Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara yesterday faced the challenge of healing a divided nation, vowing justice, reconciliation and security after his forces captured rival Laurent Gbagbo.
“I ask you to remain calm and show restraint,” Ouattara, the 69-year-old elected leader of the African nation, said in a televised address late on Monday, while hailing “the dawn of a new era of hope.”
He also announced “legal proceedings against Laurent Gbagbo, his wife and his allies,” adding that “all measures are being taken” to protect them following their dramatic capture.
Gbagbo, who had held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November’s presidential election, also called for a laying down of arms in televised comments shortly after his capture from a bunker.
Gbagbo, his wife Simone and son Michel are being held at Ouattara’s temporary headquarters at an Abidjan hotel, where they are being guarded by UN police amid fears of reprisals or summary justice.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed Ouattara’s promise to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to look into accusations of massacres and other crimes made against both sides in the conflict.
Ban reaffirmed that “those responsible for human rights abuses, regardless of their affiliation, must be held accountable.”
Ivory Coast has an “historic opportunity” and must foster national reconciliation, establish a national unity government, ensure accountability for human rights violations and re-establish state authority, Ban said.
The UN, which has more than 9,000 troops and police in Ivory Coast, will keep up its mission helping to restore law and order and Ban offered help coping with a “critical” humanitarian emergency after the conflict.
The EU yesterday was expected to offer Ouatarra a package of special economic aid to rebuild the country. Even before Gbagbo’s arrest on Monday, the EU had rescinded some of the sanctions imposed on the country in an effort to strangle Gbagbo financially and force him out of his bunker.
Following a request from Ouattara last week, the EU lifted sanctions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, as well as an oil company and the regulators of the country’s vital cocoa and coffee industries.
A senior diplomat said the EU would consult with Ouattara’s administration on lifting obstacles to other Ivorian companies.
“We will review the remaining sanctions in consultation with Ouattara’s government and withdraw them as and when it is deemed appropriate,” Nicholas Westcott, head of the EU diplomatic service’s Africa office, told the EU Parliament’s foreign affairs committee yesterday.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the aim was to ensure the people of Ivory Coast are “able to have a peace, a future, their economy restored — to get things if you like back to normal.”
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