Belgium funds peace and reconciliation

A project aimed at building peace and fostering reconciliation in Cote d'Ivoire is to receive funding amounting to 60 million CFA francs (about US $100,000) from the Belgian government under an agreement signed on Thursday in Abidjan by representatives of Belgium, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Cote d'Ivoire. The funding will go to the Projet d'Appui au Collectif de la Societe Civil pour la paix (Civil Society Collective for Peace Support Project), an initiative involving religious leaders, human rights and pro-democracy organisations and others. The money will be drawn from the Belgian-Ivorian Development Fund and will complement previous contributions made by Canada and the European Union. The Collectif is one of the best-known civil society initiatives mounted to complement international and national efforts to end a seven-month-old conflict in Cote d'Ivoire. The aim of the group, which is led by the former head of the national electoral commission, Honore Guie, is to ensure that the numerous socio-ethnic communities that live in the country do not exacerbate the ongoing armed conflict. Guie told IRIN that the group had been travelling to neighbourhoods and towns to urge people not to transform the conflict between rebels and government forces into a civil war. At times, he said, Cote d'Ivoire had been close to such a scenario. Since its inception around October 2002, the group has carried out missions within Abidjan and to numerous government-controlled areas to spread its message of peace, reconciliation and unity, Guie said. In light of international efforts and the evolution of the situation in the country, Guie said, the group is aiming to take its message to rebel-held areas, a proposition. That, UN Resident Coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih said, would give a boost to peace in the country. Canada has already contributed 70 million FCFA (about US $116,000) to the Collectif while the EU has given 150 millions FCFA (some US $250,000). In other news, Benlamlih, who is also UNDP's resident representative in Cote d'Ivoire, launched on 10 April the first phase of a programme known as Appui a la Base pour la Reconciliation/Reinstallation et l'Integration Sociale (ABRIS). ABRIS englobes numerous crisis and post-crisis projects and is aimed at achieving peace and preventing conflits. UNDP has contributed more than one billion FCFA to the project, which is to be implemented in both government and rebel-held areas, UNDP said in a news release.