New peace effort under way but Gbagbo refuses role for West Africa

As African leaders gear up for two successive summits to salvage peace efforts in Cote d'Ivoire, the country’s president Laurent Gbagbo has ruled out any mediation role for his fellow West African leaders. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has invited heads of state from across the region to the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Friday for “talks on the situation in Ivory Coast.” But just three days before the get-together, Gbagbo warned in a speech broadcast on national radio and television that he would never accept a peace proposal sponsored by ECOWAS. “Some ECOWAS countries are seriously involved in the rebellion,” he said, referring to the insurgency three years ago which split the world's top cocoa producer into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south. “Cote d’Ivoire will never agree to allow these countries to decide its fate while they are both judges and players,” he added. Gbagbo, whose government has repeatedly accused northern neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali of backing the insurgents, went on to slam the New Forces rebels for allegedly looting the country’s coffee, cocoa and diamonds “to the benefit of certain countries in the region who now are exporting wealth they never produced.” He said it was for these reasons that his government believed ECOWAS no longer had a role to play in efforts to reunite the country, divided since September 2002. Friday’s ECOWAS talks, to be followed by a wider African Union summit probably within two weeks, were called following the collapse of the latest in a long line of mediation efforts. The so-called Pretoria accord, brokered by AU-appointed mediator and South African President Thabo Mbeki, was to have climaxed with presidential elections on 30 October. But neither side stuck to the disarmament deadlines set by Mbeki to allow the vote to go ahead, and the rebels in recent weeks have rebuffed the South African mediation team on the grounds that it is biased in favour of Gbagbo. In his national address on Tuesday, Gbagbo told the nation that Mbeki had stated in his report to the United Nations last month that “I was the sole signatory of the (Pretoria) accords to have held to my commitments.” So with the rebels snubbing South Africa, and Gbagbo snubbing ECOWAS, it will be difficult for West African leaders to come up with a peace proposal that can accommodate both sides in the conflict while easing diplomatic friction among African states. “Consultations within the African Union are going to be very difficult,” said Gilles Olakounle Yabi, a West Africa analyst with the Brussels-based think tank, Crisis Group. “There will be a struggle for influence.” Pretoria has already reacted angrily to recent media reports that Mbeki is about to be removed as mediator by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, currently president of the AU. “Gbagbo is not entirely wrong about ECOWAS. He does not have many friends there,” he added. “One possible solution is to hand the Cote d’Ivoire problem back to the AU and to Obasanjo, who has the advantage of being both a West African leader and head of the AU.” Yabi said new deadlines for elections were among ideas on the table to end Cote d’Ivoire’s simmering conflict. “But then what? It will be very difficult to come up with a proposal.” The Ivorian president on Tuesday reiterated his determination to stay on as head of state until new elections can be held, despite demands from the rebels and the opposition that he step down on 30 October and hand over to a transitional authority. “I took office through elections and I will return it only to a person elected according to the constitution,” Gbagbo told the country. Rebel spokesman Amadou Kone said on Wednesday that setting new dates for elections was not a remedy. “We are at war in Cote d’Ivoire because there are problems. Elections are not the problem. The problems must be dealt with before holding an election. He said the rebels wanted to be sure of the right to vote for four million immigrants from other West African countries and their offspring. He also called for the dismantlement of pro-Gbagbo militia forces. The head of the so-called G-7 group of opposition parties, Alphonse Djedje Mady, meanwhile said ECOWAS must be allowed to play a role. “Our country is burning, we want to put out the fire.”