I Coast rebels to SA for talks
2005-06-24 20:31
Abidjan - Ivory Coast's main opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and northern rebels announced on Friday that they would be participating in new peace talks next week in South Africa.
A spokesperson for Ouattara's Rally for Republicans party, Aly Coulibaly, confirmed the former prime minister's attendance at the talks in Pretoria likely to focus on the thorny problem of disarmament that has impeded reconciliation in the west African state.
"RDR will be in Pretoria from Sunday, with Mr Ouattara leading the delegation at the invitation of (South African) President (Thabo) Mbeki," Coulibaly said by telephone from Paris, where Ouattara lives in exile.
The rebel New Forces, meanwhile, posted an announcement on their website that rebel chief Guillaume Soro would lead their delegation to the June 28 talks, ready to "take full part in this new summit in the country of Nelson Mandela".
President Laurent Gbagbo, currently on a visit to the United States, confirmed his participation on Thursday as did the former single ruling Ivory Coast Democratic Party of former president Henri Konan Bedie.
Failed uprising
Disarmament of the rebels who launched a failed uprising against Gbagbo in September 2002, as well as the paramilitary bodies who back him, has been a key sticking point in efforts to reconcile the divided nation, the world's top cocoa producer.
A June 27 start date to the operation will likely pass unnoticed, with the rebels making clear in mounting rhetoric over the last week that they have no plans to surrender the weapons they still hold in their northern fiefdom.
Mindful of the deteriorating security situation in a country that had until 1999 been a model of stability and economic prosperity for a troubled region, the UN Security Council agreed Thursday to boost troop numbers of the year-old UN peacekeeping mission ahead of scheduled October 30 elections.
The draft resolution, to be adopted on Friday, will boost the 6nbsp;200-strong Onuci operation by an additional 1 200 troops and extend its mandate by seven months.
It will also extend the mandate of a 4 000-strong French mission known as Operation Unicorn.