ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The United Nations has yet to restore peace to war-divided Ivory Coast, but a Nov. 1 resolution of the Security Council can boast of one achievement: It has reinforced the loose unity of those who oppose President Laurent Gbagbo.
His chief opponents consist of the rebel New Forces, the former ruling Democratic Party of Ivory Coast and the northern and Muslim-supported Assembly of Republicans.
Although each yearns for political supremacy and believes in its own cause, they all support U.N. resolution 1721 as a compromise that can resolve the conflict that plagues the diminished economic heart of West Africa.
“We are not trying to oppose anyone,” said Alphonse Djedje Mady, secretary-general of the Democratic Party. “We think all Ivorians must make mutual concessions and give mutual forgiveness to obtain peace.”
Peace has eluded Ivory Coast for nearly a decade because of two political events. The first was the 1999 military coup that ended the rule of elected then-President Henri Konan Bedie, the Democratic Party’s successor to founding President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who ruled for 33 years.
In the 2000 election, coup leader Gen. Robert Guei disqualified almost all major candidates and then declared himself the winner. Subsequent protests put Mr. Gbagbo in power.
In 2002, rebel groups, now collectively called the New Forces, seized control of half of the country, including the north and parts of the west.
Though that war officially ended in July 2003, control in Ivory Coast is still split between the government and the rebels. The absence of war or peace left a political deadlock that keeps Mr. Gbagbo as president, although his mandate expired in 2005. The government and the rebels can’t agree on rules for new elections.
Two attempts to organize elections — in 2005 and this October — have failed.
The latest U.N. resolution aims to push Ivory Coast toward elections on Oct. 31, 2007, by extending the term of the transitional government for a second year and by granting Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny additional powers to prepare them.
Spreading the blame
Mr. Djedje Mady accused Mr. Gbagbo of refusing to implement the new resolution because the president found it inconvenient.
“He’s searching for another way to solve the crisis. That’s not going to work,” Mr. Djedje Mady said.
It is not the first time Mr. Gbagbo has ignored international agreements regarding Ivory Coast.
Sidiki Konate, a New Forces spokesman, said Mr. Gbagbo is in no rush to leave office because he and his partisans are reaping economic benefits from his presidency.
The rebel spokesman noted that Mr. Gbagbo is earning millions of dollars a year as head of state and that his supporters now control the country’s cotton and cocoa farming.
“This man thinks the situation, the status quo, can continue,” Mr. Konate said. “But the land is going down. Ivory Coast is going down.”
Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters see him as a patriot, standing up for Ivory Coast against France, its former colonial master.
Businessman Kouame Kouame, 46, who has lived in France and the United States, said French interests led to the 1999 coup and the rebellion.
“It’s the French who are doing all these things to destroy the country, because they want to take all the money for themselves,” he said.
Backing the status quo
Despite its turmoil, Ivory Coast is still the world’s No. 1 cocoa producer and is rich in gold and diamonds. During the reign of Mr. Houphouet-Boigny, France long enjoyed a preferential relationship with the assets of its former colony.
Accusations from Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters that the French government is blocking the Ivory Coast from dealing with other nations receive a warm reception from all economic classes.
Donald Abinan, one of the legions of underemployed self-styled parking valets in Abidjan, said he has marched in demonstrations supporting Mr. Gbagbo, which often turn violent.
“I am not pro-Gbagbo, but he’s defending my country, and I love my country,” he said.
Mr. Gbagbo’s defense strategy involves unbending fidelity to the Ivorian Constitution and parsing the U.N. resolution, which are intertwined.
Mr. Konate said the government’s supporters can resist the peace process because they think no international agreement can replace the country’s constitution.
But Aime Appiah Kabran, vice president of the pro-Gbagbo National Congress of Resistance for Democracy, contends that Mr. Gbagbo never said he opposed the resolution.
Instead, Mr. Kabran said, the president explained how it affirmed Ivory Coast’s sovereignty and recognized its institutions, meaning it is a member of the United Nations like any other country.
“It’s impossible to say: ’Yes, you’re sovereign,’ and decide your prime minister and what his powers are and the duration of his term,” he said. “It’s nonsense. It’s illogical.”
Standing in the way
The government’s rejection of Mr. Banny’s increased role provides just one challenge to the likelihood of change.
Another obstacle is the government’s demand that the New Forces must be disarmed.
Disarmament of the New Forces, along with other militias, and reintegrating them into the national army is a main goal of the peace process.
The second goal is determining who is and who is not Ivorian in order to determine who will be allowed to vote in an upcoming election.
The question of nationality, which emerged in the early 1990s as a backlash to the influx of foreign workers, has caused problems for the Assembly of Republicans and the New Forces.
They want identification as the first step, though Mr. Konate said Mr. Banny has decided to link the two issues in order to move forward.
That divide, threatening yet another election, not surprisingly caused no worry among Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters.
“The institutions of this country still stand,” Mr. Kabran. “If we succeed in disarming the rebels, the elections would be held within three months.”
He blamed France for preventing the government from defeating the rebels, calling the former colonial power a party to the conflict. That supports Mr. Kouame’s assertion that the problem is between the French government and Ivory Coast, not among the country’s factions.
However, Kevin Adou, a researcher with the Center for Peace Research and Action, said the true conflict is between the political leaders and their hunger for power.
He faulted Mr. Gbagbo, the New Forces leader Guillaume Soro, Mr. Bedie and the Assembly of Republicans’ Alassane Ouattara for preventing Ivorians from living in harmony.
But he refused to lose hope in his conflict-ridden country.
“It’s not a tragedy. Things can change,” he said, “but the leaders must change, too — change their mentality.”
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