UNOCI trains
traditional chiefs of Lakota

Le Jour Plus -

The Civil Affairs section of the United Nations Operation in Côte
d'Ivoire (UNOCI), on Tuesday, started a two-day seminar to exchange views and
strengthen the capacity of the traditional chiefs in Lakota, 226 km from Abidjan
on the theme: "Mechanisms for prevention and management of conflicts". Some
forty traditional chiefs in the district are attending the seminar, whose aim is
especially to strengthen their capacity regarding conflict's prevention and
management. During the opening of the seminar, the chief of UNOCI delegation,
Kenneth Blackman of the Public Information Division, outlined the Mission's will
to continue to support all efforts and actions to promote social cohesion and
peace in Côte d'Ivoire. "Since Côte d'Ivoire has committed itself to a
definitive crisis-resolution process, it is important to think about the
remaining challenges. A major challenge is to maintain and protect social
cohesion in an electoral period which coincides with crisis resolution," he
said. (...)

 

Crisis-resolution: Soro's assurance on the holding of elections

Fraternite Matin

 – Relocated in Ghana, Great Britain's embassy will return to
Côte d'Ivoire after the holding of the presidential and legislative elections.
This information was given by His Excellency Mr. Nick Westcott, after a meeting
he held with Prime Minister Soro Guillaume yesterday in his office. According to
the diplomat, the head of the Ivorian government spoke about "the possibility of
accelerating the process so that elections are organized this year". In this
regard, said the ambassador, the Prime Minister is meeting today with the
Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Youssouf Bakayoko. (...)

 

Electoral
process - what Soro and Bakayoko are preparing

Nord-Sud
 –
Ivorians will certainly need to be patient. The new electoral timetable,
expected this week, according to the conclusions of the meeting held between
Gbagbo and ADO last week, is not yet ready. The realities on the ground have
made the actors in charge of the electoral process show restrained optimism. No
one can reasonably give a date, even the institution in charge of conducting the
electoral process. "We have no visibility which can allow us to give a date for
the next elections (...), says the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). (...).

 

45^th
annual meeting of the ADB – official opening today

Notre Voie

 – The official opening of the 45^th annual meeting of
the African Development Bank (ADB) takes place this morning at the newly
renovated convention centre in Hotel Ivoire, in Abidjan – Cocody, in the
presence of several West African Heads of State. The Malian President, Amadou
Toumani Touré (ATT), was the first of the Heads of State to arrive in Côte
d'ivoire yesterday in the pouring rain at Felix Houphouët-Boigny international
airport in Port Bouët. (...) the Beninois and Togolese presidents, Boni yayi and
Faure Gnassingbé will arrive this morning, as will the president of Equatorial
Guinea,
Théodoro Obiang Nguema. It is expected that the Senegalese and Burkionabe
Presidents Abdoulaye Wade and Blaise Compaoré will also attend, according to the
programme of the official opening which is scheduled for 9h30.
Apart from this ceremony
several other activities have been organized.

 

 

Minister Desire Tagro went to
Ouagadougou for a secret mission

This is what he told Blaise
Compaoré....

L'Inter
 - Since the recent visit of
the Head of State of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, in Cote D'Ivoire, the Ouagadougou
Political Accord (OPA) in the current Ivorian politics and the role of President
Blaise Compaoré, the Facilitator in the Ivorian crisis, are regularly mentioned.
Wade is said to replace President Compaoré as the Facilitator in the Ivorian
crisis. People even asked themselves if the OPA still has its place in the peace
process.  During his meeting in Ouagadougou with President Blaise Compaoré on
May 5th, Minister Desire Tagro adamantly denied that President Laurent Gbagbo
wanted to change the facilitator in the Ivorian crisis. "We do not intend to
change the facilitator; President Laurent Gbagbo did not intend to change the
facilitator. We have a good facilitator, and we believe that Burkina Faso is in
the region the closest country to Côte d'Ivoire from a sociological and cultural
point of view and historical perspective. So we have here a very good
facilitation", Minister Desire Tagro, said after his meeting with President
Compaoré.

 

The Armed Forces of the Forces
Nouvelles (FAFN) this afternoon in Bouaké: Com-zones to disappear and give way
to Instruction Groups.

Le Nouveau Réveil  -
The Chief of Staff of the FAFN, General Soumaila Bakayoko, as part of the crisis
resolution process, is organizing on Thursday, May 27, a press conference at the
FAFN's headquarters. According to a well-informed source, the Com-zones will
disappear. The military leaders of the Armed Forces of Forces Nouvelles have
taken important decisions. They have decided to reduce the com-Zones from six
(6) to four (4) and to change their names. They will no longer be called
com-zones but instruction Groups. They will be commanded by senior officers of
the FAFN or former Com-Zones. These four (4) instruction groups will be
installed in four localities. The first group will be in Man, the second in
Séguéla, the 3rd in Bouake, and the fourth in Korhogo. Also according to our
source, General Bakayoko will speak generally about the security aspect of this
plan and what recently happened in the Forces Nouvelles' area. General Bakayoko
will also talk about the redeployment of customs, the return from the joint
training of the Zinzin and Baéfoués of the FAFN, the rehabilitation of the
barracks and the redeployment of the administration.

 

Prof. Alhassane Salif N'Diaye
(RHDP'spokesman):" The RHDP never said it was in favour of an audit of the white
list"

Le Nouveau Réveil  –
During an interview, he gave us, 24 hours after the meeting of Presidents Bédié,
Ouattara, Mabri and Anaky, the Secretary General of UDPCI, also spokesman for
the RHDP, Prof. Alassane Salif N'Diaye, informed the RHDP's militants and the
Ivorians that their meeting effectively took place. In this interview, the RHDP
spokesman talked about preparations for the next elections and denied that the
RHDP was in favour of auditing the provisional voters list.

Le Nouveau Réveil:
On Tuesday, president Toikeusse Mabri, spokesman of the 4 leaders, told
reporters that president Ouattara informed his peers about his meeting with
President Gbagbo. What can we learn from that meeting?

Prof. Alassane Salif N'Diaye:
President Ouattara told us that President Gbagbo told him about the revision of
the white list. But what the president also said was that we (RHDP) have never
opposed a systematic refusal to re-examine the white list because the procedure
that was presented to us was consensual and said that the white list could be a
subject for some recriminations. Consequently, the same procedure outlined how
to ensure that things are very clear. We are in this logic. And I would be more
accurate. If people feel that in the list of 5.3 million voters there are
non-Ivorians or doubtful Ivoirians, they must, according to the procedure,
complain and prove what they say.

Le Nouveau Reveil:
You are not for a new procedure as some people are trying to make believe?

Prof. Alhassane Salif N'Diaye:
Absolutely not! We have a consensual procedure that has been accepted by all. So
those who are complaining and saying that there are foreigners on the list of
5,300,000 have to prove it according to that procedure which has been previously
defined and accepted by the RHDP. Therefore, the headlines of newspapers that
claimed that the RHDP is for the audit of the provisional list are wrong. We
have never made such a claim. Fraternité Matin has made a false claim. We have
said that in the list of 5,300,000 voters, it was possible that some adjustments
could be made. (...)