Ivory Coast braces for an uncertain future

Todd Pitman

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The cartoon showed an elephant — the national symbol of Ivory Coast — drifting on a life raft, alone in the ocean with just one paddle.

“The future, is it still that far?” the worried pachyderm asks, eyes on a distant setting sun, no land in sight.

The cartoon, tucked into a recent edition of a satirical newspaper in this war-divided West African country, posed the question of the moment.

Long-awaited elections, delayed in 2005 for a year, have been postponed again because supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo and rebels who control the north of the world’s No. 1 cocoa producer spent much of the past year squabbling.

African Union leaders said this week that Gbagbo’s mandate should be extended for a year, a recommendation likely to be approved by the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 25.

Rebels and opposition leaders already have come out against the extension, and Gbagbo’s camp has complained about proposed curbs on his power until the vote is held.

“Nothing has changed. It’s exactly the same as last year,” said 48-year-old Moumouni Traori, who works at a car rental agency in Abidjan. “We’re still afraid, but we’re getting used to it now.”

Ivory Coast has been split, with rebels holding the north, since a 2002 coup attempt that sparked several days of fighting in Abidjan, a city of lagoons and skyscrapers that once symbolized the former French colony’s place as a West African economic giant.

Peace agreements have been signed, hands shaken, and politicians’ smiles flashed for the cameras in France, Ghana and South Africa. Major fighting stopped, but little has actually been done to unite the country. The United Nations has been involved throughout, trying to unite the country.

“We’re at a standstill,” U.N. special envoy to Ivory Coast Pierre Schori told The Associated Press. “It’s a problem of leadership. If you sign something, you should do it, especially when it comes to peace and security and the well-being of your people.”

In a report to the Security Council circulated last week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan blamed the stalemate on “the manifest lack of political will by the main Ivorian political leaders.”

Thousands of foreigners have fled Ivory Coast in the last several years, taking with them jobs and money, and major international organizations have moved to neighboring capitals. Cocoa output is still high, but businessmen are struggling to get by.

Residents, afraid of armed criminals and ubiquitous roadblocks set up by security forces, stay home in a city once legendary for its nightlife.

In some places, the desperation is obvious. On one busy downtown intersection, a teenager in rags picked through a stinking pile of garbage, checking empty plastic bottles for milk and biting into anything he could scavenge.

Schori said the U.N. was receiving more reports of rapes, murders, thefts, threats and extortion.

Despite the failure to hold elections this year, there has been some progress. Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny was appointed — after much political wrangling and international mediation — to shepherd the country toward elections, and an independent electoral commission was set up.

Crucial tasks began over the summer: disarmament and a national program to help register legitimate voters lacking proper identity documents.

But only 1,000 pro-government militia fighters — less than 10 percent of the estimated total — handed in weapons. And the voter registration program lasted only a couple of days; disputes over who was entitled to Ivorian identity have helped fuel instability.

African Union leaders in Ethiopia this week called for Banny to take charge of Ivory Coast’s security forces, a curb on Gbagbo’s power that his backers, particularly in the armed forces, are unlikely to welcome.

The recommendations will be put to the U.N. Security Council this month, and Schori said they would likely become binding and be accompanied by the threat of sanctions.

“There will be new ground rules,” Schori said of the one-year extension of Gbagbo’s mandate. “It will not be business as usual. A mere extension of present arrangements is a recipe for prolonged suffering, for more delays and dangers ahead.”

Last Wednesday, an aide to Gbagbo said Banny “has failed and all that’s left for him to do is step down.”

Rebel spokesman Cisse Sindou said rebels were equally unhappy with the AU recommendations. “African leaders had an opportunity to move the peace process forward, but all I can see is that things have not moved at all,” Sindou said.

Last month, the government reached a new low when 500 tons of toxic waste from a Dutch ship was dumped in Abidjan. Authorities say 10 people died as a result, and lax government officials were blamed for letting the shipment through.

Gbagbo’s Cabinet resigned over the dumping, and a former transport minister was beaten in the street. Most ministers eventually were returned to their jobs, but many civilians now wonder if the government can govern, much less end the war.

“We’re tired of this crisis, very tired,” said Charles Kwasi, a financial auditor. “These people are just trying to stay in power as long as they can.”

Some fear more violence with Gbagbo’s current U.N.-sponsored mandate due to expire at month’s end.

“This month is a crucial one,” Schori said. “The international community must clarify for Ivorian leaders that ... this is the last chance they have to get it right. We have to get rid of the toxic waste in politics.”

(Associated Press)