Question mark hangs over future role of peacekeepers

With just over a month left to run on their current mandate, the 10,000 UN and French peacekeeping troops in Cote d'Ivoire face an uncertain future in which their role may have to be redefined. Their present mandate from the UN Security Council to help maintain a ceasefire between government and rebel forces and oversee the eventual disarmament of rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire expires on April 3. But so far there is no sign of the rebels agreeing to disarm under the terms of a January 2003 peace agreement. Indeed, tension and distrust between the two sides has risen since President Laurent Gbagbo's armed forces launched an abortive offensive against the north in November last year. Diplomats say three months of mediation efforts since then by South African President Thabo Mbeki have so far failed to make any progress in putting the peace agreement back on track. They also warn that time is running out to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on schedule in October, as provided for in the French-brokered Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement President Gbagbo questioned the future role of the international peacekeepers again this week, saying that if they were not going to disarm the rebels, they should go home. “I have more than 10,000 soldiers from around the world in my country, whom I have asked to help me bring an end to the rebellion,” Gbagbo told a visiting delegation of local leaders from the central Tiassale region on Monday. "Those who come here must clearly state the reasoning for their presence - either they're here to rid us of the rebellion, in which case they disarm the rebels, or they let us disarm them ourselves and they go back to where they came from," he added. General Abdoulaye Fall, the force commander of the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI), subsequently pointed out that he was only mandated to supervise a disarmament programme consented to by both Gbagbo and the rebels. The rebel New Forces movement has so far refused to surrender its guns, alleging that Gbagbo has shown bad faith in implementing his side of the peace deal and cannot be trusted. Guillaume Soro, the leader of the New Forces rebel movement said on Thursday that it would be "collective suicide" for the rebels to disarm immediately in the present circumstances. Fall told reporters in Dakar on Wednesday that ONUCI's mandate would have to be extended before he could disarm anybody and for that he would first have to receive orders from the UN Security Council. “I suppose that the day that the international community asks the (peacekeeping) forces in Cote d’Ivoire to disarm whomsoever, it will provide the means to disarm those who need to disarm,” he said during a visit to Dakar on Wednesday. “But at the moment, the force does not have that mandate,” he added. The Senegalese general heads a multiantional force of 6,240 UN troops who work together with 4,000 French soldiers under separate command. Under an agreement with the United Nations, the French troops, who are well equipped with fighting vehicles and helicopters, will support ONUCI as a rapid reaction force in the event of trouble and will help ONUCI to patrol a buffer zone along the frontline. However, the French are not due to play any direct role in disarming Ivorian combatants. France, the former colonial power in Cote d'Ivoire, sent its peacekeeping force into the world’s number one cocoa producer shortly after the civil war broke out in September 2002. At the time, the French troops were widely seen as having blocked a rebel advance southwards towards the capital Abidjan. However, Gbagbo has since come to regard them as an irritating restraint on his own freedom of military action, particularly since French forces stopped the Ivorian army's November offensive in its tracks by disabling its small fleet of fighter bombers and helicopter gunships. This move triggered a wave of anti-French riots in the capital Abidjan. At least 57 people were killed and nearly 9,000 foreigners, most of them French residents, hastily left the country on evacuation flights. This led France to re-assess the role of its military presence in Cote d'Ivoire, the most prosperous country in West Africa, which was once the jewel in its imperial crown. President Jacques Chirac stated bluntly during a visit to Senegal in early February that French troops would not stay in Cote d'Ivoire unless Gbagbo, the African Union and the United Nations asked them to remain there. "For France, the situation is clear," Chirac said. "We will do what we are asked. If people want us to stay, then we will stay. If they don't want us to stay, then we will leave." "If the United Nations asks France's Unicorn Force to stay, we will examine that request positively but only on the condition that the African leaders ask for it... starting of course with the Ivorian government," Chirac added. Diplomats say that if the French troops were to leave, ONUCI would have to be reinforced in order to maintain the fragile peace in Cote d'Ivoire. Shortly after the flare-up of fighting in November, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the Security Council to send an extra 1,200 troops to strengthen ONUCI's capacity on the ground. It now appears that his call for reinforcements is being heeded. Earlier this week, France submitted a draft resolution to the Security Council, calling for 1,226 additional UN peacekeepers to be sent to Cote d'Ivoire. These reinforcements would consist of an 850-strong infantry batallion, backed by a fleet of eight attack helicopters, a 125-man police unit and 270 support staff. Meanwhile, the Director of the Africa Division of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), Dmitry Titov, has been visiting Cote d'Ivoire to assess the situation and plan for the future. Titov completed a four-day visit to Cote d’Ivoire on Monday, which included meetings with Gbagbo and rebel leaders. He will now report back to Annan before a new mandate for ONUCI is authorised. Before leaving, Titov warned that the situation in the country remained volatile. "Although the situation on the ground is calm, we have to remain extremely vigilant because the situation could change very fast," he said in a statement distributed by ONUCI.