Ex-rebel chief meets president
2004-01-13 08:41
Abidjan - Ivory Coast's former rebel leader met with the West African nation's president on Monday after more than three months out of their power-sharing government, saying the meeting showed that peace efforts here were back on track.
On January 6, other ex-rebels ended what had been a more than three-month boycott of the joint government, created under a peace deal that helped end a nine-month civil war in this vital regional economic hub.
Guillaume Soro's meeting with President Laurent Gbagbo signalled the former rebel chief's own end to the boycott.
"I am here to show Ivorians our desire and our determination to proceed to peace - that the year 2004 will be the year of peace and national reconciliation," Soro told reporters afterward.
The meeting took place in Abidjan, the commercial capital.
Divided nation
Ivory Coast's war officially ended in July, but the nation remains divided between rebel-held north and government-held south. A 2003 peace process brokered in France has never fully taken hold.
Rebels launched their boycott after accusing Gbagbo of failing to carry out the peace deal. This month Gbagbo declared his commitment to the peace accord, after his supporters began clamouring for renewed war.
More than four thousand French troops and a thousand West African troops are helping separate the two sides. United Nations Secretary-Kofi Annan has asked for thousands of UN peacekeepers to help secure the country for 2005 elections.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony, for decades stood as West Africa's most stable and prosperous country. It remains the world's largest cocoa producer, but a 1999 coup has ushered in political, regional, ethnic and religious tensions and violence; shattering its reputation for stability.
- AP