Security Council urges Côte d'Ivoire leader Gbagbo to act on peace pledges

Voicing concern over the lack of progress in Côte d'Ivoire's national reconciliation process, Security Council members today called on President Laurent Gbagbo to make good on the pledges he made at a peace summit this summer.

In a statement to the press read by Council President Ambassador Juan Antonio Yañez-Barnuevo of Spain, members warned that the delay was not only holding back the peace process in Côte d'Ivoire, but was also detrimental to further progress in West Africa, a region marred by numerous conflicts with cross-border implications.

"The members of the Council exhorted, in particular, President Laurent Gbagbo to do everything in his power to ensure the revision of Article 35 of the Constitution, as he committed himself in Accra," Ambassador Yañez-Barnuevo said in a press statement, referring to the summit held in late July in the Ghanaian capital. Article 35 concerns eligibility by nationality for the country's presidency.

At that meeting, the parties in Côte d'Ivoire signed the Accra III Agreement, which binds the Government to the 2003 Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, which itself ended fighting in the West African country and created a government of national reconciliation. The Accra III deal focused on those parts of the 2003 pact that were still disputed.

"They also exhorted the [opposition] Forces Nouvelles to start as soon as possible before 15 October, and without preconditions, the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration process to which they committed themselves in Accra," the Council President added. "They stressed that all paramilitary and militia groups must also be disarmed."

Ambassador Yañez-Barnuevo said Council members exhorted Ivorian members of Parliament to accelerate consideration of legislative reforms in the National Assembly with a view to their adoption before the end of this month, particularly the law on the independent electoral commission.

They also "recalled in the strongest terms that open, free and fair elections before November 2005, in accordance with the Ivorian Constitution, is the only possible solution to a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire," he added.

The statement condemned attacks against staff of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) said those responsible should be held accountable.

Ambassador Yañez-Barnuevo's statement came after the Council heard a closed-door briefing this morning by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Côte d'Ivoire, Albert Tévoédjré.

Also today, the tripartite monitoring group overseeing the country's peace process released a report predicting that the 30 September deadline for passage of many of the key legislative texts would not be met.

According to the Linas-Marcoussis agreement, by that date the amendment to Article 35 and legislation concerning the nationality code and the composition of the independent electoral commission should be passed.

But the monitoring group - comprising representatives from UNOCI, the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - says there is gridlock instead in the National Assembly.

The group's report urges Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ghanaian President John Kufour to press President Gbagbo on what obstacles are preventing the passage of an amendment to Article 35.

The report also says Mr. Gbagbo and the political leaders Konan Bedié, Alassane Ouattara and Guillaume Soro should meet to come up with a compromise formula to resolve the Article 35 issue.