IVORY
COAST PEACE PLAN
proposed
by
Diaspora
et Jeunesse de Côte d’Ivoire (D.J.CI)
and
Citizens
for Unity and Peace in Ivory Coast
(CUP-CI)
Mr.
Modeste Seri, President of Ivory Coast civil society
organizations D.J.CI and CUP-CI,
advocating for national unity and ethnic inclusiveness in the Côte
d’Ivoire, has released a comprehensive proposal to restore
peace and good governance to the country.
It provides an alternative path to the Linas-Marcussis
and Accra Accords, so far fruitless for lack of a sincere
commitment by current Ivorean leaders.
The plan calls for strengthening of U.N. peace keeping in the
Ivory Coast, followed by a state-reconstruction
sovereignty-sharing arrangement of sufficiently long duration
with the U.N.
Such state-reconstruction of the Ivory Coast would be a suitable
undertaking for the Peace Building Commission whose
creation was recently proposed by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change.
The proposed inclusive transitional government comprises
representatives of all ethnic and religious groups in the
country, chosen for their professional competence and personal
integrity, answerable to the U.N. Security Council. Their main
task is to reconstruct state institutions, laying a solid
foundation for a sustainable democracy, and for a future federal
system that ensures a just sharing of power and resources among
the five main regions of the country.
The costs of such a state-reconstruction project by the people
of the Côte d’Ivoire in partnership with the international
community could be funded from the rich resources of the
country, with only an initial cost to international donors.
This approach will also provide a useful precedent for
successful handling of other state failure problems in Africa
and elsewhere, encouraging locals to follow the example of the
Ivorean people who are asking for temporary sovereignty sharing
with the U.N. to assist them to reconstruct their country and
lay the foundations for sustainable peace. (Dec. 22/04).
The Ivory Coast Project
The
CW/PS is providing policy and advocacy assistance as well as
capacity building support to the Ivory Coast peace-seeking
organization D.J.CI.—Diáspora et Jeunesse de Côte
d’Ivoire, Presided by Ivorian Mr.
Modeste Gnamé Seri. D.J.CI. is the support arm
abroad and locally of
the fast-growing Ivorian based people’s organization CUP-CI
–Citizens for Unity and Peace in the Côte d’Ivoire, whose
development CW/PS is also assisting through D.J.CI.
Dr Juan Federer has direct responsibility for the CW/PS’s
activities in this regard.
The aim of this cooperation is to assist the
development of these organizations and their efforts to promote
a far-reaching, novel, UN-led peacekeeping intervention in Ivory
Coast followed by serious international state-rebuilding
assistance that Capitalizing on the experience and skills of its
staff members in the area of post conflict state building, the
CW/PS is mentoring D.J.CI. and CUP-CI, two emerging Ivorian
civil society organizations. They are working toward not only
bringing an end to the current artificially-created civil
conflict in the CI, but also toward achieving lasting peace and
good governance in this once successful and prosperous West
African country.
a)
Objectives
D.J.CI.
and CUP-CI are promoting the acceptance of an Ivory Coast
Peace Plan both outside and inside the
country, with the support of CW/PS. This novel proposal stresses
the need for strong involvement by the international community
in the restoration of peace in CI and the need for a
sufficiently long period of shared sovereignty with the
international community represented by the U.N. and by regional
organization such as the African Union and the European Union,
for the purpose of rebuilding CI state institutions. The
anticipated result of the envisaged process is to reverse the
current conditions of state failure for the CI to become a
prosperous, just, and well-governed successful democratic state.
This
initiative is of significant international impact, as it will
provide a precedent and a model for responses by the
international community to the problem of weak, failing, and
failed post-colonial states. Such states pose increasingly
serious humanitarian problems and negatively affect world peace
and security.
b)
Strategy
CW/PS
is assisting D.J.CI. with the development of CUP-CI as a
mass-based democratic inclusive civil society movement in the
CI. It is also providing technical advice and support as well as
capacity-building to D.J.CI., to conduct the international
campaign to promote adoption of the innovative peace plan all
three bodies have jointly devised.
Campaigning
is proceeding at two levels:
i)
Internationally, D.J.CI. is promoting the Peace Plan
among major CI stakeholders. It is an advocacy project seeking
the support of leading powers, firstly for increasing
international peace-keeping intervention, and, secondly, to
commit the necessary supports for a longer-term tutelary process
of reconstruction of state institutions by the international
community in a sovereignty-sharing arrangement with the CI.
Since this involves a novel approach, it requires a detailed
process of explanation of the great benefits to be gained form
adopting this peace plan, both for the Ivorean people as well as
for the international community. The campaign requires intensive
approaches to governments and international opinion-shapers in
the media, academia and civil society in key countries. An
important part of this advocacy work needs to be carried out in
New York, the seat of the U.N.
ii)
Inside the CI, D.J.CI. with CUP-CI are engaging in
grass-roots meetings aimed at providing education to the village
public about the need for ethnic inclusiveness, national
reconciliation, and a change of leadership from traditional
politicians who have brought the country to ruin due to their
ethnic violence-fomenting self-seeking policies. In addition to civic education, aimed at providing a proper
understanding of the rights and duties of democratic governance
in an ethnically inclusive and tolerant society, the action is
aimed at ensuring the country’s sustainable peace and future
economic stability and development.
Main
campaign aspects:
The international
work consists in:
(1)
Maintaining close contact with U.N. security Council
member states, other U.N. member states, U.N. bodies, regional
organizations (AU, ECOWAS,EU), to gain support for the approach
proposed by the Peace Plan.
(2)
Encouraging discussion of the benefits of adoption of the
Peace Plan among relevant academics and thinkers, media,
political activists and others who influence international
public opinion.
(3)
Encouraging publication of writings in support of the Peace
Plan.
(4)
Fundraising for this work and for activities in the CI.
With
the aid of CW/PS, D.J.CI. and CUP-CI are organizing an
all-inclusive peace conference, primarily aimed at bringing
together –mostly younger-- representatives of the various
sectors of the CI community. It is anticipated that the event
will be held in early 2005 in Ghana. Its main aim is to seek
understanding and unity among those sectors that are not willing
to continue supporting present policies of ethnic division and
rivalry espoused by the current political leadership. It will
include activities to build confidence and promote peace and
acceptance among the various delegates, as well as healing. The
outcome is expected to be a commitment to the Peace Plan.
The
work of D.J.CI. and CUP-CI inside the Ivory Coast centers on:
strengthening CUP-CI’s mass base, establishing operational
centers in all major locations, promoting discussion about the
need for ethnic inclusiveness, providing civic education on
democracy and rule of law, and promoting the Peace Plan.
In addition, outreach to leaders and members of other
political groupings, including the main conflicting parties, is
taking place with a view to promote unity and acceptance of the
PP.
The
CW/PS sees its contribution to D.J.CI. and CUP-CI not only as a
way to assist the ending of war and the restoration of a
sustainable peace in the Ivory Coast, but also as a contribution
to a significant world peace initiative. The international
involvement in Ivorian state-rebuilding –legitimized by a
request from the local people– being proposed by D.J.CI. and
CUP-CI would set a valuable precedent for other much needed
instances for international tutelary state-strengthening
interventions in failing and failed post-colonial states.
The resulting strengthening of elements of central
governance in the contemporary international system would
further assist the development of global rule of law. In this
way, the CW/PS is helping to pave the road toward the
achievement of future peace through the end of war as a state
policy instrument.
The
Ivory Coast assistance project of the CW/PS shares a common
thread with the organization’s other two current projects,
i.e. one, a campaign to promote U.N. reform, in particular, the
promotion of a weighted voting procedure for the U.N. General
Assembly and the adoption of a taxing procedure on international
currency exchange transactions (Tobin Tax) as a means of
funding the U.N.; and, two, providing institutional and fiscal
support to a Global Provisional People’s Assembly project, a
straightforward initiative to create a world parliament.
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