DJCI
and CUP-CI President endorses International Crisis Group
report on Ivory Coast
Modeste Seri, President
of the Ivorian civil society organizations D.J.CI and CUP-CI
commends the International Crisis Group (ICG) for its
just-released report Côte
d’Ivoire, The Worst May Be Yet To Come. “As we have been saying for
some time, the political class in our country has been mocking
the international community by pretending commitment to the
implementation of the Linas Marcoussis and Accra III Peace
Agreements. The time has come to apply strong pressure to make
all the belligerent Ivorian parties to abide by the Agreements.
The alternative, as the ICG so correctly points out, will be a
long, costly and ugly war bringing chaos to the Ivory Coast and
the West African region”, Mr. Seri said.
He fully agrees with the recommendations of the ICG
report that the international community, through the African
Union in partnership with ECOWAS, and with the assistance of the
UN and the European Union, should conduct a constitutional
reform referendum and Presidential and Parliamentary elections
in the country, under a broader UN Security Council mandate.
However,
the above measures alone will not suffice to ensure the
sustainable peace and democracy that the people of the country
long for. More is required. As the ICG report implies, after
half a decade of fostering ethnic and religious violence for
their own political ends, the poison spread by the country’s
political class has severely damaged the Ivorian social fabric
and the institutions of the state. A period of detoxification
will also be needed. In
addition to internationally supervised disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration of combatants, a strong civic
education campaign is required to remind the population of basic
principles of ethnic and religious acceptance, rule of law and
democracy. The damage done to the basic institutions of the
state must be repaired. Also, the unsuitability of the
colonially-legated unitary state architecture – one of the
root causes of the present problems-- must be acknowledged. A
new federal constitution that devolves power to the various
ethnic groupings that make up the country needs therefore to be
developed.
“The
required new UN Security Council mandate will have to be far
more encompassing than merely assigning more interposition
troops. As the ICG report suggests, a new thinking is required.
Making the commitment now, will save huge human and material
costs in future, avoiding a new Rwanda or Darfur in the Côte
d’Ivoire” Mr. Seri added.
For
further comment: Dr Juan Federer, CW/PS New York.
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