DAKAR, Jan 12 (AFP) - One of the major lessons from the dragging war in
Ivory Coast is that the West African bloc is not in a position to act
forcefully and in a unified manner to solve the problems of its own
members.
The 16-week conflict in the world's biggest cocoa grower and former
regional economic powerhouse has exposed the inadequacies of the 15-nation
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, founded in 1975.
Wracked by infighting and ego problems between leaders and displaying
an extreme hesitancy on the military front, ECOWAS has had to take back
stage, leaving Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler France to try and
resolve the conflict.
President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, which holds the rotating presidency
of the bloc, recently admitted to AFP that ECOWAS was not up to the task.
"There are some who speak of a weakening of ECOWAS," he said.
"But the ECOWAS was never strong. It does not have the means to be a
strong grouping and to apply its decisions," he said, adding that the 15
leaders of the bloc "were free to take their own decisions."
Senegal, which is seen by some regional powers as arrogant and quick to
give lessons in democracy, saw the steering wheel grabbed from its hands at
the first ECOWAS summit on the Ivorian crisis held on September 29, 10 days
after the uprising broke out.
The talks set up a "contact group" on the crisis comprising six
countries -- Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo -- and
Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, a regional heavyweight, was mandated
to mediate peace.
But the group failed to make any significant headway leaving Wade, who
critics say loves being in the limelight, to despatch his Foreign Minister,
Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, to the rebel headquarters of Bouake in October.
The unilateral move was roundly criticised by some members, including
Togo.
But it led to the conclusion of a ceasefire pact on October 17 agreed by
the main rebel group holding the northern half of Ivory Coast.
At the same time peace talks between the main insurgent movement and
the government began in the Togolese capital Lome, which led to some
progress on some of the demands of the rebels, mostly disgruntled soldiers
facing demobilisation.
But on the political front there was an impasse with the rebels sticking
to their stand that Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo would have to go and
the Abidjan government insisting that the insurgents would have to lay down
arms before talking peace.
This led Senegal's Wade to declare in November that the talks had
failed -- a statement very poorly viewed by Togo.
The September ECOWAS summit in the Ghanaian capital Accra also ended
with a decision to send regional peacekeepers to Ivory Coast, with Senegal
commanding the troops.
That decision hung fire till January when a first contingent of some 50
soldiers arrived in Ivory Coast to work in tandem with some 2,500 troops
deployed by France.
Regional military powerhouse Niegria has studiously avoided involvement
in the peacekeeping efforts. Relations between Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo
and Wade are not exactly the best.
Meanwhile, other regional initiatives followed -- a meeting in Mali
between Ivory Coast's Gbagbo and President Blaise Compaore, whom the
former has fingered as the mastermind of the crisis.
That was followed by a meeting of five west African leaders in Togo on
December 16 and two days later by a new ECOWAS summit in the Senegalese
capital Dakar with only four of the 15 regional leaders attending.
The last meeting only buttressed the perception that the bloc was
divided and inefficient.
Wade recently said a summit of African heads of state due to be held in
Paris after French-brokered peace talks involving the Ivorian belligerents,
scheduled to start Wednesday, would prove futile.
He may have cause to revise his opinion.
at-ach/pvh
ICoast-WAfrica
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