Lekota punting peace in I Coast

2004-11-12 20:07

Johannesburg - Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota has continued peace talks on Friday with Ivory Coast opposition leaders to try to end violence that has left at least 27 people dead in Ivory Coast and led to the evacuation of hundreds of foreigners.

Defence spokesperson Vuyo Zambodla said Lekota had met former Ivorian Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara in Sandton for more than 1&189; hours on Friday.

Zambodla described the talks as useful, but said they would continue after President Thabo Mbeki returned on Saturday from the funeral of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Cairo.

Zambodla said: "The minister will brief the president when he returns and then Mbeki will take the baton back."

Mbeki met Ivorian opposition leaders briefly on Thursday before he left for Cairo.

He told them Lekota and Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would host the talks until his return.

'Gbagbo a problem for Ivory Coast'

South Africa said the talks would include Ivorian opposition and rebel leaders and would seek to restore earlier ceasefire agreements and pave the way for free and transparent elections next year.

Sidiki Konate of the main rebel group in northern Ivory Coast said they had not sent representatives to South Africa and refused to take part while President Laurent Gbagbo remains in power.

Konate said: "We are counting our dead and defending our frontiers."

"If we were to go to South Africa, it would be to discuss a future in Ivory Coast without Mr Gbagbo. He is a problem for Ivory Coast. He cannot be a solution."

Mbeki made the offer to host the talks in Pretoria during a visit to Ivory Coast, where he was sent on Tuesday by the 54-member African Union to find a solution to the crisis in the former French colony.

The South African government has warned that the upsurge in violence in Ivory Coast could destabilise West Africa.

Mbeki met Gbagbo on Wednesday.

He said Gbagbo said had recommitted to carrying out tension-easing measures agreed in past accords in the country's two-year-old civil war.

- AP