Côte d’Ivoire: UN envoy confers with Prime Minister to boost peace progress

With crucial voter identification in the Côte d'Ivoire topping six million but implementation of the latest peace agreement lagging, the top United Nations envoy in the divided country met with its prime minister today on boosting progress on the ground.

“We discussed the ways and means of consolidating the achievements and how to overcome the challenges”, said Y. J. Choi, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Côte d'Ivoire told correspondents after the meeting.

It was important to assess progress at this point, Mr. Choi said, ahead of a Security Council meeting at the end of the month on the country, which has been divided since 2002 between the Government-held south and a northern area dominated by the rebel Forces Nouvelles.

There is now peace and stability, commercial activities is going on in the south, north and west and the identification and voter registration operation is making strides, said Mr. Choi, who is also the head of UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI).

However, he added, there are delays in the electoral process, which now lacks a timetable, along with slow implementation of the latest addendums to the Ouagadougou Political Agreement.

Difficult issues in that regard include especially the transfer of authority, the centralization of the treasury and the redeployment of the administration in the north.

Asked about the demand made by the Forces Nouvelles for the Prime Minister to resign, the Special Representative said he had confidence a solution would be found through the “culture of compromise which characterizes the Ivorian people.”

In January, Mr. Choi told the Security Council that the Ivorian parties agreed that the holding of elections, last scheduled for 30 November 2008, would now await the completion of the identification process and the disarmament of ex-combatants.

In a resolution adopted after Mr. Choi’s briefing, the Council urged all political actors in Côte d’Ivoire to agree as soon as possible on a “realistic” time frame for the polls, as it extended UNOCI’s mandate for another six months.