Peacekeeping deployment on track despite fatal crushing of demo

The scheduled deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in Cote d’Ivoire will not be hampered by a rise in tension after the security forces killed dozens and possibly hundreds of civilians who attempted to stage a banned demonstration against President Laurent Gbagbo, a spokesman of the United Nations Mission in Cote d’Ivoire (MINUCI) said on Monday. “The events [of these last days] will not delay the deployment of troops”, MINUCI’s spokesman, Jean-Victor N’Kolo told IRIN. An advance party of the 6,240-strong force has already arrived in Abidjan to prepare for the deployment of the UN peacekeepers whose mandate officially begins on 4 April. Blood flowed in the streets of Abidjan, the commercial capital of Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday and Friday last week as the security forces smashed attempts by unarmed opposition parties to stage a banned demonstration against President Gbagbo. On Sunday, the government raised the official death toll from 25 to 37. However, two opposition parties, which withdrew from a broad-based government of national reconciliation earlier this month, have estimated the death toll to be much higher at 350 to 500. According to a situation report published by the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), military helicopters spread teargas from the sky as security forces turned their guns on unarmed civilians. Organisers of the demonstration said low-income neighbourhoods, such as Abobo, Port Bouet, Youpougon, Adjamé and Koumassi were the “hot spots” where most of the deaths took place. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its medical teams had faced difficulties in gaining access to some injured people and it had raised this issue with the authorities. Although a shaky calm returned to Abidjan on Monday, there remained the threat of further violence. Many privately run buses and taxis decided to stay off the streets. Opposition pledges to mount a second anti-government demonstration on Monday failed to materialise. However, Cisse Bacongo, a spokesman for the opposition Rally of the Republicans (RDR), told IRIN that his party would not give up until its supporters had been allowed to march on the Place de la Republic, the main square near the presidency where protestors traditionally congregate. Alphonse Djedje Mady, Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI), the other main opposition party in parliament, backed the RDR position. Since the violent repression of last week’s demonstrations two smaller opposition parties have also withdrawn from the broad-based coalition government led by Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, throwing further doubt over the future of Cote d’Ivoire’s stalled peace process. The country plunged into civil war in September 2002 and rebel forces rapidly seized control of the poorer and mainly Muslim north. A French brokered peace agreement in January 2003 led to a ceasefire three months later and the formation of a government of national reconciliation to lead the country to fresh elections in October 2005. However progress towards genuine reconciliation has been painfully slow. Gbagbo has dragged his feet over implementing political reforms promised in the peace agreement and the rebels, who are wracked by internal divisions, have repeatedly put off moves to disarm them. Nevertheless, an improvement in the general political climate during January and February persuaded the UN Security Council to send a peacekeeping force to supervise the disarmament process and the holding of next year’s elections. Christened the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (ONUCI), it will work alongside 4,000 French peacekeeping troops already in the country. President Gbagbo and his ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) said last Thursday’s march was an “armed insurrection” aimed at overthrowing the government. However the rebels, who are now officially known as the New Forces did not take part. They said they did not want their involvement to be misconstrued as an attempt to seize power by force. On Sunday, Diarra seconded Gbagbo’s televised call for dialogue with the opposition. However, none of the G7 bloc, which groups the New Forces and opposition parties, have agreed to meet the president. The RDR’s Bacongo said that his party was occupied with the “macabre job of counting its dead” and was disinclined to “sit and negotiate with their killer”. Djedje Mady of the PDCI was of the same opinion. He said there could be no such meeting until security could be guaranteed in the country. The New Forces have reinforced their troops and assumed positions close to the French patrolled ‘zone of confidence’ which runs east to west across the country, dividing the former rebels in the north from government controlled territory in the south. Privately diplomats and political analysts have been saying that pro-Gbagbo militia, the so-called ‘Young Patriots’, were involved in Thursday’s killings. OCHA reports with concern that armed civilians dressed in camouflage fatigues fought alongside security forces. Many businesses and shops in Plateau and others suburbs did not open on Monday. International schools remained closed, but some Ivorian schools resumed classes. “I came to work but things are running are half-pace”, a financial auditor said on Monday, while reading the headlines of the local press at a kiosk in front of her office in the central business district. International radio stations normally available on FM in Abidjan – the BBC, RFI, Africa Numero 1 and VOA - have had their transmissions cut. The last time this happened was in September 2002, when the civil war began. “I just came in to see what was happening, I am going back home”, an official of the foreign ministry told IRIN on Monday morning. He said several colleagues within the ministry and other ministries had opted to resume work on Tuesday.