IVORY COAST: Pro government protests in Abidjan as the ruling party pulls out of United Nations peace process.

Record ID: 182586

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Pro government protests in Abidjan as the ruling party pulls out of United Nations peace process.
  • Date: 18th January 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE UP: BANNER WITH WORDS: LA FRANCE NE REUSSIRA PAS CE COUP D'ETAT CONTRE GBAGBO [FRANCE WILL NOT SUCCESSFULLY BRING ABOUT COUP D'ETAT AGAINST GBAGBO]
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADHBK6YPPMLALX3JQO4V8245XJ
  • Story Text: Ivory Coast's ruling party said on Tuesday (January 17) it was abandoning a faltering U.N. peace process as hundreds of pro-government protesters called for the expulsion of U.N. troops and mediators they accused of meddling in their affairs of the country.
    The anti-U.N. protests in the commercial capital Abidjan and other cities threw into confusion international efforts to reunite the country, which has been split since a 2002 civil war between a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south.
    Pro-government protests in Abidjan and other cities erupted after an international working group charged with overseeing the U.N. peace process recommended on Sunday (January 15) that the Ivorian parliament, whose mandate expired last month, should not be reconvened.
    Gbagbo loyalists, who dominate the parliament, accused international mediators and the U.N. of overstepping their authority and trying to override sovereign institutions
    Protesting against a call by foreign mediators to dissolve the national parliament, young supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo besieged the French Embassy.
    "We are here in front ot the French Embassy because we believe that France is hiding behind the international community, the UN and the GTI. It is France which has organised, planned the crisis we are living through right now in the Ivory Coast." said Ble Goude, Leader Of Young Patriots
    Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front party (FPI) called for the withdrawal of more than 7,000 U.N. troops and police and 4,000 French soldiers who have together been maintaining a shaky peace in the world's top cocoa grower.
    "The FPI declares it is pulling out of the peace process and declares its refusal to continue for much longer in a recolonisation process overseen by the U.N.," FPI party president Pascal Affi N'Guessan told reporters.
    Gbagbo himself did not immediately comment but met with U.N. mission chief Pierre Schori to discuss the situation.
    The United Nations and international mediators are struggling to implement a long-delayed peace plan that now requires a presidential election to be held by the end of October following a process of disarmament.
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