No sign of breakthrough at West African summit

West African leaders gathered in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Tuesday to urge President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire to make a greater effort to save his country's faltering peace process. But an official communique issued after the six-hour closed door meeting gave little indication of a breakthrough. It mentioned no specific new measures to persuade rebels occupying the north of the country to return to the government and begin a delayed process of disarmament. The communique simply said Ggagbo and his independent prime minister Seydou Diarra, had agreed to cooperate to make Cote d'Ivoire's broad-based government of national reconciliation work effectively. Diarra attended the Accra summit, along with Gbagbo. There has often been tension between the men, especially over the president's refusal to delegate more powers to the cabinet. "The president and prime minister of Cote d'Ivoire undertook to work closely together to ensure that the government of national reconciliation is able to function as a team." the communique said. "They also undertook to implement the programme of work drawn up by the government of national reconciliation," it added. Briefing reporters after the summit, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said "It is clear that all the West African countries are determined to work with Gbagbo to ensure that he works with Diarra effectively to return the country to peace." He also stressed that the six heads of state who met with the Ivorian leader had insisted that full implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis peace agrement, brokered by the French government in January, was the way forward. In particular, he stressed the need to enact urgent reforms to laws that make it difficult for immigrants from other West African countries to acquire Ivorian nationality and which prevent Ivorians with a foreign parent or who have held dual nationality from standing for election as president. Questioned about the absence of rebel representatives at the summit, Chambas said: "The rebels have consulted extensively with the West African heads of state who understand the problem they are facing." The heads of state were determined to "make the Marcoussis accord work," he added. Rebel forces occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire signed the Marcoussis peace agreement with Gbagbo in January and joined a broad coalition government in April. But they pulled out on 23 September and froze plans to disarm, protesting that the president was refusing to delegate meaningful powers to ministers and was failing to implement other key elements of the peace accord. Gbagbo and his senior aides have consistently complained that the peace agreement gave too much away to the rebels and have expressed reluctance to implement all its requirements. Since the rebels suspended their participation in government, the political atmosphere in Cote d'Ivoire has become increasingly sour, raising fears that West Africa's most prosperous country could slide back into open conflict. The commercial capital Abidjan is full of police and army check points, hundreds more immigrant farmers have been thrown off their land by pro-Gbagbo gangs of youths in government-controlled parts of the country. Meanwhile, law and order has broken down in parts of the rebel-held north, where many local commanders are becoming increasingly autonomous from the rebel leadership. The Accra meeting was called by Ghanaian President John Kufuor in his capacity as chairman of ECOWAS, which has 1,300 peacekeeping troops stationed in Cote d'Ivoire to prevent a resumption of hostilities, alongside 4,000 French soldiers. It was also attended by the presidents of Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Niger. None of the visiting heads of state spoke to reporters as they left the meeting, which one insider described as "frustrating." The final communique said Togo and Niger had agreed to provide an extra 80 gendarmes to act as bodyguards for ministers in the government of national reconciliation. Diplomats say only those belonging to Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party trust the Ivorian police and army to protect them. The communique also recommended moves to tone down inflamatory statements in the Ivorian media and said the heads of state had considered proposals that the West African peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire should be expanded and given a full UN mandate. The United Nations has large peacekeeping operations in nearby Liberia and Sierra Leone, but so far has only sent 34 military liason officers to Cote d'Ivoire to assist the French and West African peacekeeping forces. In a report to the Security Council earlier this week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recommended the dispatch of a further 42. He warned in his quarterly update on the situation in Cote d'Ivoire that "there is a serious danger of a possible degradation in the fragile security of Cote d'Ivoire if the current stalemate remains unresolved for too long." Gbagbo arrived in Accra accompanied by Diarra, a former civil servant chosen as a neutral figure to hold the coalition cabinet together and steer Cote d'Ivoire through to fresh elections in 2005. The Ivorian president left the meeting with a big smile on his face. But Diarra, who came out shortly afterwards was expressionless. The Accra summit was originally due to have been accompanied by a meeting of reconciliation between Gbagbo, Cote d'Ivoire's rebel leaders and the leaders of the main opposition parties in parliament. But this plan was abandoned over the weekend after it became clear that West African leaders would have to wring more concessions out of Gbagbo before they felt able to urge the rebels to resume their nine seats in cabinet and begin a delayed process of disarmament. "It's a very frustrating process," one diplomat inside the summit told IRIN shortly after it began."We take a step forward and then we have to take another step backwards."