AU chairman arrives to kick start talks

African Union Chairman and President of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso arrived in war-divided Cote d’Ivoire’s main city Abidjan on Thursday promising to kick-start progress at talks between the five key players this Sunday.

President Nguesso told reporters on his first trip to the troubled West African nation that the AU would do “everything it could” to yield progress on disarmament and voter identification, critical issues in the run up to elections just six months away.

“The AU president’s presence is really needed to speed things up. Certainly we have the impression of progress, but in reality the political and military actors are getting nowhere,” said a western diplomat.

A failed coup d’etat to oust President Laurent Gbagbo in September 2002 left the world’s largest cocoa producing nation split between a rebel held north and government controlled south. Successive mediators have failed to end the stand off and last year peace-sealing elections failed to take place as scheduled in October.

Ivorians are sceptical that the parties will ever agree, even with the help of Africa's main pan-African body the AU. “Each time that there is an occasion for conciliation they don’t seem to be able to take it,” said businesswoman Nadine Konan.

The last round of talks between Gbagbo, rebel leader Guillaume Soro, and the two main opposition leaders Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara on 28 February were mediated by interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny in an atmosphere described at the time as “fraternal”. It was the first time that all sides had met face to face on Ivorian soil since the troubles began.

At the largely symbolic four-hour meeting the participants agreed to further discussions on the peace process and disarmament. They also threw their weight behind UN resolution 1633, the peace blueprint drawn up by African and international mediators in late 2005.

However the final statement did not give a clear timetable for disarming thousands of rebel and pro-government militia or set a date for presidential elections, which under Resolution 1633 must take place by October 2006.