2007年VOA标准英语-Mediators Meet to Speed up Peace Process in Ivo

By Selah Hennessy
Dakar
04 September 2007

Rebel and presidential representatives from the Ivory Coast have met in Ouagadougou to evaluate the progress in the country's peace process. Burkina Faso's president and main mediator¹, Blaise Compaore, complained the peace process, aimed at reunifying the world's leading cocoa producer, is moving slowly. Selah Hennessy reports from VOA's West Africa bureau in Dakar.Mr. Compaore greeted participants with a brief speech, in a renewed effort to end the five-year conflict.

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore (file photo)

 

He said there is still much left undone². National identification, disarmament, and army re-unification - the three cornerstones of the peace process - are yet to be completed. The overall aim is a free and fair presidential election, already postponed³ twice.

The meeting was attended by delegates from the government, including presidential spokesman Desire Tagro, and from the rebel group New Forces, including Sidiki Konate and Louis Dakoury-Tabley.

Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel New Forces leader Guillaume Soro signed the Ouagadougou peace deal in March. It resulted in the rebel leader becoming prime minister.

Presidential adviser⁴ Lambert Bahi says immense progress has been made in the five months since the treaty was signed. "Today the country is peaceful, people travel everywhere they want, the mayors of the ex-besieged zones are now back in their land, people are returning to their homes," he said.

New Forces spokesman Cisse Sindou says the rebels are committed to the peace deal and feel like positive change is taking place.

But he says the identification process, which should provide undocumented Ivorians nationality and voting papers, is a priority and has not yet been done.

"As far as Forces Nouvelle is concerned, our determination is total as far as identification is concerned. This is the reason why we bore arms and I think we are not going to really back down from that point one," he said.

Kissy Agyeman is the Africa analyst⁵ for the London-based risk consultancy group Global Insight.

Guillaume Soro (file photo)

She says she fears Ivorian leaders will rush through with an election before the country is ready. "The fact that the president and [rebel leader Guillaume] Soro, neither of them are willing to say that okay we need to re-timetable this raises some concern," she added. "What it looks like to me is that they are going to just soldier ahead, on the face of it say that the elections will occur and fail to enfranchise⁶ the Northerners, which obviously will undermine the whole process."

She says if the issue of voter identification is not resolved before elections, security in the country may be compromised. "The rebels they have not all disarmed⁷ and obviously central to their grievances⁸ is the fact that the northerners have not been enfranchised⁹ so we could see the militias¹⁰ again starting up their campaign and we could see a descent into violence."

Mr. Gbagbo's presidential mandate¹¹ was originally supposed to end in October 2005, but his term has been extended twice through U.N resolutions, as Ivory Coast remains¹² split in two.

1 mediator   

n.调解人，中介人

参考例句：

• He always takes the role of a mediator in any dispute.他总是在争论中充当调停人的角色。
• He will appear in the role of mediator.他将出演调停者。

2 undone   

a.未做完的，未完成的

参考例句：

• He left nothing undone that needed attention.所有需要注意的事他都注意到了。

3 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

4 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

5 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

6 enfranchise   

v.给予选举权，解放

参考例句：

• The company voted to enfranchise its 120 women members.公司投票决定给予其120名女职员选举权。
• If the city's foreign residents are enfranchised,they won't be able to vote until 1996.如果该市的外国居民获得选举权，他们要到1996年才能投票。

7 disarmed   

v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。
• The swordsman disarmed his opponent and ran him through. 剑客缴了对手的械，并对其乱刺一气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 grievances   

n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚

参考例句：

• The trade union leader spoke about the grievances of the workers. 工会领袖述说工人们的苦情。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He gave air to his grievances. 他申诉了他的冤情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 enfranchised   

v.给予选举权( enfranchise的过去式和过去分词 )；（从奴隶制中）解放

参考例句：

• The slaves were enfranchised. 奴隶们被释放了。 来自互联网
• In Britain women were enfranchised in 1918. 1918年英国妇女获得议会选举权。 来自互联网

10 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

11 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。