Ouattara pledges national reconciliation in Cote d’Ivoire

[TGD]

 COTE d'Ivoire's President Alassane Ouattara has unveiled plans to make national harmony his top priority as he tries to pull his crisis-ridden country together after many months of political turbulence and what a report called a now-prevailing "climate of fear."

"I am the president of all Ivoiriens, without distinction of race, religion or region," said Ouattara, speaking in an interview with Cable News Network (CNN) amid criticism that his supporters are targeting the backers of his former rival, former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Ouattara, who is in the United States (U.S.) to meet with officials, including United Nations leaders and President Barack Obama, said that his term "will be devoted to reconciliation."

The West African nation had been engulfed in violence since November, when then-president Gbagbo refused to step down after he lost the presidential election to Ouattara.

Many months of fighting and widespread displacement ensued, until Gbagbo finally surrendered in April and Ouattara was sworn in as president in May, this year.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who met with Ouattara last Wednesday in New York, said "the crisis has taken a massive toll" and that the international community needs to help the country "get back on its feet." Ouattara is expected to meet with Obama today.

He said ethnic divisions were already exacerbated before he arrived in office and argued that there was a "tendency for revenge" that he was trying to contain.

"It will take time to cure," he said, adding that he's working hard on that and that the composition of his government shows he wants diversity.

Asked who is giving orders to the militia, Ouattara said no one is, and that the tensions are rooted in economics and land.

What was unfolding now, he said, was people taking back land seized from them.

A rights group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Ouattara's government must end persecution of journalists.

"We call on you to urge Ouattara to reinforce the rule of law, the impartiality of justice, and the promotion of national reconciliation by ending the persecution of journalists and media outlets that were favourable to Gbagbo.

"Since July 21, Ouattara's authorities have been holding Hermann Aboa, a television journalist with national public broadcaster RTI, on a slew of anti-state charges, including incitement to hatred and endangering state security, over his role as one of four moderators of a Gbagbo-leaning political talk show entitled Raison d'état (National Interest) during the five-month political crisis."

Ouattara said he supported freedom of the press but argued that Aboa was a proactive Gbagbo figure.

"He was one of the people of Gbagbo, daily on television trying to call people to kill others, northerners and people from the center. He is being interrogated. He is not in prison. I think they discovered he had arms, that he had militia, that he paid them through money given to him by Gbagbo," Ouattara said.

Asked about Gbagbo's status, Ouattara said the former president is under house arrest in the northern part of country and that his wife is also getting similar accommodations.

He stressed that he wants the couple to be treated with dignity because Gbagbo once represented the nation and that the former president should remain under house arrest even if he's found guilty of some crimes, like those involving corruption. It's important, he says, "to honor the functions of the presidency."

However, Ouattara said, he would cooperate with the International Criminal Court if Gbagbo faces more serious accusations, such as war crimes or crimes against humanity.



The Guardian