Cote D Ivoire: World Bank Freezes Money, Government Holds Up UN Radio
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
June 18, 2004
Posted to the web June 18, 2004
Abidjan
The World Bank has halted the disbursement of further loans to Cote d'Ivoire following
the government's failure to pay off debt servicing arrears of $20.5 million, the bank
said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a spat between the Ivorian authorities and the UN peacekeeping operation in
Cote d'Ivoire has held up the launch of a UN radio station, which was due to go on the
air next week, UN officials said.
Both developments occured following President Laurent Gbagbo's return from a private
visit to the United States, during which he held a meeting with UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan, which failed to overcome the present logjam in Cote d'Ivoire's blocked
peace process.
The two men met in New York on 11 June, but UN sources in New York and Abidjan told
IRIN that little had been achieved in the encounter. Annan talked bluntly about the
danger of Gbagbo's 17-month-old peace agreement with rebels occupying the north of the
country falling apart, they added.
"The SG was pretty clear, pretty straight to him about the way things are going," one
source told IRIN. He declined to give further details.
Gbagbo returned to Abidjan on Monday night, but since then he has not taken any fresh
intitiatives to relaunch a political dialogue with the northern rebels and
parliamentary opposition parties who walked out of a broad-based government of
national reconciliation three months ago.
The World Bank announced on Thursday that it was cutting off further disbursements to
Cote d'Ivoire since accumulated arrears had gone unpaid for a period of 60 days up to
15 June.
A World Bank source said this would hold up the release of about $220 million of World
Bank aid already in the pipeline for a dozen social and economic development projects
ranging from education to road building, plus a further $40 million of World Bank
money earmarked to support a planned $110 million disarmament and demobilisation
programme.
Disarmament was due to have begun in in August 2003. However, the process has been
held up for almost a year because the rebels have refused to lay down their weapons
until Gbagbo implements political reforms stipulated in the January 2003 peace
agreement and gives efffective power to the coalition cabinet headed by independent
Prime Minister Seydou Diarra.
His government now exists more in theory than in practice since 26 of its 41 ministers
walked out at the end of March and Gbagbo has since sacked three of them. Diplomatic
and government sources said the ministerial sackings in late May nearly triggered
Diarra's resignation.
The international community eventually persuaded Diarra not to quit, but the prime
minister said in a leaked letter to the president that he would refuse to convene any
further cabinet meetings until Gbagbo resolved the political crisis.
Diplomats said Diarra was continuing behind-the-scenes efforts to try to get Gbagbo
and the G-7 opposition alliance talking to each other again.
The UN peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire, which is generally known by its French
acronym ONUCI, had been planning to launch its own radio station in Abidjan next week,
with the aim of eventually extending broadcasts via a satellite link to towns in both
government and rebel-held areas of the interior.
However, the government's broadcasting authority, the National Council for Audiovisual
Communication (CNCA), said earlier this week that there were obstacles to the new
station, ONUCI FM, because it was illegally using the chosen frequency of 95.3FM.
According to CNCA, ONUCI FM had not filed the proper paperworks.
UN officials told IRIN on Friday that the spat is a "misunderstanding" because ONUCI
FM does not need to formally apply for broadcasting rights.
The oficials declined to say how soon the new the radio station was expected to go on
air. One source said: "Shortly, possibly within the next two weeks."
Relevant Links
West Africa
C�te d'Ivoire
Human Rights
Press and Media
Post-Conflict Challenges
Investment
Aid
Debt
The UN peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo
operate their own radio stations to provide an independent source of news and to
broadcast programmes that promote peace and reconciliation. A similar radio station is
currently being set up in Liberia.
A mission from the UN Security Council is due to visit Cote d'Ivoire next week for
talks with all the main players in the country, which has been split in two since the
outbreak of a civil war in September 2002. The Security Council mission is also due to
visit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau as part of a West African tour.
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