It is up to the African Union to decide when South Africa’s role as mediator in the Côte d’Ivoire conflict should end, Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said on Monday.
”The mediation is a mediation of the AU, not of the [rebel group] Forces Nouvelle [New Forces, or FN],” he told reporters in Pretoria. ”It is not for the parties in the Côte d’Ivoire conflict to decide when the mediation will end.”
The opinions of the FN on the topic are ”really irrelevant”, Lekota said.
The FN has rejected South Africa’s mediation role and accused it of bias.
Lekota said the mediator’s role will be limited from now on to observing that agreements reached are put in place as intended.
The AU and the United Nations are primarily responsible for enforcing the deals struck.
The mediation process has come up with agreed means for a variety of problems to be solved — including the general security situation in the country, the formation of a national unity government, disarmament of militia, demobilisation and the making of new laws.
The only outstanding thing, Lekota said, is for the leaders and citizens of Côte d’Ivoire to ”go to work to implement those agreements”.
It is not the role of the mediator to take action against defaulting parties, he added. That is the task of the UN.
”Our [South Africa’s] role was to ensure the foundation for implementation is in place. We’ve done that. We will remain seized with the remaining limited tasks of the mediation … to help with the implementation process.”
The negotiations had been about finding solutions to problems that made the execution of agreements impossible.
”We have removed them [problems] now. There is no longer an excuse for not implementing,” Lekota said. ”We are quite satisfied and quite happy to have completed our role in this matter.”
Rebels from the Muslim-dominated north of Côte d’Ivoire have been pitted against the Christian population in the south since a failed coup against President Laurent Gbagbo in September 2002.
The rebels recently announced their decision to withdraw support for presidential elections. — Sapa