What lies beneath

How do you make peace? In a chicken and egg proposition, do you target the chicken, the egg, or both? Or do you try to change the proposition altogether?

The crisis in Cote d’Ivoire is at a delicate stage. It’s at the point where no more progress is possible without the parties compromising on their fundamental interests. The last three years have been a painstaking exercise in peeling back the layers of rhetoric. But now there are no layers left to peel. All the small steps have been taken, all the tolerable concessions made. There is nothing left but the core. So the question is, is this conflict about identity, or about money?

If it began as the former, it is steadily becoming the latter, as all conflicts inevitably must. The clock is ticking, not just because this country is decaying at an ever-increasing rate, but because if the conflict goes on much longer, it will simply be too profitable to leave behind.

In some ways, CdI is a victim of its own erstwhile success. As the most developed country in the sub-region, it has long attracted foreigners seeking a better life. There are an estimated 8 million foreigners living in CdI, including 3 million from Burkina Faso. This has long rankled the Ivorians, so much so that the constitution explicitly bars anyone who has one foreign-born parent from standing for office. Certain ethnic groups are heavily discriminated against. Just as Hutus and Tutsis born and raised in the Congo are typically considered “Rwandans” by other ethnic groups (which is not a compliment), several ethnic groups in the north are considered “Burkinabe”. This mattes a lot in a country where many have no official documentation. As relations deteriorated in the late 90s, the issue of Ivoirite – and how to prove it – took on paramount importance.

Enter the Forces Nouvelles, the New Forces. The northern rebels started a war over something almost every westerner takes entirely for granted: birth certificates. Ten years on, many still don’t have them, and the bottom line, according to the rebel spokespersons we met yesterday, is that they will never lay down their arms until they get them.

These aren’t your typical West African rebels. They’re not savages, wild-eyed and drugged out. No berets or kalashnikovs. Instead, they’re typical African politicians, well-dressed and well-spoken, with gold watches and Mont Blanc pens. They are organized (some say by Burkina Faso). They are cooperating with the peace process – up to a point.

The President says the elections cannot take place until the rebels disarm. The rebels will not lay down their arms until a legitimate election takes place. But underneath all that is a President who is afraid of losing power and a rebellion that is reluctant to relinquish control over prime cocoa, coffee and diamond-producing territory. Those aren’t things that can be negotiated away.

Is there an even deeper layer, half-buried memories of a time when there was a soul to the struggle, when it wasn’t all about greed? We may be about to find out.