ABIDJAN – Ivory Coast’s internationally recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, called for peace after his rival was arrested with the help of French forces, but he faces a huge task reuniting a country shattered by civil war.
Ouattara, who won a November presidential election according to UN-certified results, can finally begin asserting his authority over the West African country after his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo was captured on Monday, ending more than four months of stand-off that descended into all-out conflict. Gbagbo, who had refused to step down after 10 years in power, was arrested after French forces in the former colony closed in on the bunker where he had been holed up for the past week, and placed under the control of Ouattara’s forces.
That has left Ouattara as the sole leader in charge of the country, although many analysts say it may not be enough to end the fighting that has bloodied the world’s top cocoa grower. “I call on my fellow countrymen to abstain from all forms of reprisal and violence,” Ouattara said in a speech on his TCI television late on Monday, calling for “a new era of hope”.
“Our country has turned a painful page in its history,” he said, urging marauding youth militias to lay down their weapons and promising to restore security to the battered nation. Ethnic violence has festered during Ouattara’s lengthy tug-of-war with Gbagbo, particularly in the west of the country, with hundreds of people killed as both sides in the conflict committed atrocities against civilians, aid groups say. Ouattara said Gbagbo, his wife and aides who have been detained will face justice. But he also promised a South African-styled Truth and Reconciliation Commission to shed light on all crimes and human rights abuses. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Ouattara to form a national unity government to help reconcile the country’s divisions, his spokesman said. An end to the standoff could pave the way for a quick resumption of cocoa exports from the world’s top grower nation, and raise hopes for payments on the country’s defaulted Eurobond, analysts said.
