Global Policy Forum

By Diadie Ba

The top U.N. peacekeeper in Ivory Coast said on Wednesday that his forces did not have a mandate to disarm warring parties in the divided West African country and called for more resources.

Gen. Abdoulaye Fall was speaking in Senegal's capital Dakar after a meeting between commanders of U.N. peacekeeping missions in West Africa -- a region torn by a series of conflicts and uprisings in recent years. "I suppose that when the international community asks the (peacekeeping) forces in Ivory Coast to disarm whomsoever, it will provide the means to disarm those who need to be disarmed, but for the moment, the forces do not have the mandate," Fall said.

Ivory Coast was split in two after a rebellion in Sept. 2002 sparked a civil war. Rebels seized the north of the former French colony and thousands were killed in fighting. A string of peace deals has failed to end the conflict in the world's top cocoa grower and some 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers and 4,000 French troops are policing a no-weapons ceasefire zone between the two sides.

Supporters of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo have demanded that the French and U.N. troops disarm the rebels, who insist they will only hand over their weapons when a string of political reforms have been implemented. Local newspapers reported this week that Gbagbo had questioned the presence of the peacekeepers, saying that if they were not prepared to disarm the rebels they should leave.

On a visit to Senegal this month, French President Jacques Chirac said that he would withdraw French troops if African leaders, including the Ivorian government, asked him to do so. Fall said the peacekeepers' mandate had evolved "to go beyond the observation of a ceasefire and to dissuade the parties from arriving at armed confrontation." "I ardently call for a reinforcement of my capacities," he said. He did not give details.

Gen. El-Hadji Mouhamadou Kandji, a military adviser at the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said the tightening of an arms embargo had complicated the peacekeepers' task. "This calls for extra resources," he said in Dakar.

A Security Council resolution this month authorised U.N. troops to enforce the arms ban by inspecting cargo shipments without notice at any port, airfield, military base or border. It also called on government and rebel forces to help the United Nations compile a list of all arms in the country, with an eye to eventual disarmament, and authorized the naming of a panel of experts to see if the embargo was being enforced.

The 12-month mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission expires in April. Kandji said an evaluation would be carried out to see what was needed to improve resources.

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