Mr. Eugenio Vargas, Chair
e-vargas@northwestern.edu


In 1960, the Ivory Coast (officially named Côte d’Ivoire) won its independence from France. For the next thirty years, Côte d’Ivoire was a model example of a non-self governing state, gaining independence and becoming a politically and economically stable country unlike many less fortunate nations in Africa. Strong ties were made with the Western world and their exports of coffee and cocoa put the new state in a comfortable financial situation.

In the early 1980’s, however, Côte d’Ivoire suffered a drought and the international community was in the midst of a recession. The contented existence of the new state came to an end. Crime rose and the national debt multiplied. By 1990, labor strikes and protests against corruption in the government forced President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who had ruled unopposed since 1960, to endorse multi-party politics.

While he did win reelection in 1990, President Houphouët-Boigny died in 1993, and Henri Konan Bédié succeeded him in 1995. For the next three years, problems with corruption within the government increased and the country was plagued by political, civil, and military unrest, and most importantly for the United Nations, bloodshed. A civil war officially broke out in the northern part of Côte d’Ivoire in September 2002. In January 2003, the president at the time, President Laurent Gbagbo signed peace accords with the rebel forces, and violence was reduced. The accords turned out to be mostly superficial however, and the internal problems persisted. Fighting has gone on since, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, have been killed.

For its part, the United Nations created the UNOCI (United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire) on February 27, 2004 with the mission of facilitating “the implementation by the Ivory parties of the peace agreement signed by them in January 2003.” The UNOCI has run into several problems, and the UN base in Côte d’Ivoire has been subject to protests and even an invasion in January of this year. In addition to the UNOCI, the United Nations passed Resolution #1572 to enforce arms embargoes on Côte d’Ivoire in November 2004.

The United Nations is currently in a very precarious position. While the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire was officially ended on July 4, 2003, fighting has not stopped. Since the beginning of the hostility, violence has begun to break out not only between the rebels and the established government, but between ethnic groups in the country as well. Critics of the UNOCI have said that the operation does not have the funds or the manpower to effectively enforce peace in Côte d’Ivoire. The situation in Côte d’Ivoire has some frightening similarities to the terrible events that occurred in Rwanda in 1994, after which the UN was sharply criticized for its failure to enforce peace and prevent genocide. The United Nations must learn from its previous mistakes and take action. What would be the best approach to stabilizing the situation in Côte d’Ivoire? Always keep in mind that the UN’s biggest obstacle in peacekeeping missions is the issue of national sovereignty. How can the UN be effective without encroaching upon the rights of the government of Côte d’Ivoire as a sovereign state? And what will happen if the UN allows the violence in Côte d’Ivoire to go on unchecked?


http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unoci/