ECOWAS chief to broker Ivorian peace talks in Feb
Source: Reuters
By Mathieu Bongkoungou BOBO-DIOULASSO, Burkina Faso, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Burkina Faso's president said on Wednesday he would work to broker a meeting next month between Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and a rebel chief whose forces control the north of Ivory Coast. Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore, who holds the rotating chairmanship of West African economic bloc ECOWAS, announced the planned timing of the talks after a three-hour meeting with Gbagbo in the western town of Bobo-Dioulasso. Compaore, who took over the reins of ECOWAS at a summit last week, had met with Ivorian New Forces rebel chief Guillaume Soro on Tuesday to prepare the ground for his mediation. "I will work in the coming days until the start of February to organise an exploratory meeting to see in what conditions we can successfully conclude this dialogue," he told reporters, flanked by Gbagbo after their closed-door meeting. The Ivorian president and his aides have met rebel leaders before but mediators believe a one-on-one meeting with Soro can help to revitalise a faltering peace process. Ivory Coast, still the economic powerhouse of francophone West Africa, has been divided since the New Forces launched a brief 2002-2003 civil war against Gbagbo, saying he was discriminating against the country's mainly Muslim north. U.N.-backed efforts to unify the country and hold long-overdue elections have stalled, amid squabbling over the details of disarmament and voter registration. A Security Council resolution in November extended Gbagbo's mandate for a second and final 12-month period and urged transition Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny to organise elections before October. Gbagbo, who has called for U.N. and French peacekeepers to leave Ivory Coast, welcomed Compaore's mediation, smoothing over previously rocky relations with his northern neighbour. "I have faith in the mediation of ECOWAS, headed by President Blaise Compaore," Gbagbo told journalists. "We have traced out the framework for ECOWAS intervention." Ivory Coast has previously accused Burkina Faso of supporting the New Forces, many of whom come from ethnic groups straddling the border. For its part, Burkina Faso has charged Gbagbo's government with mistreating Burkinabe immigrants.
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