Abidjan — The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) agreed Saturday night to send a 2,000-strong military force, headed by Senegal, to monitor the ceasefire in Cote dIvoire.
The decision followed meetings Friday and early Saturday of regional military chiefs in the commercial capital, Abidjan, to finalise plans for the Ecomog force, after considering a report from an earlier West African and Western military reconnaissance mission.
Later Saturday, foreign ministers and heads of delegations, from the Ecowas Mediation and Security Council, endorsed the commitment taken earlier by the chiefs of defence staff to dispatch peacekeepers to Cote dIvoire.
The Ecowas executive secretary, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, told reporters after the meeting, late Saturday, that the Senegalese would command the force. "The largest number of troops will come from Senegal. We have a time frame of about 10 to 15 days for the deployment."
Eight other countries, Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo, are also to contribute manpower to the regional force, though the number of troops per country was not specified.
Chambas said a civilian head of the Ecowas military monitoring mission would come from Nigeria, the dominant regional power, which, after short lived leadership from Ghana, has, since 1990 provided successive force commanders for Ecomog operations during the civil wars in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Ecowas chief, who has been at the heart of mediation between the Ivorian government and the rebels, said parallel talks outside Cote dIvoire would start between the two camps next week, though he did not say where. This was one of the requests of the insurgents. The authorities initially wanted the negotiations on home ground.
Discussions on the funding for the new regional peacekeeping operation are set to continue Sunday with Ecowas Western partners including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, said Chambas. Opening the extraordinary Mediation and Security Council meeting, before it went into closed session, he commented on the problem of financing the force, calling it a "key factor for the success of its mission" in Cote dIvoire.
"It is therefore up to us to make more sacrifices and show a greater degree of solidarity in order to operationalise this mission within the shortest possible time, and thereby avoid compromising the fragile cessation of hostilities which we have worked so hard to achieve," said Chambas.
A ceasefire, currently monitored by French troops, has been holding since it came into force last week. France, the former colonial power, has agreed to keep the warring sides apart until the West African force arrives. The truce, signed by the rebels and accepted by President Laurent Gbagbos government, ended a month of bitter fighting, which left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced.
Despite the cease-fire, and regional leaders desperate efforts as diplomatic peace-brokers, many potential pitfalls remain. There are, as yet, no decisions on tricky issues, such as whether and when the rebels will disarm and how government authority can be restored to areas currently under their control, in accordance with the peace deal.
Saturday marked Laurent Gbagbos second anniversary in power in Cote dIvoire. But there was little to celebrate. It has been a rocky two years, with an inauspicious beginning, after a peoples revolution swept out the military leader, General Robert Guei, who tried and failed to steal the October 2000 presidential election. Guei was killed on the first day of the failed coup bid.
Before Gbagbo was sworn in, his supporters clashed with followers of the main opposition leader, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, who was disqualified from standing in the election because of doubts about his nationality. Hundreds of people were killed.
Ouattara, a Muslim who comes from the pro-opposition north of the country, as do many of the rebels, took refuge in the French Embassy residence at the start of the revolt, saying that the security forces wanted to assassinate him. He is still there, a fact which Gbagbo this week called a "note of discord" between Paris and Abidjan.
The rebels have called for Gbagbos resignation, saying his leadership has fuelled ethnic discrimination in Cote dIvoire and divided the nation. The presidents political power base lies in his native west and the mainly Christian and animist south.
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The mutineers have demanded fresh elections to replace the results of what they claim was a flawed presidential poll that brought Gbagbo to power. The next election is scheduled in 2005. The rebels say they want to see justice and an all-inclusive and equitable Cote dIvoire and that Gbagbo must go.
The government maintains the president is the democratically and constitutionally elected leader of the country and has no intention of stepping down. The authorities accuse the rebels of trying to partition Cote dIvoire into north and south and demand to know who has trained, financed and armed the mutineers - in short, their true backers.
Gbagbo insists the insurgents lay down their arms to show they are committed to a peaceful resolution and negotiated settlement to the five-week rebellion. The conflict has shocked, frightened and angered Ivorians, severely shaken the region and further ruined Cote dIvoires reputation as a once stable and peaceful cocoa-producing giant in West Africa.
