U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

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WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 302
29 October - 4 November 2005


CONTENTS:

COTE D IVOIRE: Obasanjo flies in to try to break prime minister
   deadlock
CHAD: Deby dissolves presidential guard following wave of desertions
GUINEA-BISSAU: President appoints controversial new prime minister
LIBERIA: Sirleaf slams Weah for dodging face-to-face election debate
GUINEA: Opposition throws hat into ring for local elections
COTE D IVOIRE: What's in a name? A fight for identity


COTE D IVOIRE: Obasanjo flies in to try to break prime minister deadlock

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo flew in to Cote d'Ivoire on Friday
for a whirlwind round of meetings to try to break the political deadlock
over who should be the new prime minister and get the peace process
moving again.

Peace-sealing elections were supposed to be have been held on 30 October
to turn the page on three years of no war, no peace. But mediators and
UN officials agreed that this was impossible because of the
intransigence of the warring factions.

A UN Security Council resolution gave Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo
another 12 months in office to work towards holding new elections and
called for a new prime minister, who would be acceptable to all and have
full authority over his cabinet.

The 15-nation body said it hoped the new head of government would be
announced by the end of October, but November came with no decision in
sight. And some diplomats said on Friday that, even with Obasanjo's
visit, a quick fix was not on the cards.

"I am certain they won't find the new prime minister today," one western
diplomat told IRIN. "Obasanjo's schedule is so tight that there is no
time to get to the bottom of things."

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49943


CHAD: Deby dissolves presidential guard following wave of desertions

Chadian President Idriss Deby has dismissed the 5,000-strong military
unit acting as his presidential guard, days after the government failed
to reel in scores of defecting soldiers who have regrouped in the
volatile east of the country.

A presidential decree signed on Friday and released at the weekend
declared: "The Republican Guard is dissolved.  All persons and
equipment of the Republican Guard are to be reverted to the army."

Analysts say the move is a sign that Deby has moved into survival mode.

"The decision to dissolve the [Republican Guard] hints at panic within
the regime and suggests that Deby - a military strategist of some merit
- has moved beyond damage limitation strategies into full-blown regime
survival mode," said Chris Melville of the London-based research group
Global Insight.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49857


GUINEA-BISSAU: President appoints controversial new prime minister

Guinea-Bissau's President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira appointed a
long-time ally as prime minister, days after sacking the government of
his political arch rival Carlos Gomes Junior.

Aristides Gomes, the mastermind behind the campaign that propelled
Vieira to the presidency in July, was swiftly sworn into office on
Wednesday and promised to mend political fences and the West African
nation's ailing economy.

"I will form a government of national consensus that reflects all the
country's political forces," Gomes told reporters after the ceremony.

The new prime minister pledged to work closely with the international
community, a priority for the former Portuguese colony where foreign aid
is needed just to pay state salaries.

But the choice of prime minister did not go down well with Gomes
Junior's African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape
Verde (PAIGC). And the current crisis has done little to dispel concerns
among donors, who want to see political stability before they are once
again willing to invest heavily in the world's sixth poorest country.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49912



LIBERIA: Sirleaf slams Weah for dodging face-to-face election debate

Presidential candidate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has rounded on her rival
George Weah for shunning a live public debate with just a week to go
until the run-off vote that will determine the next president of
war-battered Liberia.

Weah, the soccer millionaire and political novice who won the most votes
in the first round in October, is set to go head-to-head with
Harvard-educated economist and veteran politician Sirleaf at the ballot
box on 8 November.

But he has declined to take part in a face-to-face debate in Monrovia,
scheduled for this week in front of a live audience of 700 people and
due to be broadcast on local radio.

"How does Mr Weah expect to communicate his vision and agenda to
international partners, ranging from development theorists to
scientists, if he cannot talk to his nation and people about his plans
to lead this country," Sirleaf's Unity Party said in a statement on
Tuesday.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49893



GUINEA: Opposition throws hat into ring for local elections

Despite serious reservations, Guinea's main opposition coalition has
said it will take part in December's municipal elections which are
widely seen as a test of the country's democratic reform process.

"The (coalition) will participate in these elections while remaining
convinced that there are no guarantees of fair play," Jean-Marie Dore,
spokesman for the Republican Front for Democratic Change (FRAD), told a
press conference on Saturday.

"But we intend to show the international community that we are committed
to helping our country go forward," he said.

The declaration that FRAD would present a united front in the upcoming
elections followed nearly two weeks of internal debate about how much
progress the government had made on democratic reforms that both the
opposition and the international community have demanded.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49850



COTE D IVOIRE: What's in a name? A fight for identity

"We needed a war because we needed our identity cards," explained rebel
fighter Adama Traore, one of thousands of rebels who control the
northern half of Cote d'Ivoire. "Without an identity card you are
nothing in this country."

The 23-year-old used to work with a local aid agency improving
healthcare but he picked up a Kalashnikov when the war started three
years ago to take up another more important service, he says -- the
fight for equal rights for all Ivorians.

"We are badly treated. Plenty of northerners have been killed, beaten or
given a hard time for nothing," he told IRIN near the rebel stronghold
of Bouake, as he took a break from manning a checkpoint on the main road
that runs south into government-controlled territory.

Identity is at the heart of the ongoing conflict in Cote d'Ivoire, the
world's top cocoa producing nation and the economic power house of West
Africa.

The problem is decades old and as well rooted as the cocoa trees that
sprouted the nation's wealth. But it gained increasing political
momentum in the 1990s. After the country's first and only successful
coup in 1999, authorities stopped issuing identification cards
altogether.

Full report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49884


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


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