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South Africa says it is
abandoning mediation efforts in divided
Ivory Coast after renewed delays in implementing a peace deal and calls to
postpone elections. Warring sides now fear a peaceful solution will be
impossible.
Across the continent in Pretoria, the South African deputy foreign
minister, Aziz Pahad, said his country was concluding its mediation
efforts and would hand over these duties to the African Union and the
United Nations.
He said northern Ivorian rebels and the opposition were refusing to
honor their side of the deal, even though Ivory Coast President Laurent
Gbagbo had agreed to what he called South African formulations.
Mr. Pahad called the obstacles legalistic gymnastics. The Security
Council will discuss the situation Wednesday in New York, where Ivorian
warring parties face the threat of sanctions for being unable to implement
a peace deal, first mediated in early 2003 in France.
Rebels and the opposition say Mr. Gbagbo is failing to abide by the
accords, by changing agreements enough so they become meaningless and by
not allowing free and fair elections on October 30, as scheduled.
They have called for Mr. Gbagbo's removal and the establishment of a
transitional government.
A rebel supporter, Timithee Ali Baba, says rebels
are refusing to disarm
, because he says under Mr. Gbagbo's conditions, very few
northerners would be able to vote.
"They do not have their identity cards, they cannot vote. We
know that some materials have been destroyed and we do not have the
specific statistics about the different people which may vote. It is
impossible in this situation, it is clearly impossible to organize
elections even if the international community wants it."
An opposition spokesman told VOA it is clear this was the failure of
yet another mediation effort, after previous attempts by the former
colonial power France as well as numerous West African countries
collapsed.
Meanwhile, a staunch supporter of President Gbagbo, Charles Ble Goude,
the leader of the so-called Young Patriots, said he felt vindicated. Both
the opposition spokesman and Mr. Ble Goude refused to be recorded, saying
the information was so important, they needed more time to make full
statements.
Other officials from the two warring sides, speaking anonymously, said
they feared hostilities could resume, even with the presence of about
10,000 U.N and French peacekeepers.
Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer, has been torn by
growing ethnic divisions in many parts of the country, since the start of
the rapid insurgency nearly three years ago, raising fears of large-scale
violence. | 
