Military

DATE=1/31/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=FRANCE / IVORY COAST (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-299057

BYLINE=PAUL MILLER

DATELINE=PARIS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The French government has advised some of its citizens in the Ivory Coast to leave. An agreement to end the four-month Ivorian civil war seems on the verge of collapse, and there has been anti-French rioting. The government of French President Jacques Chirac is being criticized for mishandling the situation. Paul Miller reports from Paris.

TEXT: The question being asked in French newspapers and among opposition politicians is whether the (French) government foresaw the difficulties of implementing the peace agreement worked out in 10 days of French-sponsored talks near Paris.

The Figaro newspaper says, anyone who thought those talks could reconcile Ivorian rebel factions and the government does not understand Africa very well. The Ivory Coast's army and some ministers have rejected the agreement, and government supporters blame France for trying to impose a settlement.

Liberation newspaper says the approach of the Chirac government seemed to be four months of improvisation, or even floundering, despite its apparent success in getting the Ivorian factions to agree to a power-sharing arrangement.

The left-wing opposition suggests France was putting its 16-thousand expatriates who live in Ivory Coast in danger. The government said Friday, French citizens who are not performing essential work there should leave Ivory Coast, but it has not ordered an evacuation. It has sent 130 gendarmes (policemen) to Ivory Coast to help protect the (French) community there.

///OPT/// Friday, they had to be deployed at the airport in Abidjan, along with French troops, when Ivorian government supporters stormed the airport runway. Eight-hundred French who were trying to get out of the country were trapped inside the airport. ///END OPT///

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the power-sharing agreement is in a difficult transition phase, and needs the support of all Ivorians and all French.

/// REST OPT ///

But Mr. Villepins' policy has come under growing criticism from some analysts, who suggest France is trying to do more than it is capable of in Africa and elsewhere. (SIGNED)

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