Ivory Coast mediation goes to UN
Shaun Benton
19 August 2005
The South African government is hoping that problems the opposition in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has with laws passed by President Laurent Gbagbo in July will be resolved before the mediation team reports to the United Nations Security Council on 27 August, says Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad.
Describing the problems as "not significant" and concerned largely with French-English translation, Pahad said on Thursday that if the dispute was not resolved soon the South African mediation team would identify to the Security Council who was obstructing the peace process.
The Security Council would then place sanctions on those responsible, Pahad said, adding that the threat of sanctions was necessary to ensure that the peace process moved forward. It is unclear what sanctions would be used.
Pahad said laws passed by Gbagbo in July were largely to do with nationality and identification of voters. They were found by the South African
mediation team's legal advisers to be in line with the initial Linas-Marcoussis agreement that kick-started the troubled peace process in Côte d'Ivoire.
South Africa was disappointed that leading members of the Forces Nouvelles - rebel group New Forces - had not returned to Abdijan, the Côte d'Ivoire capital, despite receiving training for its "close protectors" from South African experts, Pahad said.
He said contacts between the South African government and the roleplayers in Côte d'Ivoire were continuing, but that time was running out for the crucial disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process to begin.
Source: BuaNews
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