War too lucrative to contemplate peace, says thinktank

With Cote d'Ivoire's peace process virtually paralysed and all hopes pinned on a regional summit in Ghana in two weeks time, a top international thinktank has urged other West African leaders to tackle those reaping economic rewards from the current deadlock. The International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report entitled "No Peace in Sight" (www.crisisweb.org), that government figures, rebels, businessmen and members of the security forces were all cashing in on the civil war in Cote d'Ivoire. The country has been split into a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north for the last 22 months even though the fighting officially stopped in May 2003. "The political impasse is exceptionally lucrative for almost everyone except ordinary citizens," the ICG said in its report, published on Monday. "Today's political actors have found that war serves as an excellent means of enrichment, and they may be ill-served by the restoration of peace and security." "The international community, and especially the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), needs to take on the spoilers more assertively and openly," the Brussels-based group added. Cote d'Ivoire's rival factions are due to meet in Accra on 29 July at a peace summit hosted by Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the current chairman of ECOWAS. Several other West African leaders who have played a prominent role in international efforts to restore peace to the country are also expected to attend. The Ivorian peace process has been frozen since March when the rebels and the four main opposition parties represented in parliament walked out of a broad-based government of national reconciliation. In May President Laurent Gbagbo retaliated by firing three ministers from the opposition G7 coalition. The ICG said ECOWAS should assume a higher public profile and speak up about the deep level of regional of concern. This would prevent Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo from saying that Africa was behind him and that only France, the former colonial power in Cote d'Ivoire, opposed him, it added. France has 4,000 peacekeeping troops in Cote d'Ivoire, most of whom are stationed along the frontline to keep the government and rebel forces apart. The ICG also called on the international community to investigate "the criminal politico-economic networks that make impasses such an attractive option for the political class." Cote d'Ivoire is the world's top cocoa producer, and the ICG report mentioned the crop as a source of illegal financial gain. "The massive amounts of money skimmed from the world's biggest cocoa crop have always constituted a slush fund for the government, giving its leaders effective independence from the normal processes of raising and spending funds by state institutions," the ICG said. It described an Enron-like structure of front companies and secret bank accounts which insulate the eventual beneficiaries from any criminal acts. It also noted the case of Guy-Andre Kieffer, a French-Canadian journalist who disappeared on 16 April this year who is widely feared to have been kidnapped and killed. "According to diplomatic sources, Kieffer had been hired by the president's office to investigate corruption within the cocoa business and the Ivorian government. Before long he was pulled up short and told that he was pushing rather too hard, and his research should end," the report said. The ICG also accused the rebels of monopolising the trade in cotton and weapons in northern Cote d'Ivoire and of levying informal taxes. In the south, it said businessmen close to the government had their interests protected by it and the security forces were raking in profits from impromptu roadblocks. The ICG also noted that the leaders of militia-style pro-Gbagbo youth organisations who in peacetime would probably have been unemployed, now enjoyed flash cars, bodyguards and as much as $80,000 a month from presidential coffers. "Much of the rhetoric of division and ethno-nationalist hatred on both sides of the conflict is highly theatrical and a cover for illicit economic gain," the ICG said. "Until the financial motivation of maintaining the impasse is addressed, there is little hope that the situation in Cote d'Ivoire will change, or even that elections will take place in October 2005." The group also urged the United Nations Mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI) to have all of its 6,420-person military contingent in place by the end of July. It said more patrols were needed on the western border with Liberia to stop Liberian fighters and weapons coming in to Cote d'Ivoire.