UN peacekeeping chief calls on Côte d'Ivoire to match international commitment

The head of United Nations peacekeeping, visiting Côte d'Ivoire, said his mission in the West African country is to make a new beginning in areas of the peace process where there has been regression.

The deployment of UN peacekeeping troops last week "is a major commitment from the international community and the peacekeeping mission, and [is] a sort of contract between the international community and the country where it deploys," Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno said on his arrival yesterday.

Also arriving yesterday were three human rights experts appointed by Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan.

They are to conduct an independent investigation into the fatal confrontations that took place late last month in Côte d'Ivoire when protesters staged anti-government marches in Abidjan, the commercial capital, and Yamoussoukro, the political capital.

Mr. Guéhenno had come to Côte d'Ivoire, along with representatives of the Monitoring Committee established under the 2003 Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement, to discuss with senior Ivorian officials the best way to re-launch the peace process because, he said, "I won't hide it from you - today we are all preoccupied with observing that some things have not only not advanced, they have even regressed."

"There is an international community commitment and there must be the same commitment from all Ivorians so that tomorrow the people of Côte d'Ivoire will have the peace they wait for and deserve," he added.

Under the January 2003 peace agreement, the Monitoring Committee comprises the Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who coordinates the UN presence in the country through the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire, as well as representatives of the European Union, the Commission of the African Union (AU), the Executive Secretariat of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), the International Francophone Organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the Group of Eight most-industrialized countries (G-8) and France.

During his visit, Mr. Guéhenno is scheduled to meet separately with President Laurent Gbagbo, the Transitional Government's Prime Minister, Seydou Elimane Diarra, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security, as well as the head of the National Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire (FANCI). He will also briefly visit Ghana's President John Agyekum Kufuor, who has been involved in his neighbour's peace-building efforts.