[ 2011-08-06 ]

Côte d'Ivoire: UN official meets with detained ex-leaders, foster reconciliation
In an effort to promote reconciliation in Côte
d'Ivoire, a senior United Nations official is
meeting with former president Laurent Gbagbo and
other detained members of his regime to ensure
that their human rights are respected.

“We are emerging from a crisis and the way
officials of the former regime are treated can
influence the efforts of everyone in the process
of national reconciliation, given their special
status,” Guillaume Ngefa, the acting human
rights chief in the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire
(UNOCI), said after two days of meetings with the
detainees north of Abidjan, the commercial
capital.

“Our mission is part of UNOCI's mandate to
monitor, observe and report on the detention
conditions,” he added, noting that such visits
would take place every two weeks.

Mr. Gbagbo has been under house arrest since he
was captured on 11 April, ending months of
violence in the wake of his refusal to step down
after he lost the UN-certified presidential
run-off election in November last year to Alassane
Ouattara, now the country's President.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court
(ICC) have requested authorization to open an
investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed in widespread violence
following the election.

Mr. Ngefa already met with Mr. Gbagbo's wife,
Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, in Odienné, 550 miles
northwest of Abidjan, on Tuesday and other senior
officials on Wednesday in Boundiali, over 400
miles north of Abidjan. He is now scheduled to go
to Korhogo, where Mr. Gbagbo is being detained,
and to Bouna, where other members of the former
regime are being held.

Last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's
Special Representative and UNOCI head Y. J. Choi
met with Mr. Gbagbo and stressed that the UN would
play its part to ensure he receives appropriate
protection.

An estimated one million Ivorians were displaced
by the violence during the recent crisis,
including those who fled to neighbouring
countries.

In his most recent report Mr. Ban said the
security situation was still “extremely
precarious,” given the fact that civilian
communities are “awash with weapons,” and the
resurfacing of long-standing ethnic, citizenship
and land ownership issues that erupted in the
civil war in 2002 and the division of the country
into a Government-held south and a
rebel-controlled north. The election won by Mr.
Ouattara reunited the country again.

“The coming six to 12 months will be critical in
determining whether Côte d'Ivoire will continue
on a steady recovery from the crisis or slip back
into renewed conflict,” he added.

United Nations - www.unic.org

Source - United Nations

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