Global Policy Forum

By Edith M. Lederer

The Security Council and the U.N. secretary-general commended Ivory Coast's president and rebel leader Wednesday for their efforts to end a 4 1/2-year conflict and offered help to support the implementation of a March 4 peace plan.

In separate statements, the U.N.'s most powerful body and its chief, Ban Ki-moon, backed a subsequent agreement signed this week that will make the main rebel leader, Guillaume Soro, prime minister in a new administration being organized by President Laurent Gbagbo. Ivory Coast has been split between a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south since an attempted coup sparked a brief civil war in the West African country in September 2002. The world's largest cocoa producer has embraced a series of peace deals in recent years, all of which failed to take hold because rebels refused to disarm and the government dragged its feet in organizing elections.

On Nov. 1, the Security Council adopted a resolution increasing the powers of the current prime minister, Charles Konan Banny, and authorized him to push forward with elections by Oct. 31. Soon after, Gbagbo rejected U.N.-mediated negotiations and said he would negotiate with the rebels through African mediators, namely Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore. Under the March 4 peace accord and this week's agreement, Gbagbo and Soro promised to organize a completely new government within five weeks and reduce the vast buffer zone between the two sides to a collection of checkpoints and start disarmament. The agreements, signed in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, call for elections by the end of the year and the issuing of identification cards, necessary for Ivorians to register to vote.

The Security Council and the secretary-general commended prime minister Banny, who said he would not stand in the way of any decision that brings peace to Ivory Coast, and also paid tribute to Compare. The council commended Gbagbo and Soro "for the spirit of compromise and the sense of responsibility they have displayed" and called the March 4 agreement "a good basis for a comprehensive and all-inclusive settlement of the crisis in Ivory Coast through the organization of credible elections."