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France welcomes US green flight for UN peacekeeping in Cote d'Ivoire

PLA Daily 2004-02-20

PARIS, Feb. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Cote d'Ivoire "enters into a new phase" after the United States agreed to the deployment of more than 6,000 United Nations peacekeepers to help end its civil war, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in an interview published Thursday.

"The block is lifted since the United States gave their accord for the putting into place of a 6,000-troop peacekeeping operation in Cote d'Ivoire," de Villepin told Le Figaro.

"We now enter into a new phase with the presence of a UN force to realize the disarmament and the elections. The United Nations has the expertise, the experience and the legitimacy to help Cote d'Ivoire out of the violence and tension definitively," he said.

The French initiative to send a 6,240-strong UN force and a contingent of civilian police to Cote d'Ivoire has won support from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan but was blocked by the United States,More than 4,000 French troops, 1,000 West African troops and 150 West African gendarmes currently try to help keep peace in the West African nation, split between rebel north and government south since rebellion broke out in September 2002 after a failed coup.

Under the French proposal, the French and African troops will remain in the country but will not be part of a UN force.

The UN force will monitor the cease-fire, assist the transitional power-sharing government in disarming and repatriating former combatants, help the government extend its authority throughout the country and prepare for elections in 2005.