IN DECIDING last night to maintain the United Nations’s 10,000-strong peacekeeping force in the Ivory Coast against the wishes of its disputed president Laurent Gbagbo, the security council has made a bold, groundbreaking, and welcome stand for democracy and human rights in the divided country.
On Saturday Gbagbo demanded the troops’ withdrawal, alleging they are partisan supporters of armed rebels who have held de-facto control of the north of the country since its civil war ended in 2003. A statement rever, that the Ivory Coast mission “will fulfil its mandate and will continue to monitor and document any human rights violations, incitement to hatred and violence, or attacks on UN peacekeepers”. He has rightly warned of the dangers of civil war reigniting unless Gbagbo stands down. His troops killed up to 50 opposition demonstrators last Thursday and are believed responsible for hundreds of arrests of opposition supporters. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has spoken of evidence of “massive” violations.
The security council’s decision, seen by Gbagbo as a breach of the country’s sovereignty, reflects a near-unanimous international consensus, including both the African Union and the Ecowas regional grouping, that refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the former president’s retention of power following last month’s election. The country has been in a political limbo since the vote which saw opposition leader Alassane Ouattara win a run-off poll with a clear 54.1 per cent of the vote.
In the election’s aftermath, the constitutional council, run by a stooge of Gbagbo, disqualified seven voting districts in the north and declared the latter elected. Backed by the army, he has refused to cede the presidential palace in Abidjan or power, while President Ouattara, a former prime minister and former International Monetary Fund official, remains trapped in a hotel protected by the UN.
His spokesman had called on the security council to change its mission’s mandate to one allowing the contingent to overthrow Gbagbo, a call echoed by Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga. That would be a bridge too far for the UN, however, but the international diplomatic pressure is certain to be ratcheted up, with the EU announcing a travel embargo on Gbagbo and, with the US, threatening further sanctions, a cut-off in funding and possible charges at the International Criminal Court against the perpetrators of last week’s bloodshed.