The UN Security Council renewed an arms and diamond sales embargo Thursday on Ivory Coast for one year to maintain pressure on the new government to embark on a peace process and organise parliamentary elections. President Alassane Ouattara won a four-month battle to oust his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo from the presidential palace and is now cementing his official rule around the west African nation.
More than 1,000 people are said to have died in clashes between the two sides and ethnic massacres carried out by either side. The UN says armed militias are still staging attacks in the west of the country. But the country's UN ambassador said a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission would be set up within weeks as Ouattara recognised that reconciliation between his followers and the Gbagbo camp remained his "most significant challenge." Ivory Coast sanctions have traditionally been extended for six months. But diplomats said the one-year extension this time was to encourage and maintain pressure on Outtara.
UN Security Council resolution 1980 said the sanctions could be reviewed before 12 months depending on "progress achieved in the stabilisation throughout the country, the holding of the parliamentary elections and the implementation of the key steps of the peace process."
The resolution kept up a travel ban and assets freeze against Gbabgo and his entourage and warned that the Council was ready to impose new measures against anyone who threatens the peace in Ivory Coast. An arms embargo was first imposed in 2004 and a ban on trading in rough diamonds was added the following year, two years after a rebellion that divided the country. Ivory Coast has been considered the world's biggest source of illegally traded conflict diamonds.
Youssoufou Bamba, the UN ambassador for Ivory Coast, said Ouattara considers national reconciliation to be his "most significant challenge" because of the "scarred social tissue" left by 10 years of military and political strife. He said Ouattara would establish a truth and reconciliation commission within weeks and that a national government would involve "all political forces."
Bamba said "the truth about all crimes and atrocities perpetrated" must be shown. Ouattara followers have been accused of staging killings as well as Gbabgbo's forces. "Justice must be given to the victims and their families to avoid impunity. Only then could any pardon be appropriate to lead to the necessary reconciliation between us," Bamba said.