COTE D IVOIRE: Ceremony to mark dismantling of militias falls flat

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ABIDJAN, 24 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - A ceremony to mark the beginning of the dismantling of militias that support Cote d’Ivoire’s President Laurent Gbagbo fell flat on Wednesday as UN officials warned that there wasn’t enough money to carry out the process.

Many visiting dignitaries and journalists left Guiglo, 350 km north west of the main city Abidjan, before the symbolic start of dismantling 2,000 registered militia fighters even began.

In a day marked by confusion, UN officials who asked not to be named, told IRIN the National Programme for Disarmament Demobilisation and Reconciliation (PNDDR), which is responsible for carrying out the process, does not have enough money to do the job.

Because the number of militia fighters has swollen from the original count of 2,000 to nearer 10,000 existing funds are no longer sufficient to pay for the process, UN officials told IRIN.

Representatives of the PNDDR were not available for comment.

That Wednesday’s ceremony was dubbed a ‘dismantling ceremony’ and not a ‘disarmament’ ceremony raised concern among the militias who are expecting hard cash for their guns.

“The government has said they will pay something, but they haven’t told us anything [about how much],” Gabriel Banao, leader of militia group the Patriotic Resistance Movement of the Great West (UPR-GO) told IRIN.

“We are ready to disarm, but what does it mean to be dismantled?” said Banao, who has 1,040 militia fighters in his ranks.

Under the terms of an ailing peace process, rebel fighters who occupy the north of the country, are due to receive US $900 when they hand over their guns.

Disarmament of the militias, who are particularly prevalent in the troubled western region of Cote d’Ivoire, was originally to have begun on the 20 August as agreed by government and rebels as part of a South African mediated deal in June.

Over the coming days, armed militia-fighters -– mostly young unemployed men -– are to gather at the western town of Duekue 25 km north east of Guiglo.

There, they will be housed in cantonments sites and receive food and lodgings at the expense of the government until they hand over their weapons, an official from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told IRIN.

Coup threats

This latest debacle in an ailing three-and-a-half-year-old peace deal comes as threats of a coup plot to overthrow Gbagbo gripped the economic and administrative capital Abidjan.

Tensions are running high after former head of the armed forces, Mathias Doue, threatened to “oust” Gbagbo by “any means” in an open letter published by local newspapers on Friday.

The UN on Tuesday issued a statement condemning the declaration, which had been validated as genuine by Doue in a radio interview broadcast by Radio France International (RFI) on Saturday.

"Declarations of this nature exacerbate already high social and political tensions, delay the implementation of peace agreements and endanger efforts ... deployed by the mediator," read ONUCI’s statement.

“ONUCI is launching an urgent appeal to all Ivorian parties to show their restraint and prove that they are consulting the mechanisms provided in the Peace Accords for the resolution of any of their remaining differences as they try to come out of the existing crisis,” the mission said.

Doue, who went in hiding after Gbagbo dismissed him in November, accused Gbagbo of steering the nation towards civil war and said that Gbagbo's departure was the only way for peace to return to Cote d'Ivoire.

Another disgruntled senior officer, former army spokesman Jules Yao Yao, has also criticised Gbagbo in the local press recently for using death squads in 2003 to persecute opponents and for passively allowing the armed forces to violate human rights.

Opposition newspapers and rebels alike predictably welcomed Doue's declaration, saying it proved that army chief of staff Philippe Mangou was heading an ethnically divided, undisciplined and lawless army.

"This message shows that part of the army is challenging [Gbagbo]," said rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate from the central city of Bouake, which has been the rebel stronghold ever since they launched their rebellion in September 2002.

"Before we can move forward to peace, the [government-controlled] south should agree to completely restructure its army and opt for a republican army, not a tribal army," he said.

In Abidjan, Mangou told reporters that newspapers publishing "dangerous" letters by defected senior army officers ran the risk of being shut down.

If the local press don't comply, Mangou warned, "we will be obliged to take our responsibilities and prohibit - I am not afraid to say the word 'prohibit' - the publication of certain newspapers".

The heightened political tension caused Henri Konan Bedie, leader of the main Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) opposition party, to postpone his return to Abidjan, initially scheduled for Wednesday.

Bedie, who was ousted as president of Cote d’Ivoire in the country’s only ever successful coup in December 1999, lives in self-imposed exile in Paris but has been nominated as the PDCI presidential candidate in elections scheduled for 30 October.

Negotiations stagnate

Meanwhile, peace negotiations has stagnated once again as rebels remained tight-lipped on the outcome of a five-hour meeting between New Forces rebel leader Guillaume Soro and mediator Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria over the weekend.

But, with only nine weeks left in which to complete disarmament and revise the voter register ahead of crucial presidential elections, rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate maintained that the roadmap to peace was not dead yet.

"Wait and see," he told IRIN. "President Mbeki has taken our reservations very seriously and he has assured us that our demands have been taken into account."

[ENDS]