UDP Statement on the Crisis In Ivory Coast.




 The Gambia government's recent pronouncement on the situation in Ivory
Coast and the efforts of Alasane Ouattara the legitimately elected President
of that country to establish law and order in the face of his losing
opponent's deadly intransigence that cost nearly 1500 Ivorians their lives
and displaced more than a million people was at once pathetic and immoral.

To hear the government frame its farfetched claims and feigned outrage at
the imagined hidden hands of colonialists attempting to take over a resource
rich African country ignores the realities of the events that culminated in
the arrests of the former President Laurent Gbagbo. The international
presence that the Gambia government seemed so perturbed by came about as a
result of the civil war Ivory Coast found itself engulfed in a few years ago
with all sides to the conflict agreeing to a United Nations supervised
democratization process that was inclusive and engendered long term
stability.

Despite repeated attempts by former President Gbagbo and his allies to delay
and obstruct key instruments of the process in a bid to cling to power, the
international community persevered and finally conducted a free and fair
election in which all qualified voters were able to participate in
determining the leadership of their country. Mr. Gbagbo promptly rejected
the verdict of his own people when it became clear that they had chosen to
vote his opponent into office. Both the regional and continental African
bodies, Ecowas and AU respectively, concurred with the verdict delivered by
the Ivorians that Mr. Ouattara was the duly elected President of Ivory
Coast. This verdict was equally endorsed by the UN, the European Union and
US government and all those who place value on a free and transparent
electoral process.

Mr. Gbagbo stubbornly resisted every diplomatic initiative to end his
illegitimate claim to power by spurning envoys from Ecowas, AU and direct
offers of graceful exit from friendly countries that wanted to save Ivory
Coast from further turmoil. With his increasing recalcitrance, the machinery
of government effectively grounded to halt as he used regime loyalists to
unleash violence on the civilian population and effectively threatening to
plunge his nation back to the horrible days of the civil war.

The Ivorian people and the international community that had worked so hard
to help chart a democratic future for Ivory Coast had to act to safeguard
their mandate pursuant to the relevant United Nations resolutions. They
acted swiftly and justifiably to end Mr. Gbagbo's war against the Ivorian
people and in the process, offering them the opportunity to pursue the great
promise they represent as a prosperous democratic country.

The Gambia government's refusal to recognise the elected President of Ivory
Coast places it in a category by itself and is illustrative of an out of
touch regime that is pursuing a foreign policy entirely driven by a crazy
obsession with delusional western conspiracies. To be an on the record
advocate of tyrants who refuse to cede power following a rejection by their
people is utterly disgraceful and inconsistent with the Gambian peoples'
strong affinity for democracy and the rule of law. The government's position
on Ivory Coast does not reflect the values of our good people.

The United Democratic Party rejects the Gambia government's approach to
President Ouattara. UDP congratulates Mr. Alasane Ouattara on his election
to the high office of President of the Republic of Ivory Coast and wish him
and his team all the best as they embark on the important and difficult task
of reconciliation, rebuilding and repositioning that country as an economic
and democratic beacon in a region that is fast changing for the better as
one country after another shed dictators and calcified negative approaches
and embrace functional democracies.


United Democratic Party Secretariat
Banjul
20th April, 2011

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GOD BLESS THE GAMBIA.
LET US JOIN HANDS AND SUPPORT SHEIKH PROFESSOR DR. ALH YAHYA JAMMEH (NASIRU
DEEN) TO BUILD OUR COUNTRY. *

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