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Ivory Coast President to Boycott Peace Meeting
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?r=279&ctl=13F6E7B:A6F02AD83191E160A85A41FD74D07CAA9574F7DCC14957C0 President Gbagbo's
meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to review progress of
country's peace plan Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has
announced he will boycott a meeting with United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which is to review the progress of his
country's peace plan. The meeting is scheduled to take place in New
York on the periphery of the ongoing U.N. General Assembly.







Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, left, greets UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, upon his arrival in Ivory Coast in this
July 5, 2006 file photoPresident Laurent Gbagbo says the peace process
aimed at reuniting Ivory Coast after four years of division is not
working.

Mr. Gbagbo says nothing has happened in the ongoing peace process, and
that means the process has failed.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had called for all parties to meet
with him in New York on September 20, to assess the progress of the
peace process.

Speaking at the presidential palace on Thursday, Mr. Gbagbo said he
would not even send a representative.

Mr. Gbagbo says he has been annoyed by many of the diplomats who meet
in Abidjan every month to review the peace process. He said the way
they treated the affairs of Ivory Coast was flippant and rude.

The U.N.'s top representative, Pierre Schori, has said elections in
Ivory Coast are not possible as planned by the end of October. 
Foreign mediators say they do not want a repeat of last year, where
President Gbagbo's mandate was extended by a year.

The peace process has been deadlocked since rebels who control the
north said they would not disarm, after Mr. Gbagbo had said he would
stay in office beyond October even if elections did not take place.

Now, Mr. Gbagbo says he is writing a new set of proposals, which he
plans to present to the African Union's Peace and Security Council.


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