Mediation and Liberal Peacebuilding: Peace From the Ashes of War? by Mikael Eriksson & Roland Kostic

Author:Mikael Eriksson & Roland Kostic [Eriksson, Mikael & Kostic, Roland]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, General, Political Science, International Relations, Peace
ISBN: 9780415638357
Google: Q6SCYVjJ5PwC
Goodreads: 15859085
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-15T11:10:01+00:00

Military coup and armed conflict

The continuous power struggle fed political instability and culminated in a military coup in December, 1999, in which President Bedié was overthrown by General Guëi. Guëi promised to return the country to democratic and civilian rule, and allowed elections to take place in 2000. Meanwhile, Laurent Gbagbo, leader of Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI), with a support base mainly in the south-west (many of whom were Christian Krous), saw that his window of opportunity had come and took steps to reaffirm himself on the political stage. Conniving with Guëi, he managed to invalidate the eligibility of the other key presidential candidates – Henri Bedié for the PDCI and Alassane Ouattara for Rassemblement des Républicains (RDR). Guëi himself had decided to stand for election, but during his term in office he was becoming an increasingly unpopular president. The elections on 22 October 2000, with Gbagbo challenging Guëi, took place in a climate of tension. Before the counting of the votes was completed, both candidates declared themselves winners. Gbabgo then urged crowds to take to the streets to protest, which led to violent confrontations between Guëi's military (along with, in particular Ouattara's, but also Bedié's, supporters, taking Guëi's side) and Gbagbo's supporters, backed by a part of the security forces. In the end, Guëi was forced to accept defeat and Gbagbo could declare himself winner (Ayangafac 2007: 26; Antonini 2009: 76).

The tensions remained unresolved, disorder prevailed and ‘the northerners’ continued to argue discrimination. Their objections concerned ‘the policy of Ivoirité’, particularly the prohibition on Ouattara running for office on the basis – a pretext – that he was not Ivorian. There was increasing frustration with the difficulties in being granted national ID cards among ‘the northerners’, who felt that they had been denied their citizenship and right to political participation. A law adopted in 1998 had changed Houphouët-Boigny's practice of letting the land belong to those who cultivated it, and instead gave property rights for land only to people with Ivorian citizenship. Gbagbo exacerbated tensions at the community level by stating that Ivorians should be given the land back from the foreigners. In consequence, the military elements involved in the coup in 1999, along with other followers frustrated with Gbagbo's takeover and with the continued practice of ‘Ivoirité’, withdrew to the north and into Burkina Faso to prepare further resistance. Gbagbo, for his part, adopted a confrontational stance towards any political opponents, at some stages also showing readiness to physically eliminate his rivals.

On 19 September 2002, these anti-Gbagbo partisans attempted a coup against the president. Assaults were carried out by insurgents rallying under the newly formed Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d’Ivoire (MPCI), led by Guillaume Soro. The coup failed but instead developed into a rebellion, with Gbagbo responding by converting the coup into a civil war. Even though the battles did not last very long, the country was de facto divided into two parts – one northern and one southern (Antonini 2009: 76). The MPCI was later joined in

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.