The European Union’s head office criticised security forces and rebels in Côte d’Ivoire on Tuesday for continued violence as well as foot-dragging in organising elections called for in a deal last year that ended the country’s civil war.
The European Commission recommended the 25 EU governments start a process that could lead to a freeze on EU aid to Côte d’Ivoire unless it can ”re-establish the full respect of the principles of human rights, democracy and rule of law”.
EU foreign ministers could take up the proposal at their next meeting on September 3.
In Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital of Abidjan, presidential spokesperson Desire Tagro said the government is open to dialogue with the EU and has already called for an international investigation of events.
”We have nothing to hide,” he said.
He also called on the EU not to ”penalise the people of Côte d’Ivoire” for human rights violations in areas under rebel control.
Côte d’Ivoire erupted in civil war after a failed attempt to oust President Laurent Gbagbo in September 2002. The country remains divided, with rebels having taken the north and government forces controlling the country’s south.
A January 2003 peace deal largely quelled fighting, but little action has been taken to satisfy the central tenets of the peace deal.
Loyalists and rebels recommitted themselves on July 30 to the peace accord, and on Monday rebels and other opposition leaders rejoined Côte d’Ivoire’s power-sharing government, ending a boycott that began in March when security forces killed more than 100 opposition followers.
The EU’s executive commission cited those killings in Abidjan, the commercial capital, as well as dozens more during fighting last month between rebel factions in the northern city of Korhogo, which is controlled by the insurgents.
”Human rights were seriously violated,” the commission said in the written proposal.
It also said the elections scheduled for 2005 under the peace plan had been jeopardised by ”huge delays” in adopting legislation necessary to proceed, including setting up an independent electoral commission.
”The holding of credible, open and transparent presidential elections in October 2005 and parliamentary elections in December 2005 is essential if fresh crises like the present one are to be avoided,” it said, noting that the civil war was rooted in disputed elections in 2000.
The Ivorian government is also accused of compromising the rule of law by stalling an EU-financed audit of the country’s lucrative cocoa sector. — Sapa-AP