Two top United Nations officials based in war-ravaged Côte d’Ivoire Tuesday solidly backed South African President Thabo Mbeki’s mediation after talks in Pretoria, and warned that any group trying to disrupt presidential polls set for October could face sanctions.
The support for Mbeki came after two main opposition parties in Côte d’Ivoire accused the South African peace-broker of being partisan and favouring current President Laurent Gbagbo, whose West African country has been sliced into two regions since a rebel uprising in September 2002.
”We had a very good meeting and we both said there is a strong need to move ahead … the important thing is that the train must start moving,” said Pierre Schori, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special representative in Côte d’Ivoire.
”We have full faith in President Mbeki. There should absolutely be no pretext for blocking the elections or the peace process,” he said, speaking on behalf of himself and recently appointed UN elections monitor Antonio Monteiro.
Schori warned that ”both the mediation [by South Africa] and the UN are powerful allies and guarantors who read from the same script”.
”We are assessing things on a daily basis and sending back reports,” he added, stressing that UN sanctions could be imposed on ”anyone who obstructs the peace process, anyone who flouts human rights, anyone who uses hate language or anyone breaking the arms embargo”.
Mbeki’s meeting with Schori and Monteiro came after Ivorian opposition groups questioned the South African leader’s credentials after he vetted some poll decrees issued by Gbagbo in the middle of last month.
Gbagbo in those decrees entrusted the National Institute of Statistics with the power of determining eligibility to vote, establishing lists and issuing electors’ cards, instead of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) due to be set up for the presidential polls.
Originally, under the agreement between the government and opposition, the CEI was given a larger role as the only body responsible for the electoral process, with the institute confined to an advisory role. — Sapa-AFP