Hostilities 'over' in I Coast
2005-01-14 14:14
Abidjan - Ivory Coast Prime Minister Seydou Diarra has called on President Laurent Gbagbo to declare hostilities with rebels over, an official statement said on Friday.
The account of Thursday's cabinet meeting said Diarra suggested the declaration "to send a strong signal at the national level."
Gbagbo responded by asking Diarra to head a debate on the question, the statement added, giving no details.
The move came days after South African President Thabo Mbeki returned to Abidjan to press a peace deal he has proposed for the divided country on behalf of the African Union.
The AU is to send a senior representative to Abidjan to follow up on the plan and "help create a climate of confidence" after a special cabinet meeting on Tuesday attended by Mbeki.
Mbeki last month unveiled a four-point roadmap to peace in the onetime economic powerhouse of West Africa, which has been divided since September 2002 by a failed coup that sparked a low-level civil war between a mainly Christian south and a rebel-held Muslim majority north.
Under a peace plan originally agreed at Marcoussis in France in January 2003, a government of national unity was formed, but an attack by government forces on northern positions in November halted any progress toward compromise.
Gbagbo assumed responsibility for the attack, which also killed French peacekeepers, prompting France to destroy the government air force.
The rebel New Forces walked out of the so-called national reconciliation government November 3 for "security reasons" and its ministers have not attended any cabinet meeting since.