I Coast: Mbeki wants new talks

2005-06-19 21:58

Johannesburg - South African President Thabo Mbeki, mandated by the African Union to broker an end to Ivory Coast's civil war, has invited all the warring factions in the west African nation for fresh talks in Pretoria next weekend, his spokesperson said on Sunday.

"The president has invited all the major political parties and the players in the Ivory Coast for talks in Pretoria on June 25 and 26," Bheki Khumalo told AFP.

"Further details about the talks will be released next week," he said.

The move comes after Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo Friday announced he would place the country's west, where about 100 people were killed in ethnic violence this month, under military rule as an exceptional measure.

He also announced a shake-up of security forces in the economic capital, Abidjan, where he said violence and insecurity had become "unbearable" as a result of armed holdups.

A presidential election is scheduled on October 30, to be followed by legislative and municipal elections intended to return the country to normality following an abortive September 2002 coup by northern forces and ensuing civil war in the former French colony.

Mbeki's mediation has yielded tangible results on many points since an agreement was reached in Pretoria on April 6 that effectively relaunched the peace effort in the west African country after stalled mediation bids by France and western Africa.

Following Mbeki's intervention, Gbagbo signed an order permitting rivals including former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, to stand in October 30 polls thereby giving in to a key demand of the rebels, now known as the New Forces, and the opposition.

Ouattara, hugely popular in the rebel-held north and considered an icon by the northern Muslim and immigrant populations, has already declared his intention to run in the UN-supervised poll, having been barred from standing in 2000.

The former prime minister and one-time senior executive at the International Monetary Fund was excluded on the grounds that he was not eligible under a constitutional amendment - written specifically to target him - that required all presidential aspirants to be born to Ivorian-born parents.

He has said he would return from his exile in France to Ivory Coast "two or three months" before the elections, should his security be assured.

- AFP