Military

DATE=8/9/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IVORY COAST / POL (L-O)

NUMBER=2-318121

BYLINE=NICO COLOMBANT

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

HEADLINE: Ivory Coast Rebels, Opposition End Boycott

INTRO: Rebels and opposition parties in Ivory Coast have ended their four-month boycott of the power-sharing government, following a new peace agreement reached last month. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from Abidjan.

TEXT: /// SOUND OF DRUMS; FADE UNDER ///

A government musician played drums, as northern-based rebels and opposition leaders filed into the presidential palace Monday in Abidjan to attend a Cabinet meeting.

Among them was rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who was fired by President Laurent Gbagbo in May, but reinstated following the peace summit in Ghana last month.

The spokesman of the opposition party popular with northerners, the RDR, Cisse Bacongo, says Ivorians are in desperate need of a functioning government.

/// BACONGO ACT IN FRENCH; FADE UNDER ///

He says the meeting gives renewed hope to Ivorians beset by civil war, and raises confidence of businesses so the collective suffering of the nation can end.

Rebels and opposition leaders stopped attending cabinet meetings after a brutal security crackdown on opposition supporters in Abidjan in late March.

The opposition and the rebels agreed to return after the president agreed to a series of political reforms last month in Accra. Among the concessions, President Gbagbo agreed to delegate more power to Prime Minister Seydou Diarra and implement constitutional changes called for in the January 2003 French-brokered accord.

Most changes must be approved by parliament before they will be implemented, but in the case of easing eligibility requirements for the presidency, the Accra accord says Mr. Gbagbo must use his constitutional powers. His supporters have interpreted this as meaning he will call for a national referendum.

If the changes go ahead, the disarmament process is due to begin October 15th.

/// NAT SOUND OF SORO SPEECH IN FRENCH FADED UNDER ///

In a speech from the rebel-stronghold of Bouake Saturday, Mr. Soro, the rebel leader, said his fighters will be ready to disarm if the war is over, but he says he is not sure Mr. Gbagbo's side will carry out its end of the deal.

Friday, Mr. Gbagbo said the Accra accord must be implemented, but that he will only speak about it once the war is over. Disarmament also applies to recent army recruits and pro-government militias.

Monday's meeting comes amid worsening human rights conditions in the rebel-held north, where U.N. investigators recently found three mass graves in the city of Korhogo containing at least 99 bodies. Many of the victims of an apparent feud between rival rebel groups had been suffocated.

Ivory Coast was plunged into a civil war in September 2002, with rebels demanding equal rights for northerners, who are often treated as second-class citizens. (SIGNED)

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