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Ivory Coast
Church seeks to mediate claims
Violence flares after disputed elections
Even before the presidential elections that precipitated a wave of violence, Pope John Paul II saw the warning signs in Ivory Coast. As he received a new ambassador from the African nation to the Holy See, the Holy Father warned that “religious and ethnic animosity is a serious threat to peace and unity.”
The new ambassador, Louis Esmel, conceded that the African nation has seen “more or less exacerbated conflicts” in recent months. But he claimed that the problems generally involved disputes over land, pitting local residents against foreigners. Esmel pointed out that Ivory Coast has a large foreign presence—roughly 35 percent of the population. Despite the ordinarily good relations that prevail with other countries, he said, there are “some pockets of tension—some of which, unfortunately, are volatile.”
Pope John Paul pressed his point, responding with a suggestion that the government of Ivory Coast—a nation which is 40 percent Muslim, 20 percent Catholic, and 17 percent animist—should move to “consolidate unity” in the country, and reinforce the land’s “long tradition of brotherhood and hospitality.” This new unity must be achieved not by force, he added, but by a serious effort to reach common ground.
Just a few days after that exchange took place in Rome, tensions among the peoples of Ivory Coast began to boil over into armed conflicts, following presidential elections in which the two main candidates—General Robert Guei and Laurent Gbagbo—both claimed victory.
After the contested voting, in which early reports showed Gbagbo as the victor, the incumbent, General Guei, dismissed the members of the nation’s electoral commission and declared a state of emergency. That action precipitated a political crisis, which was exacerbated by the fact that military leaders were also split on the results of the voting; there were reports of fighting during the night inside military camps.
Hoping to avoid an escalation of the violence, Catholic Church leaders offered to mediate between the two “presidents-elect.” The papal nuncio to Ivory Coast, Archbishop Mario Zenari, said, “I call on the parties involved to let the country live a Christmas of peace, in an atmosphere of restored unity, brotherhood, and tolerance.”
“We have already lived a Christmas with a curfew—the saddest I have ever experienced,” the archbishop pointed out. (He was referring to 1999, when Guei took control of the government in a military coup, then declared a curfew to curb opposition.) “People were frightened and spent the whole time locked up in their homes. This coming Christmas must be different.”
Catholic bishops immediately threw themselves into the peacemaking effort. Archbishop Bernard Agre of Abidjan chaired a two-hour meeting with Guei and Gbagbo. A delegation of Christian leaders urged both would-be presidents to respect the results of the elections and to avoid at all costs the use of violence to overcome the crisis.
Nevertheless, the post-election violence grew more intense, and a disturbing pattern of ethnic and religious conflict began to emerge. Rival mobs attacked mosques and churches in Abidjan. The supporters of a third candidate, Alassane Outtara, who had appealed mainly to Muslim voters, set up barricades along roads and demanded new elections. Supporters of Gbagbo, who drew his support from the Christian western region of the country, staged rival protests.
Finally, after a series of clashes that left 150 dead and 400 injured, Guei fled from the country; his attempt to nullify the election results had cost him the support of political and military leaders who took pride in the democratic process. Gbagbo formed a new administration. And the country braced itself for new elections on December 10, to select the members of the national legislature.
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