UN observers to monitor ceasefire

The UN Security Council is to send about 75 military observers to Cote d'Ivoire to monitor the fragile ceasefire in the country's civil war and assist other peacekeeping forces in the country, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, Jeremy Greenstock said. Col. Matthieu Bony, commander of the five-nation West African peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire, told IRIN on Tuesday that the unarmed UN mission, would be deployed throughout the country to ensure respect for a ceasefire following an eight-month conflict that was sparked-off by a failed coup attempt in September. Gen. Khalil Fall, overall commander of the West African force in Cote d'Ivoire and a US envoy were due to meet on Tuesday in the country's official capital Yamoussoukro to discuss the UN deployment, he added. Greenstock, who is due to lead a Security Council mission to seven West African countries from 15-23 May, told reporters in New York on Monday that the dispatch of the monitoring mission - to be known by its French acronym of MINUCI - would be approved on Tuesday or Wednesday. It would support the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Cote d'Ivoire. The UN monitors would work with the Ivorian army, all other fighting groups, the 4,000-man French peacekeeping force and the 1,200 strong Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peacekeeping force deployed in the country. "MINUCI will make sure that peace wins over war," Greenstock said. "It would make an immediate difference to have that UN instrument on the ground, even if it was not weapon wielding." The Security Council mission is due to arrive in Nigeria on Thursday, before going to Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It includes representatives from Cameroon, Chile, France, Germany, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Syria and the United States. Greenstock said the visit would demonstrate continuing UN interest in West Africa. He said it would identify obstacles to improved cooperation and examine links between the conflicts in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone. It would also consider the impact of these conflicts on neighbouring countries. In particular, the mission would assess the use of mercenaries, arms trafficking and the refugee situation, review the activities of the Secretary-General's special representative in West Africa, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, who is based in Dakar, and examine the protection of civilians and children in armed conflict. Greenstock said he wanted to get a credible assurance of compliance from Liberian President Charles Taylor that he would comply with US sanctions against his government which were renewed last week for a further year. "I felt let down following the October 2000 mission on the commitments that we got from the government of Liberia at that point and we don’t want a repeat of that," he said. Carolyn McAskie, UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Humanitarian Envoy for the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire told the Council earlier, that 750,000 people had been displaced within Cote d'Ivoire by the country's eight-month old civil war. The situation, she said, was particularly desperate in the west and northwest. The human rights group Refugees International (RI) recently warned that a further displacement of people could take place unless the government started to protect non-citizens and curbed xenophobia. "The government has occasionally encouraged anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiments by publicly reviling "foreigners"," it said in statement on 6 May. "Although a government of national unity was recently created and a ceasefire signed, failure to curb xenophobic laws and attitudes could compromise attempts at peaceful resolution and catalyze further displacement....The term "foreigners" is a misnomer. Many of those were born or raised in Cote d'Ivoire [but] have been harassed, threatened, and in a few instances, killed." Before the civil war erupted in September last year, about 30 percent of Cote d'Ivoire's 16 million population were immigrants or the children of immigrants from other West African countries. RI said, at least 400,000 "foreigners" had fled the country, including about 200,000 Burkinabe, 70,000 Guineans, 48,000 Malians, and 44,000 Liberians. Details are available at: www.refintl.org