Ouagadougou — West African leaders are scheduled to gather in Ghana, the current chair of the regional community grouping, Ecowas, on Thursday in yet another attempt to resolve the six-month civil war across the border in Cote dIvoire.
The move comes as the countrys recently elected, consensus prime minister, Seydou Diarra, is warning that he may resign if he cannot form a national unity government by next week, in line with a power-sharing deal agreed in Paris five weeks ago.
The Ghana summit is the latest such regional initiative, with all stakeholders keenly aware that if they cannot resolve the current problems and ensure the creation of an all-party cabinet, the Cote dIvoire crisis risks escalating and spilling further over its borders.
The prospect of a return to all-out war has prompted feverish diplomatic activity but peacebrokers' efforts have yielded few concrete results.
Diarra, who Monday flew up to the Ivorian rebel stronghold of Bouake, in the heart of the country, told journalists: "I believe we must go toward a government at the end of the week or the start of (next) week at the latest." He warned that, otherwise, "I dont think I would be able to continue. Ive exhausted my strength and all my imagination."
The prime minister, who has tried to name a cabinet and drawn up a provisional list of ministers, said he was tired and risked appearing "ridiculous" if he continued his fruitless shuttle diplomacy. Diarra has travelled from Paris to the main government-held city, Abidjan, in the south, and on to rebel controlled territory, while stopping off in numerous West African capitals, to consult regional leaders about the deadlock and the way forward.
Cote dIvoire President Laurent Gbagbo has said that he will have the last word on the ministerial line-up. The rebels have insisted that they were promised the interior and defence portfolios and will not give them up. The government, backed by the security forces and angry "young patriots" and thousands of other citizens, has refused to allow the rebels to hold such sensitive posts, leading to the current political impasse.
Gbagbo travelled to northern Togo last week, to meet President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who was designated the regional mediator in the Cote dIvoire conflict in October. A statement after the talks said of the dispute on ministerial posts: "Gbagbo noted that the attribution of certain key portfolios constituted the main problem and that he was actively trying to find an adequate solution with the Prime Minister, Seydou Diarra."
An orgy of fury, anger and violence exploded in Abidjan last month in a week-long series of anti-French and anti-rebel demonstrations, in protest at the French-brokered peace deal. The marchers said the Marcoussis peace accord was unacceptable and unworkable, and that the package, mediated by the former colonial power, favoured and rewarded the rebels, while drastically slashing Gbagbos powers.
Meanwhile, there have been sporadic clashes between Ivorian rebel factions, aided by Liberian mercenaries, and government troops loyal to Gbagbo in what has become known as the wild west of Cote dIvoire. These occasional but violent exchanges come despite ceasefire agreements between the authorities in Abidjan and the rebels, monitored by French troops.
On Saturday, neighbouring Liberia accused Cote dIvoire of attacking its territory. Monrovias defence minister, Daniel Chea, said last week that Cote dIvoire had dispatched Liberian hired guns, fighting for Gbagbos army against the rebels, to attack Liberia. There have been growing tensions between Gbagbos government and President Charles Taylor in Liberia, with counter-accusations of cross-border raids.
"For the Republic of Cote dIvoire to encourage Liberian mercenaries fighting alongside their own troops in their civil crisis to cross the border into Liberian territory is tantamount to a declaration of war," Chea told a news conference on Saturday. There was no immediate comment from the Ivorian army.
As Diarra struggles to form a government, human rights organisations have denounced violations on both sides - including rape and killings by death squads operating especially in Abidjan, the coastal metropolis. The killing raids began began shortly after the rebels launched their failed coup last September, which has escalated into a bloody war. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people are reported to have been killed and up to a million displaced in the conflict.
A United Nations report, published last month, said these killing gangs appeared to be made up of people close to the government, the presidential guard and militia from Gbagbos western Bete tribe.
Speaking to journalists last week, Gbagbo denied reports of government links to the death squads and said such statements were an attempt to question and undermine his authority. "Laurent Gbagbo is not illegitimate. All this is to, in some way, show illegitimacy; but why the hell dont they talk about the programmes I am carrying out?" he said, feisty and defiant.
He also dismissed reports that his wife, Simone Ehivet, a powerful political force in her own right and in Gbagbos governing Popular Front Party (FPI), was involved with the faceless killers roaming the streets and working-class areas of Abidjan by night. "Cote dIvoire is not governed by an assassin. I have never killed anyone. My wife has never killed anyone," Gbagbo announced in a rare news conference on Saturday, criticising those he said were determined to sully his image.
Diarra, Gbagbo and his rebel adversaries are all expected to attend the Ghana meeting. An international follow-up committee, led by Albert Tevoedjre, the special representative to Cote dIvoire sent by the United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, after the Paris all-party talks, is also working to try to find a solution, but with little evidence of progress.
Analysts say the proliferation of mediators may also be frustrating Ivorian peace efforts, with crossed wires and injured egos hampering progress.
Regional leaders know that Diarras frustration at the blockage on a new power-sharing government and his talk of resignation could plunge Cote dIvoire into more confusion and uncertainty. The Ivorian prime minister, a respected former diplomat and businessman, is generally regarded as politically neutral.
But the seemingly insurmountable hurdle to get the two sides to drop their demands and talk peace in the national interest appears to be testing the premiers mettle. "The economic situation is catastrophic, the humanitarian situation tragic - deaths, deaths, deaths. We must save peoples lives, thats what Im trying to do," Diarra told journalists after a one and a half hour meeting with the Ivorian rebels, who converged on Bouake from their respective headquarters in the west and the north.
"The prime minister told us he had presented a government (based on the Paris accord) and that Gbagbo had presented his own," Guillaume Soro, who heads the civilian wing of the main rebel Patriotic Movement of Cote dIvoire (MPCI) told reporters after their talks with Diarra, adding "this is unacceptable."
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Diarra said an impasse on both sides had prevented the new cabinet being formed and warned that the messages coming out of Abidjan and Bouake must change. Meanwhile, he continues to battle uphill.
The executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), Mohamed ibn Chambas, said he was hopeful that Thursdays talks in Ghana would help to lift the current obstacles to progress. "All this delay in forming the government is preventing us from moving forward and implementing the Marcoussis Accord and dealing with the issues that have been at the heart of the crisis and the conflict in Cote dIvoire," he commented.
The current Ecowas chairman, Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor, who will host Thursdays talks in the capital, Accra, was also optimistic, despite events on the ground in Cote dIvoire: "I believe we are getting over the worst of the situation," Kufuor told Reuters last week. Ghana has a long land border with Cote dIvoire, with tribes and customs straddling the divide. The authorities in Accra are concerned that Ghana, like Cote dIvoires neighbours, Liberia and Burkina Faso, may also be sucked into the war.
Kufuor warned of the risk that West Africas "young populations, reasonably well-educated, but without jobs,"because of the weakness of the economies" could take up arms. "There are too many idle hands and, unfortunately, a proliferation of small arms," he said, linking the conflict in Cote dIvoire to the civil war across the border in Liberia in the 1990s, which spread to Sierra Leone and Guinea and, Reuters notes, undermined other governments in the region.
