I Coast: Now or never
2005-04-04 16:22
Pretoria - South African president and peacebroker Thabo Mbeki was in a second day of talks on Monday with Ivory Coast leaders to try to end a civil war simmering since 2002 amid hope his mediation would finally end the crisis.
"Yes, we are always optimistic, we are also very confident of Mr Mbeki's mediation and that we will have concrete results at the end of day," a source in Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo's visiting delegation told AFP.
"We want a precise and irrevocable date for disarmament, referendum (on a disputed constitutional clause on the eligibility of a presidential candidate) and presidential elections," which are normally scheduled for October, the source said.
Earlier Mbeki's spokesperson Behki Khumalo said on SAFM radio that the South African leader, mandated by the African Union to broker a peace deal, was determined to succeed.
"That's why the president said yesterday ... in a light-hearted way that the leaders are not going to leave from (Pretoria's) Waterkloof airforce base until such time as in fact they have found a solution," he said.
The talks come ahead of the imminent expiry of the mandate of some 10 000 peacekeepers, of whom 6 000 are from the United Nations and 4 000 from Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler France.
Meanwhile, Sidiki Konate, a spokesperson for Ivory Coast's rebel New Forces appeared cautiously optimistic - in contrast to their stand in numerous earlier peace meetings.
"It's the first time since November 4 that we are meeting President Gbagbo and we want to ask him why he breached the truce. We are still in a state of war," he said, referring to government air attacks on rebel-held towns which sparked a fresh wave of violence.
Rebels won't lay down arms
The main stumbling block to peace is the question of disarmament with rebels refusing to lay down their arms until pro-government militias disarm. The government however denies the existence of militias and says "patriotic" groups do not bear weapons.
Another thorny point is the contentious Article 35 of the Ivorian constitution which prevents main opposition leader Alassane Ouattara from contesting presidential elections.
It stipulates that anyone who does not have two Ivorian parents cannot be a candidate for the top job and was used to bar him from standing in the last presidential poll won by Gbagbo in 2000.
Konate said: "We want concrete and practical measures on Article 35, the elections and disarmament, not false promises or decisions which will not be respected."
The leaders attending the meeting include Gbagbo, Ouattara, former president Henri Konan Bedie who was toppled in Ivory Coast's first coup, Seydou Diarra, consensus prime minister of a government of national reconciliation, and rebel leader Guillaume Soro.