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By William M. Reilly UPI U.N. CorrespondentPublished January 22, 2006
The United Nations says four days of violent, orchestrated, demonstrations in Ivory Coast against the world organization and its peacekeepers appear to have ended.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the U.N. Operation in Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym UNOCI, reported Friday the country returned to a state of relative calm.
UNOCI said anti-U.N. demonstrators had withdrawn and roadblocks were dismantled.
However the state broadcaster continued to send out messages attacking UNOCI and French forces, Dujarric said.
The calm, so elusive earlier in the week, followed appeals by close allies of President Laurent Gbagbo in the face of threats the U.N. Security Council would impose sanctions. Protests by pro-Gbagbo groups began after mediators of the world body called for the dissolution of parliament to pave the way for elections.
Thursday Annan appealed to the leaders in the West African country to work together to restore calm after protesters opposing the possible dissolution of parliament demonstrated outside U.N. offices for a fourth day, prompting the sanction threats.
Annan had warned sanctions could be imposed if peace talks were disrupted or if the violence continued. The former colonial power, France, planned to send extra riot police to tackle the protesters who had besieged U.N. bases in several cities.
Rebels hold the north of the nation, the government the south. They are separated by an international buffer zone.
At U.N. World Headquarters in New York France circulated a draft resolution calling for a buildup in peacekeepers in Ivory Coast from the present 7,600 to about 10,000 troops.
On the humanitarian front, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that except in the town of Guiglo, most agency work had continued during the past four days. In Guiglo U.N. personnel were under Ivorian protection today.
"I think it is unfortunate that the population would be incited to take to the streets to criticize the forces that are there to help the situation, the forces that are there to encourage them to make peace," Annan told reporters outside the Security Council Thursday. Behind closed doors the panel's 15 members were discussing possible next steps.
As a basis for discussion, the council had the Secretary-General's latest report on Ivory Coast, which already called for an expansion of the U.N. force.
Annan said while the proposal previously had not received much support, the latest developments in Ivory Coast made the case for a larger U.N. mission.
However, at least one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the council, the United States, expressed reservations about a buildup.
In addition to U.N.-authorized French forces, the U.N mission, also has 697 international police officers. The secretary-general is seeking an additional 475 police.
Annan said he was in touch with President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the chairman of the African Union, who went to Abidjan Wednesday to talk to Ivorian leaders, and with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who has been the AU-designated mediator.
The demonstrations outside the ONUCI headquarters started Monday, opposing a non-binding recommendation by the U.N.-authorized International Working Group that would have effectively disbanded the National Assembly, whose mandate had expired.
The move would have reduced the powers of Gbagbo and given wide-ranging powers to newly appointed Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and his national-unity cabinet, which includes leaders of the armed and unarmed opposition.
Annan said of those responsible for the violence, "the time will come when they may have to account for their acts and the disruption they are causing to their own society."
He appealed to all Ivorian citizens "to work together with the government and for the Prime Minister and the President to work together to implement the road map, to work together to bring peace in the interest of the people and in the interest of the nation.
"It is their responsibility and their duty and the international community is there to assist them. We are not the protagonists and they should work with us to implement the road map," he added.
Thursday the Security Council adopted a presidential statement endorsing the working group's final communiqué containing the controversial recommendation and strongly condemning the violent attacks on ONUCI and international Non-governmental facilities "by street militias and other groups associated with the 'Young Patriots,' as well as their instigators."
Ambassador Augustine Mahiga of Tanzania, council president for January, cited previous resolutions, in reading out the presidential statement, warning that targeted measures would be imposed against persons blocking implementation of the peace process, "including by attacking or obstructing the action of UNOCI, of the French forces, of the high representative for the elections or of the International Working Group, or who incite publicly hatred and violence."
The council statement called on all Ivorians to refrain from any hostile action and demanded all hate messages in the media cease and that effective control by government entities over state broadcasting be re-established at once.
That was the reason for Dujarric pointing out state broadcasts continued to carry hate messages Friday.
From Abidjan, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Abdoulaye Mar Dieye expressed his regret for the loss of civilian life and his grave concern over the destruction of the offices of several relief groups. He called "for an immediate end to the incitements for protesters to target humanitarian personnel."
U.N. agencies feed more than one million people in Ivory Coast.
The head of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno, told reporters Thursday the question of formal Ivorian identity was a sensitive one in registering for elections. The process of disarmament, also sensitive, had to be carried out in the rebel-controlled north at the same time as in the government-ruled south, he said, adding it would require a strengthened U.N. mission.
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