IVORY COAST: Ivorians in Abidjan call for peaceful solution to post-election crisis

Record ID: 1539096

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Ivorians in Abidjan call for peaceful solution to post-election crisis
  • Date: 10th January 2011
  • Summary: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (JANUARY 9, 2011) (REUTERS) PEOPLE AND TRAFFIC ON ROAD (SOUNDBITE) (French) ELIE ALADJA, SECURITY GUARD, SAYING: "We are afraid, because we hear shootings, so people are afraid to go out. You come out of your house and you don't know what will happen to you." CARS ON ROAD PEOPLE WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (French) J MOHAMED, STUDENT, SAYING: "I can't endorse military intervention, we have already suffered too much violence in Ivory Coast, so they can come now and impose a military force, irrespective of where it may come from. Honestly... I think we can always sort out the problem with the dialogue." WOMAN WALKING WITH A BASKET ON HER HEAD CARS ON ROAD VARIOUS OF UNITED NATIONS MISSION TO IVORY COAST (ONUCI) SOLDIERS PATROLLING ABIDJAN STREETS U.N. SOLDIERS IN U.N. TANKS IN STREET TRAFFIC ON ABIDJAN ROADS VARIOUS OF ONUCI MAJOR SHAFIQ IN TANK VARIOUS OF U.N. TANK ON ROAD WITH CARS GOING PAST MORE OF ARMED U.N. SOLDIERS ON TANK CHILDREN SITTING ON SIDE OF THE ROAD WATCHING (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS MISSION TO IVORY COAST MAJOR SHAFIQ, SAYING: "Just after the election, you know about the situation, we were also doing our patrolling and the situation was a little more tensed. Now it's tensed, but not like that moment, like we saw in the people and also in the street." VARIOUS OF MORE OF U.N. TANK ON ROAD DRIVING WITH TWO SOLDIERS SEEN ON TANK
  • Embargoed: 24th January 2011 23:20
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cote d'Ivoire
  • Country: Cote d'Ivoire
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZB3HH8XXZ2TANGM23XQ5W76C
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Ivorians are increasingly resigned to a political crisis that may drag on for months or years, and few have the stomach for military intervention or war to prevent incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo clinging on to power.
    As people settle into a crisis that has already seen more than 170 people killed and many more injured, the political deadlock still seems without solution.
    People are too afraid to take to the streets and a military intervention seems increasingly unlikely.
    After more than a decade of insecurity, Ivorians are tired of conflict and civil war. No longer are we seeing the type of mass protests that brought incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo to power.
    With the army still on Gbagbo's side, people are just too scared to take to the streets.
    "We are afraid, because we hear shootings, so people are afraid to go out. You come out of your house and you don't know what will happen to you," said Elie Aladja, a private security guard from Abidjan.
    The West African country has been in turmoil since the November 28 poll that Western powers and African states say was won by Gbagbo's rival Alassane Ouattara, leading to a standoff that has lasted for more than a month and raised fears of civil war.
    The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened Gbagbo with force if he does not cede power to Ouattara, but it has said intervention would be a last resort and opened the door to negotiations after Gbagbo agreed to further talks.
    "I can't endorse a military intervention, we have already suffered too much violence in Ivory Coast, so they can come now and impose a military force, irrespective of where it may come from. Honestly... I think we can always sort out the problem with the dialogue," said a student from Abidjan, J Mohamed.
    As the United Nations said it wants between 1,000 and 2,000 additional peacekeepers for Ivory Coast, as the world body presses incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down, the force continues to patrol the streets of Abidjan.
    Last month a UN patrol was attacked in the district of Yopougon, but the Bangladeshi patrol lead by Major Shafiq says things are getting better.
    "Just after the election, you know about the situation, we were also doing our patrolling and the situation was a little more tensed. Now it's tensed, but not like that moment, like we saw in the people and also in the street," Major Shafiq said.
    The president of Ghana said on Friday (January 7) his country would not take sides in neighboring Ivory Coast's power struggle and that force would not resolve it, exposing a rift in the region about how to deal with the crisis.
    Presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara's camp said it was not worried by divisions among West African leaders over the use of force to oust Gbagbo, because there are other "military options" that could oust him, a spokesman said.
    But around one thousands people from neighbouring West African countries turned up at a rally in Abidjan on Sunday (January 9) to ask for peace rather than the use of force in finding a solution to the country's political crisis.
    Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa grower, has attracted millions of people from neighbours seeking work and analysts say they would be vulnerable to retaliation by Gbagbo supporters.
    At the rally on Sunday some were holding their national flags, singing and dancing with the various entertainers, and called for dialogue and a peaceful solution.
    "Living in Cote D'Ivoire, we are here because we need peace to reign in this country. We do not want any war. What we want is peace and we want peace to reign," said Vincent Ewantuku, a Nigerian living in Abidjan.
    "If you want force to intervene into Cote d'Ivoire, after killing and destroying beautiful Cote d'Ivoire, what are you going to rule? Whom are you going to be your president? I think that is not the solution," Ewantuku said.
    Before the 2002 civil war, Ivory Coast was the engine of the region's economy. But conflict has left it trailing behind and struggling.
    "We hope the peace comes back in Ivory Coast, in the way it was here before. That's what we wish for, so that everybody is in peace, so that the country gets back its past glory," said Malick Daneme, a Burkinabe citizen.
    A solution to the crisis in the world's top cocoa producer now appears distant. Ouattara has dismissed the offer of talks, saying the use of force is the only solution.
    Analysts doubt that ECOWAS has the means or the will to use force, which could lead to destructive urban warfare and heavy civilian casualties.
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