Rebels to meet Mbeki again

2004-12-17 09:59

Johannesburg - Ivory Coast rebels were on Friday due to hold a second day of talks with South African leader and mediator Thabo Mbeki on their proposals for a new peace plan after a very encouraging start, according to Pretoria.

"The first phase of the programme was to present our dossier, our programme, which we did yesterday," Sidike Konate, spokesperson for the rebels - who are now called the New Forces - told AFP.

The proposals include elections to replace President Laurent Gbagbo, whose regime the rebels have been fighting for more than two years, splitting Ivory Coast into the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south since September 2002.

"We are meeting President Mbeki this morning to discuss observations on the mediation process. We really want to facilitate the task of mediation for President Mbeki," he said.

Bheki Khumalo, President Mbeki's spokesperson, on Friday, told SAFM radio: "We are making very good progress," but added that he did not expect this meeting to come up with instant solutions but rather as "part of a long process" towards peace.

Mbeki's four-pronged programme

The three-member rebel team led by Louis Dacoury-Tabley and including Minister of Crafts and Small Industries Dosso Moussa, are discussing Mbeki's four-pronged programme for a return to normalcy.

These essentially revolve around a French-brokered peace signed in January 2003 which have been breached by both the Ivorian government and the rebels.

They include reviewing the contentious Article 35 of the constitution which bars main opposition leader Alassane Outtara from contesting the presidency on the ground that he is not 100% Ivorian, disarmament, the functioning of the government of national reconciliation and taking anti-rebel groups and militias off the streets.

Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer and once the jewel in the French colonial empire in Africa, was a haven of peace and prosperity until a military coup in December 1999, followed by a rebellion in September 2002.

The 2002 uprising sliced the country in two and was aimed at toppling Gbagbo, a Christian from the south, who the rebels said was marginalising the country's Muslim-dominated north.

Elections are normally due in Ivory Coast next year.

- AFP