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United Nations Imposes Arms Embargo on Cote d'Ivoire

Ban supported by African Union, takes effect immediately

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The Security Council voted unanimously November 15 to impose an immediate arms embargo against the Cote d'Ivoire government and the Forces Nouvelles (the rebel New Forces).

The resolution, co-sponsored by Chile, France, Germany, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, gives the warring parties one month to reinvigorate the peace process or face additional sanctions.

The resolution was drafted by France earlier in the month after government raids on key rebel strongholds and a French military camp violated an 18-month truce. France has 4,000 soldiers in Cote d'Ivoire, backing up a 6,000-man U.N. peacekeeping force.

A vote last week on a previous draft, which gave Cote d'Ivoire 30 days to end the fighting before the embargo would take effect, was postponed to give the African Union time to rescue the peace process. However, the vote was rescheduled for November 15 after the African Union supported the arms ban and asked for it to be made effective immediately.

The Security Council president, Ambassador John Danforth of the United States, said: "It's important to get on with the vote and to bring this to conclusion. We were very close to a vote last week and now the African Union is wholly in support of what we are doing."

The resolution condemned the air strikes by the Ivorian armed forces, calling them a "flagrant violation of the cease-fire agreement," and fully supported the action undertaken by the U.N. Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and French forces.

Emphasizing that "there can be no military solution to the crisis," the council urged Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, the heads of all political parties, and leaders of the rebel forces "immediately to begin resolutely implementing all the commitments they have made" under the Linas-Marcoussis and Accra III agreements [two peace agreements intended to solve the Cote d'Ivoire crisis -- the first from a January 2003 round table in Linas-Marcoussis, France, and the second from a July 2004 conference in Accra, Ghana].

Under the terms of the resolution, states are instructed to take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to Cote d'Ivoire of arms or any related materiel, including military aircraft and equipment, or provide any military assistance, advice or training for the next 13 months.

The embargo does not apply to supplies and technical assistance to the U.N. peacekeepers or French forces, supplies of nonlethal military equipment intended solely for humanitarian or protective use, or supplies of protective clothing including flak jackets and military helmets for U.N. personnel, journalists and humanitarian and development workers.

Beginning on December 15, states are also to impose a travel ban on individuals who will be identified by the Security Council's Cote d'Ivoire Sanctions Committee. They are also to freeze the funds and other financial assets and economic resources owned or controlled directly or indirectly by those individuals if the signatories of the peace agreements have not met their commitments. Diplomats said that Gbagbo is likely to be on the list.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said after the vote that "the objective of this resolution is very simple: It is to encourage the implementation of the agreements signed by the parties ... in Linas-Marcoussis and Accra III."

Earlier in the day Juan Mendez, the U.N. adviser on the prevention of genocide, warned that the current crisis "has deepened the sentiments of xenophobia and could exacerbate already worrisome and widespread violations of human rights."

Mendez also recommended that the United Nations increase the number of U.N. peacekeepers in Cote d'Ivoire to protect civilians. In addition, he recommended that Ivorian authorities put an immediate end to the propagation of hate speech and media-influenced violence, end impunity, and curb public expression of racial or religious hatred.