Envoys to Ivory Coast take stock of peace process
International envoys working for peace in Ivory Coast met to take stock of the delayed and fragile process just four months away from a UN deadline to hold elections.
The routine monthly meeting of the UN-backed International Working Group on Ivory Coast was warned to remain vigilant inspite of the "impressive" steps achieved in recent weeks.
The warring parties have started withdrawing their troops in preparation for disarmament of the armed groups in the country, while government has undertaken a trial voter identification census.
Rodolphe Adada, foreign minister of the Congo Republic, co-chairing the talks, said that while noting an impressive "breakthrough" in the process the international peace monitors needed to remain "vigilant."
"Significant progress has been achieved" in the shaky peace process, but there still remains a lot to do ahead of the elections to be held by October 31, said Adada.
"We therefore exhort the political players ...to commit themselves fully in order to overcome all obstacles likely to slow down the peace process, and to speed up to the elections," said Adada in remarks at the opening of the talks.
Adada warned the power brokers to remain "firm and vigilant" and to take care that achievements obtained so far are "strictly" preserved.
The government announced on June 16 that its troops had all withdrawn from the front line into assembly points while the rebel New Forces promised to be finished within two weeks.
Actual disarming and disbanding of some 12,000 hardline pro-government militias, supposed to have started on June 8, has so far been cancelled twice due to logistical problems according to their commanders.
At its last meeting in May the working group had expressed "profound concern" about reported delays to carrying out the peace road map and called on the UN to impose sanctions on individuals seen to be frustrating the peace process.
Disarming of fighters and identifying who is truly Ivorian are crucial stages towards the elections to be held in theory by October 31, under a UN plan.
While some 11,000 international peacekeepers hold the line between the government forces controlling the south and rebels holding the north, disarmament is seen as critical to avoid fresh hostilities and help reunite the nation of 16 million.
In all there are about 69,500 armed forces in Ivory Coast -- among them some 42,500 New Forces rebels, 5,000 regular army troops and 12,000 militia members.
After elections due last October failed to take place, the working group was set up to steer the battered country to new polls within a year, with Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny in charge of a transitional government.
Banny said Thursday that a fully-fledged census would start soon and take place at the time as disarmament. He did not specify the date the exercises would begin.
Ivory Coast, once west Africa's economic powerhouse and a hub of political stability, descended into civil conflict in 2002 after a failed coup against President Laurent Gbagbo.
AFP
