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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

COTE D'IVOIRE: No names for defence and security ministers yet

ABIDJAN, 4 September 2003 (IRIN) - Ivorian Prime Minister Seydou Diarra failed to propose candidates for the vacant posts of defence minister and internal security minister on Thursday, prolonging the six-month old impasse over who should fill these key portfolios.

President Laurent Gbagbo, who has rejected all the candidates put forward previously by Diarra's broad-based government of national reconciliation, had asked him on 29 August to come up with new names by last Tuesday.

A meeting between Gbagbo and the cabinet where the new names were due to have been presented and discussed was delayed until Thursday.

But a final communique issued after Thursday's meeting said the issue of the two ministerial appointments had been put on hold again until Monday next week.

A source in the presidency told IRIN that Diarra had not yet come up with any names for the vacant portfolios.

Rebel forces occupying the north of the country have said they will refuse to start a process of demobilisation and disarmament until the new ministers have been appointed under the terms of a peace agreement signed in January.

The disarmament process was due to have begun on 1 August, but continues to be held up by this sticking point.

The political atmosphere in Cote d'Ivoire has become tense over the past week following the discovery of an alleged plot to assassinate Gbagbo. Ten people have been arrested in France in connection with the plot and military sources said more than 50 people had been detained for questioning in Cote d'Ivoire.

The Ivorian military prosecutor said on Wednesday that only 18 people were being held with his knowledge and consent, including a top-ranking police officer and an army general.

Senior figures in Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party have accused the rebel Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI) and even Diarra himself of being involved in the coup plot.

The MPCI has denied any involvement and Diarra, an independent figure with a distinguished career as a civil servant and diplomat, has maintained a discreet silence about the affair.

The apparent ringleader of the assassination plot, Master Sargent Ibrahim Coulibaly, is currently detained in France on charges of recruiting mercenaries to destabilise a foreign country. He had been closely associated with previous coup attempts and was closely associated with the northern rebels.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance

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