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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D'IVOIRE: Army says rebels are threatening peace process
ABIDJAN, 8 October 2003 (IRIN) - Cote d'Ivoire's national army has called on rebels who control the north of the country to stop a boycott of peace-building efforts and abandon "all belligerent acts", saying the rebels were threatening peace and unity in the war-torn West African nation.
In a statement on Tuesday Lt-Col Philippe Mangou, the Armed Forces of Cote d'Ivoire (FANCI) operations commander, said that since 4 July, when both the army and rebel fighters declared the end of war, the rebels had acted contrary to the ceasefire declaration.
The rebels had not helped Ivorian peace efforts, the FANCI said.
"The New Forces [name of the rebels] have not respected all their engagements. They did not relinquish some of their positions in the "zone of confidence" and they maintain roadblocks on major economic highways," the army statement said.
"We have also witnessed pillaging, threats on the populations and grand theft of which the crowning moment was the attack on the branch of the Central Bank of West African States in Bouake [in late September]," the statement added.
The rebel fighters, Mangou said, were perpetuating a de-facto territorial division of the country. He deplored the rebels' withdrawal from a joint committee mandated to map out a national disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme in September.
The programme has yet to start, having been pushed back several times.
"FANCI will draw their own conclusions and will no longer stay indifferent to the de-facto partition of the national territory, the acts committed on populations that are held hostages and the different attacks on its positions," the army statement said.
The rebel Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI) deputy secretary-general, Sidiki Konate, however told IRIN from their headquarters in Bouake: "It is true that we've withdrawn from the reunification committee, but we have not cut all contacts."
The commander of West African peacekeepers deployed in Cote d'Ivoire, Matthieu Boni told IRIN: "Nobody will gain from a resumption of hostilities. I think the FANCI are fed-up, that's what led to this statement."
Recently, the MPCI warned that war could be imminent because President Laurent Gbagbo had continued to sabotage peace efforts and refused to respect a peace accord signed in Paris in January.
The rebels, who hold nine ministerial posts in government under the Paris accord, suspended their participation in all government activities in September. However two ministers refused to leave the government of national unity and kept their posts.
The United Nations Mission in Cote d'Ivoire however said a fresh outbreak of armed conflict seemed remote. "Either side would have to march over 5,000 international peacekeepers," an officer with the mission told IRIN.
The Economic Community of West African States over 1,000 men peacekeepers deployed in Cote d'Ivoire while France, the former colonial power which still has huge economic interests in the West African nation, has 4,000 men on the ground.
"The FANCI could attack if the situation deteriorates so badly that international peacekeepers left the area, otherwise it would be very difficult," the officer said.
The Ivorian crisis started on 19 September 2002 when mutinous soldiers who failed to topple Gbagbo, retreated to the north and west, seizing control of vast chunks of the territory. The mutineers formed the MPCI rebel group and occupied several key towns including Bouake, Korhogo and Odienne in the north, Man in the west.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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