France has recommended that the United Nations extend the mandate of international peacekeepers in Côte d’Ivoire, by one month, until it becomes clear whether a peace summit in Pretoria on Sunday achieves a breakthrough in slow-moving negotiations to end the West African country’s civil war.
The current mandate of the 4 000 French troops and a further 6 000 UN blue helmets expires on April 4, hours after the Pretoria summit is scheduled to take place.
President Thabo Mbeki, the African Union-appointed mediator, has invited the leaders of the main factions involved in the Ivoirean conflict to sit down at the same table to thrash out remaining differences.
Officials in Abidjan and the rebel capital Bouake said both Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro would attend, along with Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, a politically independent former civil servant who has been trying for two years to run a broad-based government of national reconciliation.
Aides have also confirmed the attendance of opposition leaders, former president Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara.
Against the stalemate back-drop, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (Onuci) mandate to be extended for a further 12 months. He has also asked the Security Council to bolster its strength by sending a further 1 200 peacekeepers.
The top UN official in Côte d’Ivoire, Alan Doss, backed that recommendation, telling the Security Council that right now Onuci ‘would not be able to respond effectively should two or more major incidents occur at the same time.â€
Côte d’Ivoire’s UN ambassador Philippe Djangone-Bi said that his government would only make its position known after the Pretoria summit.
South African diplomats said the meeting aims to sort out lingering obstacles in the way of Mbeki’s political roadmap and to reunify the country to hold presidential elections in October. This plan is based on the 2003 Linas-Marcoussis peace accord with new deadlines.
Many diplomats and political analysts fear it will be doomed to the same failure as a roadmap to peace drawn up in the Ghanaian capital Accra last July. That was the last time that the leaders of Côte d’Ivoire’s warring factions came face to face with African leaders pressing them hard to reach a peace deal.
Mbeki’s roadmap provided for the rebels and pro-government militias to finish disarming by April, but the process has yet to begin and tensions along the frontline are rising. On Tuesday the rebels accused President Laurent Gbagbo of ‘reinforcing his ranks†and preparing an attack in the run-up to the peace summit.
Nine ministers appointed by the rebel New Forces movement have boycotted all Cabinet meetings since Gbagbo’s air force launched bombing raids on rebel positions in November last year. This has scuppered the day-to-day functioning of Diarra’s government of national reconciliation.
Controversy still surrounds moves to revise Article 35 of the Constitution. The opposition wants Gbagbo to promulgate a constitutional amendment, already approved by Parliament, that would allow people with just one Ivorian parent, like Ouattara — a former prime minister supported by the rebels — to stand as a presidential candidate. But Gbagbo insists that it be put to a referendum.
Many diplomats have paid tribute to Mbeki’s mediation efforts, but have warned that time was running out, a message that Annan has already driven home.