Global General
Security Council to meet again on Cote d'Ivoire
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-12-08 11:27
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UNITED NATIONS - Members of the UN Security Council "are eager to speak with one voice" on the political standoff in the post-election Cote d'Ivoire, and the 15-nation Council will meet again on Wednesday on the current situation in the West African country, Susan Rice, the US UN ambassador who holds the rotating Council presidency for December, said Tuesday.
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The United Nations began to withdraw some 500 non-essential personnel from Cote d'Ivoire, formerly known as Ivory Coast, as the continuing uncertainty over what will take place in the West African country led hundreds of people to flee the situation.
"We had about five and half hours of discussions and consultations on Cote d'Ivoire, beginning with the very detailed and comprehensive briefing by Special Representative Choi on the process he undertook in a position to certify results of the Independent Electoral Commission," Rice said.
Cote d'Ivoire's presidential elections have been delayed since 2005 due to tension between the rebel-held north of the country and the south, which engaged in a civil war beginning in 2002.
Cote d'Ivoire is experiencing a political crisis, as two rival candidates, Alassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo, were sworn in as president, after the Nov 28 runoff presidential election in the West African country.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who repeatedly voiced his concerns over the current political standoff in Cote d'Ivoire, joined the world powers in recognizing opposition leader Ouattara as the new president of the West African country after the runoff presidential election last Sunday, but Gbagbo refused to step down.
Rice made the statement as the United Nations on Tuesday intensified its diplomatic moves over Cote d'Ivoire, where outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo insists he won last month's elections despite UN certification of his rival Alassane Ouattara as the clear victor.
Also on Tuesday, Choi briefed an extraordinary summit in Abuja of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the elections, which were a key step in efforts to reunite a country split in two by civil war in 2002.
The summit endorsed Choi's certification of Ouattara as president-elect, called on Gbagbo to "yield power without delay" in the best interests of his country, and hailed the UN's "key role" in the conduct of the elections under democratically acceptable conditions.
"Considering the distance Cote d'Ivoire has travelled, ignoring the will of the Ivorian people at this stage would be a let down of the people of Cote d'Ivoire and a waste of significant resources invested over the past eight years by the international community," Choi told the Council by video link from Abuja before it went into closed session.
"The fact is that Cote d'Ivoire is a very unusual and unique circumstance, in which the Council in its prior resolutions acting under (UN) Chapter 7 at the request of the Ivorian parties in their 2005 agreement in South Africa, have a mandate given to the special representative of the secretary-general (SRSG) to certify every stage of the election process in Cote d'Ivoire - and that is what SRSG Choi has done, consistent with this mandate," Rice said.
"It is our strong view as the United States that all parties need to respect that result and to act in a peaceful fashion to ensure as ECOWAS said today, that President-elect Ouattara is able to take up his post swiftly and peacefully and as in accordance with Ivorian practices and procedures," Rice said in her capacity as the US ambassador.
Choi's certification of Ouattara last Friday as the newly-elected president followed the declaration of his victory by Cote d'Ivoire's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Nov 28 runoff vote, giving Ouattara 54.1 percent of the vote to 45.9 percent for Gbagbo.
The result he obtained as certifier of the elections was clear, Choi said, "There was one winner with an irrefutable margin."
But the head of the Constitutional Council declared the IEC announcement null and void, citing irregularities in Ouattara's northern base where it cancelled returns from four regions, and it proclaimed Gbagbo the winner.
Ban, who endorsed Choi's certification, has been in close contact with African leaders, including President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, who has played a leading role in efforts to bring stability to Cote d'Ivoire, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, current ECOWAS chairman, and President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, chairman of the African Union (AU).
The secretary-general also discussed the situation with the chair of the AU Commission, Jean Ping, when the two met on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico. He underlined the important role of the AU in resolving the situation in Cote d'Ivoire, and reiterated the need to respect the will of the Ivorian people, according to Ban's spokesperson.