Mbeki in new I Coast talks
2004-12-04 16:51
Abidjan - South African President Thabo Mbeki started new peace talks with various Ivory Coast groups on Saturday, as European Union delegates urged all parties to find a peaceful solution to the two-year crisis.
Mbeki was seeing representatives from both the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) and an opposition alliance known as the G7 after meeting them separately on Friday.
Later on Saturday he was expected to address the National Assembly before travelling to the northern rebel stronghold of Bouake on Sunday.
The South African statesman arrived in the former French colony late on Thursday and has been in discussion with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, making proposals for a "roadmap to peace" to snuff out a bitter conflict which broke out here in September 2002.
European Union representatives said they were optimistic that progress would be tangible after the talks, which centred around the disarmament of rebel forces, the reunification of the country - split between north and south - and constitutional reforms including the contentious Article 35 which deals with Ivorian nationality.
'Impossible to predict'
"Progress has to happen. The international community together with African Union is making an appeal to the leadership to work for peace and stability in this country," said Roeland van de Geer, a European Commission director for Africa.
"It's impossible to predict what will happen, but it's certain that the Ivory Coast has to find a peaceful solution. The alternative is too ghastly to contemplate," Van de Geer said.
Ruling party members of Friday told Mbeki that they were unhappy about an agreement signed in Marcoussis, near Paris, in January 2003 to bring the rebel leaders into a unity government and a ceasefire - and which meant a change to the constitution to enable all Ivorians to run for the position of president.
Currently, only people whose parents were both Ivorian have been allowed to stand as president, effectively blocking an attempt by exiled opposition leader Alassane Ouattara to contest the position in 2000, as he could also be in a poll planned for next year.
Independent observers have described Article 35 as essentially a manifestation of the deep division between the mainly Muslim, rebel-dominated north and the mainly Christian government-held south.
Seen as a neutral figure in the peace process, Mbeki met Gbagbo at the presidential residence in the coastal city's central business district for more than an hour on Friday.
Neither president made a statement after that meeting, but Mbeki is expected to hold a press conference on Sunday, before returning to South Africa on the same day, his spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said.