Gbagbo-De Villepin to talk peace in Gabon

Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and France’s foreign minister, Laurent de Villepin are due in Libreville, Gabon, on Friday to try to hammer out an agreement on how best to restore peace and stability to the country. Ivorian state radio announced on Friday that Gbagbo would head from Gabon to Mali and then Burkina Faso. The Libreville talks, which will be held under the auspices of Gabon's President Omar Bongo, are the latest effort by African heads of state and the international community to mediate in the 14-month old Ivorian conflict. In the last two weeks, President John Kufuor of Ghana, who is also the acting chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, has hosted two high-level meetings in Accra which have failed to produce any meaningful result. Last weekend, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, whose country has been accused of supporting Ivorian rebels, hosted a meeting with Ivorian Prime Minister Seydou Diarra and Ivorian rebel leader Guillaume Soro. Soro has also travelled to Senegal for talks with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. After meeting Diarra and Soro in Ouagadougo, Compaore emphasised that only the Ivorian protagonists themelves could solve Ivory Coast's problems. But both the government of President Gbagbo and the rebels have stuck to their “guns”, refusing to make concessions. The rebels, also known as “New Forces”, accuse the government of violating the peace agreement signed in January in Paris and sabotaging peace efforts. They argue that Gbagbo has withheld governing powers he was meant to haand over to Prime Minister Diarra under the peace agreement signed in France in January. The government also accuses the rebels of not respecting the agreement, notably refusing to accept disarmament as a pre-requisite to all peace efforts. In spite of this latest diplomatic ballet and countless other efforts, Cote d’Ivoire’s political situation has virtually ground to a halt, notably since late September when the rebels withdrew from government, accusing President Gbagbo of blocking peace efforts. Last week in Abidjan, the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi said the international community was beginning to despair and that the two sides needed to work fast because “time was running out.”