IVORY COAST: IVORIAN PRESIDENT GBAGBO REJECTS NOTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE TO BRING AN END TO CIVIL STRIFE
Record ID:
183511
IVORY COAST: IVORIAN PRESIDENT GBAGBO REJECTS NOTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE TO BRING AN END TO CIVIL STRIFE
- Title: IVORY COAST: IVORIAN PRESIDENT GBAGBO REJECTS NOTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE TO BRING AN END TO CIVIL STRIFE
- Date: 22nd November 2004
- Summary: (U1) PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (22 NOVEMBER 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV IVORY COAST PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO ENTERING ROOM 0.06 2. MCU (French) IVORY COAST PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO SAYING: "One cannot change a country's constitution because one group of people took up arms, put a gun against your head, and ask you to change it. It is not possible. Otherwise, it's all the Republics of Africa that will explode." 0.24 3. SV OF THE PRESIDENT 0.29 4. MCU (French) IVORY COAST PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO SAYING: "If we get attacked, we are going to defend ourselves, as we did. Despite the destruction of the aviation, we are better armed than in 2002." 0.37 5. SLV OF PRESIDENT WITH JOURNALISTS 0.41 6. MCU (French) IVORY COAST PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO SAYING: "France disarmed us by force. I hope the United Nations will also give France the mandate to disarm the rebels by force. It is the only way today." 0.55 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th December 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Reuters ID: LVA5Z3QC5Q4QMM3D49BUJ4MOL0KI
- Story Text: Ivorian President Gbagbo rejects notiion of
constitutional change to bring an end to civil strife.
The conflict in Ivory Coast has its roots in ethnic
divisions and has implications for all Ivory Coast's
neighbours -- some of them, such as Liberia, already
struggling with instability.
The African Union, which gave impetus to the U.N.
sanctions, has mandated South African President Thabo Mbeki
to look for a lasting solution to recent flareup of
fighting between President Laurent Gbagbo's army and rebels
this month.
Mbeki has already spoken with President Laurent Gbagbo
in Abidjan and with opposition leaders including former
prime minister Alassane Ouattara, whose presidential
ambition is at the centre of the crisis.
A constitutional provision barring Ouattara from
running for president because he has roots in Burkina Faso
to the north angered many of his fellow northern Muslims
and sowed the seeds of a coup attempt against Gbagbo.
But on Monday (November 22), Gbagbo said in an
interview with Reuters that the constitution of his country
would not be changed.
"One cannot change a country's constitution because one
group of people took up the arms, put a gun against your
head, and ask you to change it. It is not possible.
Otherwise, it's all the Republics of Africa that will
explode," Gbagbo said, speaking in the Presidential palace.
A failed 2002 coup against Gbagbo turned into a civil
war that threatens wider instability in the region.
French peacekeepers holding a buffer zone were drawn
into the conflict this month after an army bombing raid
killed nine French soldiers. The French reacted by
crippling the Ivorian air force's fleet, triggering days of
anti-French riots in Abidjan.
Gbagbo remained defiant towards France, its former
colonial power.
"If we get attacked, we are going to defend ourselves,
as we did. Despite the destruction of the aviation, we are
better armed than in 2002," Gbagbo said, before adding
"France disarmed us by force. I hope the United Nations
will also give France the mandate to disarm the rebels by
force. It is the only way left." Some 10,000 frightened
foreigners,
mostly French, have
fled and the United Nations has since imposed an arms
embargo on Ivory Coast.
As head of the AU's Peace and Security Commission,
Mbeki's mission is critical to Africa's commitment to
ending wars on the continent to attract badly needed
Western investment.
In the past two weeks Mbeki has met Gbagbo in Abidjan
and brought government, opposition and rebel leaders to
Pretoria for what South African officials described as
encouraging talks.
Regional analysts say Mbeki wants to shift his
mediation from building a minimum level of trust among the
parties to the conflict to putting forward ideas for
lasting peace.
The rebels initially demanded Gbagbo's removal as
minimum condition for talks, accusing him of failing to
implement a 2003 French-brokered power-sharing deal. The
government in turn accuses the rebels of failing to disarm
as demanded by the deal.
Analysts say the success of any peace process would
still depend on how Gbagbo is able to bring in line his
hundreds of thousands of so-called Young Patriots
supporters who hunted down foreigners amid a reign of
terror, looting and rape in Abidjan.
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