Ivorian envoy eyes dividends of peace

Next year will bring a profound sense of relief to the ambassador of Cote D'Ivoire in Israel, Prof. Koudou Kessie Raymond, when his country will mark the resolution of a long and bloody conflict with its first election since 2000.

In a talk with Anglo File this month, Koudou - a professor of criminology and psychology turned senior diplomat - said he hoped the March 2010 poll will assure Israeli investors and tourists his country has finally emerged from the decade-long crisis. "There is a process of restoration and rebuilding," he says. "Israelis are already involved in it, but there is plenty room for more."

The election is the result of a 2007 power-sharing agreement between President Laurent Gbagbo and the leader of a rebel faction who now serves as his prime minister, Guillaume Soro, whose forces hold the north.

Koudou recalls that the path to peace and relative prosperity included difficult talks and some dead-end mediation initiatives, which he helped put together after the outbreak of the Ivorian civil war in 2002. "It's painful when your country is blocked, unable to advance," says Koudou, who became Cote D'Ivoire's ambassador to France a month after war erupted.

"There are three characteristics to what we have achieved in Cote D'Ivoire, which are maybe general ones," he says about possible lessons for Israel while insisting every conflict is unique. "First, internal unity was achieved. Then, there were courageous leaders, and third there was a willingness to make mutual and painful concessions. But concessions don't mean selling your soul to the devil or conceding everything."

Earlier this month Ambassador Koudou, who lives in Kfar Shmaryahu with his wife Adele and their three youngest children, drove with the embassy's entire staff to Ben Gurion Airport at 3 A.M, to receive Ivorian reggae star and peace activist Alpha Blondy. "He represents the spirit of peace in Cote D'Ivoire, and is a national hero," he explained.