20110903
Reuters
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - An aggressive striker on the soccer field, Didier Drogba is now a peacemaker in his home country.

The Chelsea star has agreed to join an 11-member Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to heal the wounds left by more than four months of fighting in Ivory Coast, the head of the body said on Friday.

A presidential election in November last year plunged the West African nation into violence when former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept his loss and used soldiers, militias and mercenaries to crush dissent.

A power struggle between Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, the internationally-recognised winner of the election, re-kindled a civil war and killed 3,000 people until Gbagbo was captured by French-backed pro-Ouattara forces in April.

After the violence died down, the now President Ouattara announced he was setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, inspired by the body that helped South Africa move on after the end of apartheid.

The president of the Ivorian commission, former prime minister Charles Konan Banny, on Friday said Drogba had agreed to join the body as a representative of the country's diaspora.

"I just met President Ouattara and we talk about the start of our work," Banny told journalists.

"All members of the commission will be officially known then, but I can already tell you that Didier Drogba has agreed to be a member of the commission," Banny said.

Drogba, a national hero who has scored 49 goals for his country, called for calm during the fighting.

Officials have not given details of the commission's powers.

The South African commission held hearings, recorded often harrowing statements from witnesses and, in some cases, granted amnesties to people who admitted wrongdoing. It also ruled on reparations.

Banny said the Ivorian version would start working on Monday and have two years to complete its work.

The U.N. and several human rights organisations accused both sides in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, of committing atrocities including rapes and mass killings.