I Coast disarmament set
2004-02-22 13:10
Bouake - Ivory Coast will launch a disarmament program in March, the prime minister announced on Friday, signalling a vital stage in peace efforts aimed at reuniting a nation split in two since a nine-month civil war broke out in 2002.
The West African nation is divided between rebels in the mostly Muslim north and loyalists in the predominantly Christian south. Under a peace deal brokered by former colonial master France last year, rebels committed to disarm or rejoin the army in return for a series of reforms.
Welcomed with a fanfare played on army bugles at the main northern rebel stronghold of Bouake, Ivorian Prime Minister Seydou Diarra told rebel forces that once the disarmament process starts "no one will be able to stop it".
"Ivory Coast is in an active phase of reunification," he said at the former base of Ivory Coast's Third Battalion, standing alongside one of the rebels' representatives in a power-sharing formed last year under Ivory Coast's peace deal.
For decades since independence in 1960 Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, was held up as a haven of stability and prosperity in a region wracked by coup d'etats and civil wars. That reputation was shattered with its first ever coup in 1999, which ushered in a series of revolts and uprisings. Tensions exploded into civil war after a failed coup in September 2002.
The rebels' top military commander, Col Soumaila Bakayoko, said he welcomed the disarmament process, provided the loyalist Ivorian army disarmed as well.
The disarmament process has led to tensions between rebels, who are split between a hard-line faction and those more willing to engage in dialogue with President Laurent Gbagbo.
"The first day we put down one of our arms, those on the other side must also put one down ... If that doesn't happen we can't be disarmed," Bakayoko said.
Under the $60m disarmament process, funded by the World Bank and other donors, both rebels and Ivorian government soldiers will give up their guns at more than a dozen centres in the north and south.
The arms will be kept in depots and the soldiers will lodge at the centres until a new, reformed national army is established.
Former soldiers who joined the rebellion will be given the choice whether to return to the army or be "reinserted" into civilian life.
All other rebels and those drafted into the loyalist forces since the outbreak of war will be given 500 000 CFA francs ($971) and receive job training for a return to normal life, government officials said.
- AP