

“The UN is trying to manipulate public opinion and is looking for a pretext for a military intervention,” he told The Associated Press (AP) in Paris. He blamed possible kidnappings on supporters of his opponent, disguised in military uniforms.

Gbagbo chases UN out
The UN had been invited by the country itself to supervise the vote and certify the outcome following a peace accord after Côte d’Ivoire’s 2002-2003 civil war. But in a statement read on state television Saturday, a Gbagbo spokeswoman said that 9 000 UN peacekeepers and another 900 French troops supporting them were to leave immediately.

Gbagbo accuses the UN mission of backing Ouattara and arming rebels who support him.

About 800 UN peacekeepers are protecting the hotel from which Ouattara is trying to govern the country. They are, in turn, encircled by Gbagbo’s troops. On Monday, the UN said the hotel had been completely blockaded and that people inside had not been able to get needed medication.

Meanwhile, the European Union said on Monday it would impose an assets freeze and a visa ban on Gbagbo and his wife after a Sunday deadline for him to step down elapsed.

Gbagbo’s adviser said Europe should not interfere.

“Europe must understand that this is not the colonial period,” said Alain, Gbagbo’s adviser for EU relations. “Or if Europe wants to colonise Côte d’Ivoire, if Europe wants to subdue Côte d’Ivoire, then let’s be clear about it and we’ll become European citizens.”

The United States is also preparing to impose additional sanctions on Gbagbo in “the coming days”, said US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.

“Meanwhile, we are distressed to learn the extent of the abuses being perpetrated by masked militants in Cote d’Ivoire. We’re told abductions are occurring and discovery of possible mass graves in Abidjan. We deplore the use of violence and call for Ivoirians to remain calm and peaceful,” Crowley said during a briefing in Washington.

Sanctions
Sanctions, though, have typically failed to reverse illegal power grabs in Africa in the past.

Côte d’Ivoire was once an economic hub because of its role as the world’s top cocoa producer. The civil war split the country in a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south. While the country officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara still draws his support from the northern half of the country where he was born while Gbagbo’s power base is in the south.

Gbagbo claimed victory in the presidential election only after his allies threw out half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north, a move that infuriated residents there who have long felt they are treated as foreigners in their own country by southerners.

Gbagbo has also hired prominent American lawyer Lanny Davis apparently as part of an effort to help resolve the situation.

At a press conference on Monday, Davis said that he was not asked to determine who won but to evaluate fairly “all the facts regarding the November 28 election”. — Sapa-AP