Parliament meets in defiance of international community

As Cote d’Ivoire’s interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny began talks on Friday to set out a roadmap to peace for the divided West African nation, parliament met in special session in defiance of international guidelines. The extraordinary session, which opened on Thursday, was convened by National Assembly Speaker Mamadou Koulibaly, and attended by 102 of 202 MPs – nearly all of them members of President Laurent Gbagbo’s ruling Ivorian Popular Front. The session, set to last several days, is being held in defiance of UN-backed mediators who last month deemed it unnecessary to extend parliament’s mandate beyond 16 December when its term expired. In his opening address, Koulibaly said the panel, known as the International Working Group (IWG), was an instrument of former colonial power France. "They are trying to scare us but we will resist," he said. "The colonial era is over." The session was boycotted by the main opposition Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire and two smaller parties. "We are not going now and we will not go next time because parliament's mandate has expired," the leader of the opposition's parliamentary group Yeode Noutoua told IRIN. "The working group said it can ask us to carry out special peace missions, so we are waiting for that." The IWG, which is scheduled to meet again on 17 February, is monitoring UN Resolution 1633, a peace plan which calls for interim premier Banny to oversee disarmament of rebel and pro-government militia and organise elections by next October. Since a failed coup in 2002 Cote d’Ivoire has been torn in two, with rebels controlling the north and the Gbagbo government holding the south. In the political capital Yamoussoukro on Friday, Banny began talks with his cabinet - "to define government action focused on an end to the crisis,” he told reporters. Also present were UN special envoy for Cote d'Ivoire Pierre Schori and UN envoy for the elections Antonio Monteiro. Diplomats said Banny hopes for broad agreement on a timetable for preparations for disarmament ahead of next October’s presidential elections.