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Odinga says Ivory Coast mediation fails, blames Gbagbo

19 January 2011 23:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said an African effort to mediate Ivory Coast’s disputed poll had failed on Wednesday, blaming Laurent Gbagbo and warning of harsh sanctions or force if he didn’t step down as president, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Alassane Ouattara was proclaimed winner of a November 28 poll by the electoral commission and is internationally recognized as president-elect, but Gbagbo has refused to go, alleging the vote was rigged. He maintains control of the army, much of the cocoa sector and state institutions.
"Despite extensive discussions ... with Mr Laurent Gbagbo and President-elect Alassane Ouattara, that went very late into the night, I regret to announce that the breakthrough that was needed, did not materialize," Odinga, the African Union’s (AU) mediator for Ivory Coast, told reporters at the airport as he was about to leave.
"Time is running out," he added of efforts to peacefully resolve the stand-off between the two rival claimants that risks sending the world’s top cocoa grower back into a civil war.
"Unless they (Gbagbo’s camp) heed the call and agree to create a conducive environment for peaceful dialogue, the friends of Ivory Coast might be forced to take other measures...which would require additional punishing economic and financial sanctions, and possibly the use of force."
It was the strongest statement by a visiting mediator to Ivory Coast in its decade-long crisis. Odinga explicitly blamed Gbagbo for the breakdown in negotiations, saying he had not acted on a pledge to lift a military siege on the hotel where Ouattara’s parallel administration remains under U.N. guard.
"Mr Gbagbo gave me an assurance that this blockade would be lifted yesterday, but he broke that promise, for the second time in two weeks," he said, explaining why he cut his trip short.
Ivory Coast missed a payment on its $2.3 billion bond at the end of December, but has until February 1 before it goes into default.
"PRESSURE FROM OUTSIDE"
A senior aide to Gbagbo said he could not yet comment on Odinga’s remarks because they had not been informed.
If negotiations fail, it remains unclear whether tougher sanctions or a military intervention would be forthcoming.
The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Gbagbo and his inner circle, while efforts continue to squeeze his access to funds, with little impact yet.
The latest measure saw EU-registered vessels at the weekend barred from new financial dealings with Ivorian ports but cocoa exporters say they are continuing operations as normal and the flow of beans is running higher than last year.
The Swiss government said it would freeze any assets Gbagbo has, though it is not known how much of his fortune, if any, is stashed away in Swiss bank accounts.
Gbagbo apparently still has access to $3 billion of reserves at the state accounts in francophone West Africa’s central bank, despite a statement in late December that suggested the monetary union did not recognize him.
U.N. mission chief Y.J. Choi told a news conference on Tuesday: "We know pressure from outside, especially the ... monetary union, is (being) felt by President Gbabgo’s camp."
Odinga said force was a "last resort," as West African regional bloc ECOWAS threatened; but doubts have grown over the feasibility and the region is seen as divided over it.
Military chiefs of West African regional bloc ECOWAS met in Mali on Tuesday to discuss the planning of an ouster of Gbagbo.
Russia on Tuesday delayed a Security Council vote on sending more U.N. troops to Ivory Coast, suggesting it may be difficult to get backing in the council for any ratcheting up of force.
The U.N. mission estimates at least 247 people have been killed since the dispute began, many in night-time raids by security forces or allied militias against residents of pro-Ouattara neighborhoods. Gbagbo’s camp denies this.
Ouattara hopes a faction within the Ivorian army could step in, if foreign military intervention does not arrive.
"We’re not in for a long crisis," Ouattara told French news channel TV5, adding that he thought military support for Gbagbo was low. "Gbagbo will have a surprise sooner than he thinks."