I Coast leaders, rebels meet
2005-04-15 10:40
Serme Lassina
Bouake - In a two-pronged attack to resolve Ivory Coast's civil war, rebel and army commanders met for the first time since fighting erupted two years ago while politicians discussed a new proposal for a banned political leader to run for president - an issue at the heart of the conflict.
Thursday's negotiations came amid warnings from the United Nations and France, the former colonizer, that if the West African protagonists fail again to agree on peace, tensions could explode into a renewed war that could drag in neighbouring countries.
Hours before Thursday's meeting, the wife of an army commander said he had been detained in an alleged coup plot.
A military prosecutor said Commander Marcellin Kofi Mbahia was only being interrogated.
Solange Mbahia said that troops surrounded her husband's house at Akouedo military barracks in Abidjan, the commercial capital, Tuesday night and accused him of plotting to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo's government.
A failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002 erupted into civil war Ivory Coast, which is the world's leading cocoa producer.
"After a long period of doubts, uncertainties and mistrust ... the meeting should arrive at concrete and precise results," Prime Minister Seydou Diarra said in Bouake, the northern rebel stronghold where Army Chief Philippe Mangou met five rebel commanders for the first time.
"Today is a historic day for Ivory Coast," Diarra said, though the rebels refused to shake hands with Mangou, who led bombing strikes against rebel territory in November that shattered a ceasefire.
Their negotiations on disarmament are certain to include rebel claims this week that Gbagbo's forces have been recruiting fighters in Liberia who have crossed the border to fight alongside pro-government militias. The army denies it is hiring foreign mercenaries.
Both the militias and the rebels say that they cannot disarm until the other side first surrenders its weapons.
In Abidjan, the commercial capital in the government-held south, opposition leaders welcomed South African President Thabo Mbeki's ruling Wednesday that all parties in the conflict be allowed to contest elections.
But the ruling party's Notre Voie newspaper called the decision "a disruption of all social norms."
"Now, in Ivory Coast, a non-Ivorian crook ... can be a presidential candidate," the newspaper complained of a ruling that would allow former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara to run despite a constitutional nationality clause introduced specifically to exclude him for the presidential stakes. - AP
- SAPA