Youths block streets, halt citizenship hearings

Pro-government youths erected barricades in Cote d’Ivoire’s main city and other parts of the government-held south on Wednesday as President Laurent Gbagbo ruled out key hearings on citizenship unless northern rebels disarm. The youths, known as Young Patriots, burned tyres and held rocks and sticks as they turned away vehicles downtown and in the crowded suburbs of Abidjan. Stores and businesses were shuttered and few people ventured onto the streets. Police fired teargas to disperse the youths but they quickly reassembled. The Young Patriots declared Wednesday “the day of all dangers”. Youths also erected barricades in the towns of Agboville, Dimbokro and Duekoue. “No disarmament, no public hearings” on citizenship, Gbagbo told a gathering of prefects who have been displaced from the north by the nearly four-year-long civil war. “We can’t go to elections without disarmament and the public hearings are the first part of the elections.” The hearings, which got off to a slow start in Abidjan last Thursday, aim to establish citizenship for some 3.5 million undocumented Ivorians. The exercise would update voter rolls for UN-backed presidential elections scheduled for October. Observers say the elections will likely be delayed because of continual snags in the peace process. New voters could help determine the outcome of the polls, by shifting the balance of power away from Gbagbo. Public hearings began in the rebel-held north on Tuesday and were continuing there on Wednesday, but had ground to a halt in the government-held south on Tuesday as youths began taking to the streets. The debate around citizenship helped spark Cote d’Ivoire’s conflict. The ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) has denounced the hearings as an effort to inflate voter rolls in support of northern New Forces rebels. On Sunday, Gbagbo accused the UN of being biased in favour of the New Forces. He said the UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (ONUCI) was quick to denounce his supporters, such as the Young Patriots, but kept silent on the disarmament of rebels. Young Patriots attacked UN installations in Abidjan in January. Establishing who is Ivorian is a key step in the implementation of a UN peace plan to end the civil war that broke out in September 2002 and reunify a country where some 750,000 people have been displaced and three million are receiving humanitarian assistance. Some 10,000 UN and French peacekeepers monitor a buffer zone between the rebel-held north and government-held south. aa/cs/nr