Ethno-Net Database: Côte d'Ivoire

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President Laurent Gbagbo flew to Bamako on Friday for talks on the deadlocked peace process in Cote d'Ivoire as reports emerged of further clashes between farmers of Gbagbo's Bete tribe and immigrant farmers in the south of the country.

Gbagbo's two-hour meeting with his Malian counterpart, Amadou Toumani Toure, followed a similar flying visit to Burkina Faso on Wednesday for talks with President Blaise Campaore.

Burkina Faso and Mali are both landlocked countries which border upon the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire. Their economies have suffered heavily from the effects of civil war in their once prosperous southern neighbour, but Gbagbo has suspected both of giving support to the rebels.

The main trade routes from Burkina Faso and Mali to the port of Abidjan were cut after the Ivorian conflict erupted in September last year. And a tide of Burkinabe and Malian residents in Cote d'Ivoire fled home after the outbreak of civil war led to the persecution of immigrants from other West African countries in the government-controlled south of the country.

Gbagbo flew to Bamako as reports emerged that four people had been killed in fighting between Burkinabe immigrant farmers who had been thrown off their land and their former neighbours near the southern city of Gagnoa.

A spokesman for the paramilitary gendarmerie in Gagnoa, 230 km northwest of the commercial capital Abidjan, said one gendarme was killed and two were injured in an exchange of gunfire with a gang of armed Burkinabe immigrants after they were sent to restore order in the village of Broudoume on Thursday.

Three civilians had also been killed in the clashes, which began on Wednesday and also involved fighting with machetes, the gendarmerie spokesman told IRIN. Gunfire could still be heard in the area on Friday morning, he added.

The gendarmerie spokesman said the army chief of staff General Mathias Doue, had arrived in Gagnoa on Friday to take control of the security situation.

Last month local farmers chased about 500 immigrant cocoa farmers from their land near Gagnoa. Most were from Burkina Faso and from the Baoule tribe of central Cote d'Ivoire.

An Ivorian journalist in Gagnoa contacted by IRIN said the latest trouble erupted after local Bete farmers tried to harvest and sell cocoa from the immigrants' abandoned farms.

Little of substance emerged publicly from Gbagbo's summit meeting with Toure in the hill-top presidential palace in Bamako. A joint communique issued afterwards said the French-brokered peace accord signed between Gbagbo and the rebels in January should remain the framework for solving the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire.

The rebels, who are officially known as "The New Forces," joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April, but pulled out on 23 September, just before they were due to start a disarmament and demobilisation process, claiming Gbagbo had refused to delegate effective power to ministers.

Tension has been mounting since then, but a whirlwind of top-level diplomacy in West Africa has so far failed to achieve a reconciliation between the two sides.

Toure told reporters after his talks with Gbagbo: "Mali is resolutely determined to work for a return to peace in Cote d'Ivoire because we suffer heavily from the collateral effects of this crisis."

Before flying to Bamako, Gbagbo made a televised speech to the nation on Thursday night which was more conciliatory in tone than many of his recent statements. However, he offered no new concessions to the rebels.

Gbagbo made unusually friendly comments about France which has 4,000 peacekeeping troops stationed in Cote d'Ivoire, but which has frequently been accused publicly by Gbagbo's top aides of supporting the rebels.

Several Ivorian newspapers interpreted Gbagbo's new warmth towards France as an effort by the president to ingratiate himself with the French government so that he would be invited to meet President Jacques Chirac in Paris later this month.

Gbagbo held talks with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin during a flying visit to Gabon on 21 November.

In a further conciliatory gesture, a cabinet meeting, chaired by Gbagbo on Thursday, discussed for the first time a package of legal reforms demanded by the January peace accord which the government had until now put on the back-burner.

The new laws are designed to give West African immigrants, who accounted for 30 percent of Cote d'Ivoire's 16 million population before the civil war, firmer rights of residence and formal ownership of the land they have farmed, often for two or three generations. They are also due to make it easier for Ivorians with a foreign parent to stand for the presidency.

The present wording of the constitution was invoked to prevent former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, who commands wide support in the north, from standing against Gbagbo in the 2000 presidential election.

Pro-government militias in Cote d'Ivoire were continuing to kill, torture and harass civilians with impunity, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The New York-based human rights organisation said most of the militias were drawn from President Laurent Gbagbo's Bete tribe of south central Cote d'Ivoire. Their victims were mainly immigrants from other West African countries and members of Cote d'Ivoire's other ethnic groups, it added.

"The proliferation of militia groups is a very dangerous consequence of the conflict in Cote d'Ivoire, particularly in the currently volatile situation," said Peter Takirambudde, the director Human Rights Watch's Africa division.

"Unfortunately the government has not acted to stem this trend. Instead, these groups continue to get away with murder." he added.

The report entitled Cote d Ivoire: Militias commit abuses with impunity also noted increasing lawlessness by fighters in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire, many of whom have not been paid for several months. "There has been an upsurge in reported incidencts of assault, rape and looting. allegedly carried out by undisciplined armed elements linked to the rebels," it said.

Human Rights Watch said there were several thousand active members of the pro-government militia groups in the south of Cote d'Ivoire, known generically as "Young Patriots." Most appeared to have been recruited from student organisations and the youth wing of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party as well as the youth wings of allied political parties.

The human rights watchdog accused the militias of hounding thousands of immigrant farmers from their land over the past 10 months in the area around the western town Toulepleu on the troubled Liberian border. It also cited reports that they had forcibly evicted hundreds of peasant farmers from their land in the cocoa-growing district around the central-western town of Gagnoa last month.

Human Rights Watch noted that the Young Patriot militias were also active in Abidjan, where they had attacked the offices of French-owned water and electricity companies and had newspaper distributors and kiosks selling newspapers linked to opposition parties.

The rights group said some militia units, with names such as the "Bees", "Gazelles" and "Ninjas", had received military-style training from members of the army. It also noted credible allegations that some of their members had been armed by government forces.

Human Rights Watch said the militias had assaulted, harassed, tortured and at times killed foreigners with the security forces either supporting them or failing to intervene.

West African migrant workers, notably from Burkina Faso, have born the brunt of such clashes. According to the United Nations, nearly 350,000 Burkinabe nationals have fled Cote d Ivoire since the country plunged into civil war in September last year.

Gbagbo's government has accused Burkina Faso of supporting the rebels in the north who have signed a peace agreement in January that is now in danger of breaking down.

On Wednesday, Gbagbo travelled to Burkina Faso for talks with President Blaise Compaore in an attempt to solve the Ivorian crisis and improve strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.

A senior commander of the Young Patriots movement rejected the allegations made in the Human Rights Watch report as "absolutely false."

We Patriots, we have gone beyond tribalism. Let Human Rights Watch say what it wants, we are working towards reconciliation , Tierre Legre, a close aide of Young Patriots leader Charles Ble Goude told IRIN.

Legre accused the report of being one-sided, saying it failed to address human rights abuses in rebel-held areas of the country.

Human Rights Watch urged the Ivorian government to disband the militias and launch an inquiry into their mistreatment of civilians and the security forces role in supporting or failing to halt their activities. It called on the government to "bring to justice individuals suspected of involvement in these abuses."

The organiasation also urged the United Nations to deploy human rights officers throughout the country to monitor abuses and conduct their own investigations. French and West African peacekeeping forces in the country should be deployed to areas of concern, it added.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Seydou Diarra met with Robert Menard, the secretary-general of press freedom watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres.

Menard's visit to Abidjan came a month after a uniformed policeman shot dead Radio France Internationale journalist Jean Helene at point blank range outside the police headquarters in Abidjan. The incident occurred as Helene was waiting to interview a group of political detainees who were about to be released.

Le Président Laurent Gbagbo s'est envolé pour le Burkina Faso afin de rencontrer le Président Blaise Compaoré mercredi, dans le but d'essayer de remettre en marche le processus de paix ivoirien dans l'impasse.

M. Gbagbo a régulièrement accusé M. Compaoré de soutenir les forces rebelles qui occupent le Nord de la Côte d'Ivoire, depuis que le pays a plongé dans la guerre civile, il y a 14 mois.

Les autorités du Burkina, ont, à leur tour, accusé le gouvernement ivoirien d'être à la base d'un coup d'état manqué contre M. Compaoré, découvert le mois dernier.

Des officiels de la présidence, en Côte d'Ivoire, ont annoncé que les deux leaders s'étaient rencontrés à Bobo Dioulasso, une grande ville du Sud du Burkina Faso, principale porte d’accès au commerce avec la Côte d'Ivoire pour ce pays enclavé.

La prospère Côte d'Ivoire et le Burkina Faso plus pauvre ont entretenu traditionnellement des relations étroites, qui cependant, se sont refroidies suite au déclenchement de la guerre civile. Selon les Nations Unies, près de 350,000 immigrants burkinabés ont fui la Côte d'Ivoire, et ont regagné leur pays d'origine depuis le début du conflit, qui a généré une vague de rejet des immigrants ouest-africains en Côte d'Ivoire.

M. Gbagbo, qui a regagné son pays immédiatement après la rencontre avec M. Compaoré, avait reçu lundi le Président libérien, Gyude Bryant. Des officiels ont annoncé qu'il devait rendre visite à son homologue malien, Amadou Toumani Touré, à Sikasso, une ville du Sud du Mali, plus tard dans la semaine.

MM. Gbagbo et Compaoré s'étaient déjà rencontrés le 11 novembre à un sommet de sept chefs d'Etats ouest-africains, dans la capitale ghanéenne Accra, qui n'a pu aboutir à un consensus, capable de dégeler les deux mois d'impasse du processus de paix ivoirien.

Les rebelles, officiellement appelés "Forces Nouvelles," ont signé un accord de paix approuvé par M. Gbagbo en janvier, et ont rejoint un gouvernement de large ouverture de réconciliation nationale en avril. Ils ont toutefois retiré leurs ministres du gouvernement le 23 septembre, pour protester contre M. Gbagbo, qui, selon eux, refuse de déléguer ses pouvoirs effectifs au gouvernement. Les plans de démobilisation et de désarmement des rebelles sont au stade de projet depuis.

De l'autre côté de l'océan Atlantique, une délégation des ministres des Affaires Etrangères de la Communauté Economique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO) a rencontré, mardi, le Secrétaire d'Etat américain, Colin Powell, pour discuter de la crise ivoirienne.

Lundi, ils ont appelé le Conseil de sécurité des Nations-Unies à transformer les 1,300 soldats ouest-africains, qui contribuent à préserver le cessez-le-feu en Côte d'Ivoire, en une mission qualifiée de maintien de la paix des Nations Unies.

Cependant, les articles de presse de Washington ont rapporté que les autorités américaines refusaient l'idée pour l'instant.

La France a également 4,000 hommes stationnés en Côte d'Ivoire, qui est une ancienne colonie française indépendante depuis 1960. Toutefois, une source à l'ambassade de France a déclaré à IRIN mercredi, que la France n'avait aucune intention de mettre ses forces présentes dans le pays sous contrôle des Nations Unies.

Le Secrétaire général, Kofi Annan, a averti le Conseil de Sécurité lundi que la Côte d'Ivoire, premier pays producteur au monde de cacao, pourrait sombrer à nouveau dans la guerre si l'impasse actuelle entre M. Gbagbo et les rebelles ne trouvait pas de solution.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that Cote d'Ivoire could "slip back into conflict" as five West African governments began lobbying for a fully fledged UN peacekeeping force to be sent to the country.

Annan told the UN Security Council in New York on Monday that he was "deeply concerned" by a two-month-old impasse between President Laurent Gbagbo and rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire.

"There is clearly a danger that Cote d'Ivoire could slip back into conflict," he warned, adding that parts of the rebel-held north were already "degenerating into lawlessness."

Annan said he would send a further assessment mission to Cote d'Ivoire soon to help him prepare recommendations on improving UN efforts to facilitate peace and stability in the country. This mission would consider whether the United Nations should reinforce its current present in Cote d'Ivoire, he added.

Annan was speaking as the foreign ministers of Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal and Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) urged members of the Security Council to upgrade the 1,300 ECOWAS peacekeeping troops in Cote d'Ivoire into an official UN peacekeeping force.

The ECOWAS soldiers and 4,000 French peacekeeping troops currently patrol the buffer zone between government and rebel forces to enforce a ceasefire declared on 3 May.

Ghanaian Foreign Minister Nana Akuffo Ado told the Security Council that seven West African heads of state had agreed at a meeting in Accra on 11 November that the presence of a robust UN peacekeeping force would contribute greatly to the full implementation of a French-brokered peace agreement signed in January.

The peace deal has been on ice since the rebels, who are officially known as "The New Forces," withdrew from a broad-based government of national reconciliation on 23 September. They pulled out in protest at Gbagbo' s refusal to delegate what they regarded as adequate powers to the cabinet.

Akuffo Ado said West African governments were ready to contribute to a larger peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire with a UN mandate, but they did not have the means to raise such a force alone.

Reuters news agency said France backed the ECOWAS position, but the United States, which foots 27 percent of the bill for all UN peacekeeping activities, was reluctant to see Cote d'Ivoire become another large and expensive UN peackeeping operation like those in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The United Nations still has more than 11,000 soldiers deployed in Sierra Leone and is building up a force of 15,000 peacekeepers in neighbouring Liberia. But so far the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire is only backed up by 34 military liason officers.

Reuters quoted the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, as saying Washington did not rule out the idea of a UN peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire, but it would wait to see Annan's next report on the situation in the country before deciding.

The delegation of West African foreign ministers was due to hold talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington on Tuesday.

Diplomatic moves aimed at breaking the log jam in the Ivorian peace process meanwhile continued in West Africa.

Rebel leader Guillaume Soro was due to hold talks with Gabonese President Omar Bongo in Libreville on Tuesday, following a three-way encounter between Bongo, Gbagbo and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin in the Gabonese capital last Friday.

Officials in Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso meanwhile confirmed that Gbagbo would meet Bukinabe President Blaise Campaore in Burkina Faso's second city Bobo Dioulasso on Wednesday.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since Cote d'Ivoire plunged into civil war in September last year.

Gbagbo has repeatedly accused Campaore of supporting the Ivorian rebels. The Burkinabe government has meanwhile hinted that Cote d'Ivoire was behind a coup plot to overthrow Campaore, which was uncovered last month.

Officials in Abidjan said Gbagbo was expected to hold talks with President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali later in the week.

Liberia's transitional leader, Gyude Bryant, held talks with President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire on Monday about security along the two countries' troubled border.

Gbagbo's spokesman, Alain Toussaint, said they also discussed the peace process under way in both countries and ways of preventing the movement of armed men across the porous border.

Liberia is emerging from 14 years of civil war with the help of a large UN peacekeeping force. Cote d'Ivoire, on the other hand, is in danger of sliding back into open conflict following a two-month-old impasse between Gbagbo and rebels occupying the north of the country over how a peace agreement, signed in January, should be implemented.

Bryant's visit to Abidjan was his first since taking over as the head of a broad-based coalition government last month. It formed part of a flurry of top-level contacts between the rival Ivorian factions and West African leaders aimed at putting Cote d'Ivoire's faltering peace process back on track.

Gbagbo postponed plans to visit Burkina Faso and Mali on Monday after meeting Bryant, but Toussaint said the Ivorian leader would travel to both countries later this week.

Guillaume Soro, the Ivorian rebel leader, meanwhile held talks with President Mamadou Tandja of Niger on Monday before flying from Niamey to Libreville to meet President Omar Bongo of Gabon.

Gbagbo held two hours of talks with Bongo and visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin in Libreville last Friday, but there was no indication afterwards of any breakthrough to end the increasingly tense stalemate in Cote d'Ivoire.

Amadou Kone, a senior aide of Soro said the rebels, who are officially known as "The New Forces," were willing to attend an internationally-sponsored meeting that would put the Ivorian peace process back on track by establishing a "consensual roadmap" of agreed action.

But he reiterated that the rebels were not willing to renegotiate the French-brokered peace agreement signed 11 months ago, despite Gbagbo's reluctance to implement certain parts of the accord.

"The New Forces are favourable to a meeting, but not a new Marcoussis," Kone told IRIN by telephone from the rebel stronghold of Bouake in central Cote d'Ivoire.

In Niger, Soro told reporters after meeting Tandja that the New Forces wanted the African Union and the United Nations to become more closely involved in international efforts to break the deadlock.

"Today we would wish to see the African Union and the UN coming in to reinforce all the peace initiatives launched by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) so that Cote d'Ivoire can rapidly find peace and unity," Soro said.

The UN Security Council was due to consider the situation in Cote d'Ivoire on Tuesday after hearing calls from several West African states for 5,300 French and West African peacekeeping troops in the country to be given a full UN mandate.

Tension has been rising in West Africa's most prosperous country since the rebels withdrew their ministers from a broad-based government of national reconciliation on 23 September in protest at Gbagbo's alleged refusal to devolve effective power to its ministers.

Diplomats said repeated attempts by ECOWAS leaders to persuade Gbagbo to be more flexible on this issue had so far failed to yield fruit.

Liberian militias fought for both sides in the Ivorian civil war earlier this year. The area near the western border with Liberia, where they once terrorised the local population, remains a dangerous and unstable place.

Diplomats say that many of the Liberians who fought for Gbagbo, were subsequently sent back across the border to fight for the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) movement which still controls the south and east of Liberia.

Since the signing of a peace agreement in Liberia last August, fears have been growing that many of these gunmen might drift back into Cote d'Ivoire to cause further trouble. UN peacekeepers are due to start disarming the warring factions in Liberia in early December.

Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and France's foreign minister, Laurent de Villepin are due in Libreville, Gabon, on Friday to try to hammer out an agreement on how best to restore peace and stability to the country.

Ivorian state radio announced on Friday that Gbagbo would head from Gabon to Mali and then Burkina Faso.

The Libreville talks, which will be held under the auspices of Gabon's President Omar Bongo, are the latest effort by African heads of state and the international community to mediate in the 14-month old Ivorian conflict.

In the last two weeks, President John Kufuor of Ghana, who is also the acting chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, has hosted two high-level meetings in Accra which have failed to produce any meaningful result. Last weekend, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, whose country has been accused of supporting Ivorian rebels, hosted a meeting with Ivorian Prime Minister Seydou Diarra and Ivorian rebel leader Guillaume Soro. Soro has also travelled to Senegal for talks with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

After meeting Diarra and Soro in Ouagadougo, Compaore emphasised that only the Ivorian protagonists themelves could solve Ivory Coast's problems. But both the government of President Gbagbo and the rebels have stuck to their guns , refusing to make concessions.

The rebels, also known as New Forces , accuse the government of violating the peace agreement signed in January in Paris and sabotaging peace efforts. They argue that Gbagbo has withheld governing powers he was meant to haand over to Prime Minister Diarra under the peace agreement signed in France in January.

The government also accuses the rebels of not respecting the agreement, notably refusing to accept disarmament as a pre-requisite to all peace efforts.

In spite of this latest diplomatic ballet and countless other efforts, Cote d Ivoire s political situation has virtually ground to a halt, notably since late September when the rebels withdrew from government, accusing President Gbagbo of blocking peace efforts.

Last week in Abidjan, the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi said the international community was beginning to despair and that the two sides needed to work fast because time was running out.

Cote d Ivoire's journalists and press barons were urged on Monday to put past quarrels aside and work for peace as a Press Week for National Reconciliation and Peace formally got underway in the commercial capital, Abidjan.

But despite a series of appeals for a better level of reporting from the print media and a more constructive contribution to the peace process, a specially-convened Forum of Press Owners later revealed sharp differences between newspaper proprietors, notably on Cote d'Ivoire's political crisis and the role the press should be playing.

Backed by the National Union of Journalists of Cote d'Ivoire (UNJCI), the UN s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Panos Institute and a string of Ivorian media organisations, including newspapers from different ends of the political spectrum, the peace week was the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at improving the Ivorian media.

The roundtable debates and presentations hope to make journalists more aware of their responsibilities, particularly with regard to promoting peace. The week will conclude with the award of a "Golden Book" made up of articles and broadcasts put out during the peace period.

Ivorian newspapers have been strongly criticised, both inside and outside Cote dIvoire, for being excessively partisan in their coverage of events since the beginning of the crisis in September 2002. Press watchdogs have accused individual papers of fanning the flames of the conflict and preaching prejudice.

There has also been mounting concern about attempts to keep some newspapers off the streets, with news vendors and distribution outlets complaining of physical attacks.

Launching proceedings, the President of the UNJCI, Amos Bionaho, acknowledged the press faced accusations of poisoning the social climate . Bionaho quoted former American President Abraham Lincoln in urging that the country be informed of the reality of what is happening and its people will be sheltered from all dangers.

The Minister of National Reconciliation, Sibastien Dano Djidji, said that the week of peace should not be seen as a one-off truce, but as the start of a genuine move towards a gentler press climate. Djidji said journalists had to give up the past for good and forgive each other so that Cote dIvoire can be reborn .

Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, the special representative of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Cote d Ivoire, said the Ivorian press had become something of a scapegoat and appealed to journalists to become the sentinels of democracy.

But the tone adopted in the forum of newspaper owners which followed was markedly less conciliatory. The Director-General of Ivorian Radio and Television (RTI), Georges Aboki, talked of the state broadcaster being forced to abandon its operations in areas like Bouaki as its premises were ransacked.

Sindou Miitii, Director-General of Mayama Editions and former editor-in-chief of Le Patriote, talked of the need to pacify the political arena before working on the media and warned against a dogmatic and sectarian approach to news reporting.

But other newspaper owners said there was no cause to stay neutral when the republic of Cote d'Ivoire was under attack and stressed the need for the media to play an openly patriotic role.

Two days of top-level consultations in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, appear to have failed to find any consensus amongst the main opposing forces in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire.

Cote d'Ivoire's Prime Minister, Seydou Diarra, and the leader of the rebel forces, now known as the "New Forces", Guillaume Soro, arrived in Accra on Tuesday as guests of Ghanaian President John Kufuor, who is also chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

A Ghanaian government statement said the talks were aimed at "breaking the current impasse in the Ivorian peace process and creating the appropriate conditions for the return of the Ministers of the New Forces into the government of National Reconciliation".

The consultations finished on Thursday with a brief statement from President Kufuor's office which simply "expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the consultations" and "thanked Diarra and Soro for their commitment and determination to work to advance the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire".

There has been political deadlock in Cote d'Ivoire since September when rebel ministers relinquished their cabinet posts in a government of national unity, protesting that they had been marginalised by Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo.

Soro and his colleagues say they will only return to government if they are given strong security guarantees.

Gbagbo's supporters have accused the rebels of holding the country to ransom. Diarra has stressed the need to end the partition of Cote d'Ivoire but the New Forces continue to hold large swathes of territory, particularly in the north since hostilities first broke out in September 2002.

Cote d Ivoire s continued climate of insecurity has once again raised the need to guarantee human rights and protect thousands of war-affected people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Wednesday.

OCHA said the slowness of political progress and recent inter-ethnic violence continued to expose thousands of Ivorian and foreign immigrants to violations of thir rights.

"October and November have seen numerous incidents of inter-ethnic violence, organised crime and political demonstrations," the UN office said.

According to OCHA, populations living in western, northern and along the cease-fire line were the most at risk rights violations.

The importance of human rights and civilian protection is exemplified by the US $9.4 million that the UN and its partners appealed for, when they launched the annual Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) 2004 for Cote d Ivoire. That amount greatly surpassed the $3.5 million the world body had asked for in an earlier CAP launched this year. Of the $3.5 million then requested, the UN received nothing.

Human rights violations have been widely documented in the Ivorian crisis. At the height of the war, an unknown group of hit-men, often referred to as "Death Sqauds", kidnapped people across town. Many of them, including a well-know comedian and the brother of a senior member of the rebel group, were found dead shortly after.

Cote d Ivoire s Prime Minister Seydou Diarra and the Secretary General of the rebel "New Forces", Soro Guillaume, on Wednesday held talks with Ghanaian President John Kufuor, in efforts to put the stalled Ivorian peace process back on track.

The two men arrived in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on Tuesday, but held separate meetings on Wednesday with Kufuor, who as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, has hosted three high-level meetings on the Ivorian crisis.

Internatinal news agencies reported that the three men, along with ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas, were all due to meet together later at the Ghanaian Presidential Castle.

The Accra meeting was announced this past weekend in Burkina Faso following a meeting between Diarra, Soro and Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore. Although details were sketchy, Diarra had said the meeting would be held to convince Soro s Patriotic Movement of Cote d Ivoire (MPCI) to resume their participation in a national unity government.

On 23 September, all nine MPCI ministers withdrew from government citing frustrations at the implementation of a peace agreement signed in January in Paris. The rebel movement accused Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo of blocking the peace process.

The government however said it was the rebels instead who were frustrating the peace process.

On Monday the MPCI declared a "state of emergency" and placed its troops on alert in Bouake and the western town of Man, saying Gbagbo and his army chief of staff, General Mathias Doue, had agreed to restart fighting.

The Ivorian army strongly denied that it has any plans to attack the rebels, but the statements by both rebels and government leaders have raised tension in the country.

Last week European Commission President Romano Prodi warned that "time was running out" for Cote d'Ivoire, saying is was time to move fast toward peace in the country which is facing its worst political crisis in 43 years of independence.

Gbagbo supporters insist that the rebels must first disarm and relinquish all territory under their control, while the rebels on Tuesday repeated that they would not disarm until Diarra was given full governing powers and until there was a change in the nomination of the ministers of defense and security.

The once prosperous West African country sunk into political turmoil in September 2002 following a failed coup attempt. Rebellious soldiers seized control of the northern and western areas and have since divided the country into two. The 14-month conflict has brought the former French colony, the world's top cocoa producer, to the brink of economic collapse.

Les rebelles de Côte d'Ivoire ont fait étalage d'une importante quantité d'armes lourdes mardi, à Bouaké, à 379 km au nord de la capitale commerciale Abidjan, des heures après avoir déclaré l'état d'urgence dans les territoires sous leur contrôle. Ils ont expliqué que leurs actions étaient une réponse aux projets du gouvernement de lancer des attaques contre leurs positions.

Un convoi de gros camions, chargés d'armes lourdes dont des anti-aériens et des propulseurs de grenades, a fait le tour de la ville en début d'après-midi, avec des soldats lourdement armés, accrochés de part et d'autre des véhicules.

Certains camions ont pris la direction de l'autoroute de Bouaké menant au nord. Des combattants en plus grand nombre, lourdement armés et revêtus de tenues de combat, faisaient des patrouilles dans les rues, expliquant aux civils qu'ils étaient à la recherche de personnes infiltrées.

Bouaké est le siège des rebelles, qui se font appeler "Forces Nouvelles". Ils ont le contrôle de la moitié Nord du pays, depuis le déclenchement des hostilités avec le gouvernement en septembre 2002. Bien qu'ils aient signé un accord de paix avec le gouvernement en janvier, il n'y a pas eu de rapprochement réel entre les deux camps.

Le 23 septembre, les rebelles sont sortis du gouvernement d'unité national, alléguant que le Président Laurent Gbagbo avait laissé ses ministres sur la touche, et n'avait aucune intention sérieuse d'appliquer l'accord de paix orchestré par la France.

Mardi, le chef d'état-major de la principale organisation rebelle, le Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI), le Colonel Soumaila Bakayoko, a signalé que les rebelles avaient déclaré l’"état d'urgence", et avaient rappelé tous les commandants militaires du MPCI à Bouaké, à cause d'un "acte de guerre" signé par le chef d'état-major ivoirien, le Général Mathias Doué, et le Président Laurent Gbagbo.

L'acte, a-t-il réclamé, engageait l'armée à reprendre le combat contre les rebelles.

"La déclaration de Doué au cours de la cérémonie commémorant les soldats tués au front et celle de Gbagbo qu'il en finirait avec nous dans peu de temps, nous ont poussé à mettre nos hommes en alerte", a souligné à IRIN, Bakayoko, un déserteur de l'armée ivoirienne à Bouaké.

Discourant samedi à la cérémonie commémorative des soldats et policiers tués dans le conflit, le général Doué a averti que "la guerre peut reprendre à tout moment". Bakyoyoko a ajouté qu M. Gbagbo avait tenu un discours lors du mini-sommet des chefs d'Etats de la CEDEAO à Accra le 12 novembre, dans lequel il affirmait que son armée était bien équipée et pouvait refouler les rebelles dans deux semaines.

Selon Bakayoko, ces déclarations appellent à la guerre. Il a affirmé que l'armée ivoirienne avait fait de Bouaké et de la ville de Man, plus à l'Ouest, leurs cibles immédiates.

Cependant le porte-parole de l'armée ivoirienne, Aka N’goran, a rejeté les accusations des rebelles. Il a relevé que les allégations des rebelles contre le Générale Doué étaient "complètement fausses", ajoutant que l'armée était toujours engagée dans le processus de paix.

Le Colonel Georges Peillon, porte-parole du contingent français fort de 4000 hommes chargés de veiller au respect du cessez-le-feu entre les combattants, et de s'interposer entre l'armée et les rebelles, a souligné à IRIN que les Français avaient entendu les déclarations des rebelles. Cependant, ils ignoraient vraiment ce qu'ils comptaient entreprendre.

Les troupes françaises ont été déployées après l'éclatement de la rébellion et forme depuis un tampon entre les deux camps. Elles ont récemment intensifié leurs opérations à Bouaké, suite à l'attaque d'une banque dans la ville.

En dépit de la sécurité renforcée à Bouaké, Bakayoko a annoncé que le Secrétaire-général des "Forces Nouvelles", Guillaume Soro, s'était envolé pour Accra, au Ghana voisin, pour discuter des préparations d'une réunion pour la paix avec le gouvernement et d'autres partis politiques ivoiriens.

Le Premier Ministre Seydou Diarra, qui dirige le gouvernement d'unité nationale, a rencontré Soro au Burkina Faso samedi, et a accepté que les différents partis impliqués dans le processus de paix se rencontrent cette semaine, pour essayer de désamorcer la situation actuelle.

M. Diarra n'a pas précisé quand se tiendrait la réunion, mais le Président Blaise Compaoré du Burkina Faso a informé les journalistes qu'il avait sollicité l'expérience du Président John Kufuor, afin d’organiser la rencontre. M. Kufuor est le Président en exercice de la Communauté Economique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO).

La CEDEAO, qui a organisé un autre sommet sur la Côte Ivoire la semaine dernière, avec les chefs d'Etat des pays voisins, espère qu'une autre réunion avec toutes les parties au conflit pourrait être utile, en particulier après celle de la semaine passée qui n'a rien donné.

Bien qu'aucun combat n'ait été répertorié pendant les six derniers mois, le processus de paix en Côte d'Ivoire parait avoir perdu tout dynamisme ces derniers mois, les problèmes s'étant compliqués avec le départ des ministres rebelles du gouvernement en septembre.

Le désarmement prévu il y a trois mois n'a toujours pas commencé. Bakayoko a révélé à IRIN, mardi, que les rebelles ne désarmeraient pas tant que le Premier Ministre Seydou Diarra ne recevrait pas les pleins pouvoirs de M. Gbabgo, et tant que les ministres de la Défense et de la Sécurité ne seraient pas choisis par tous les partis signataires des accords de Marcoussis, initiés par la France en janvier.

A Paris, le Président français Jacques Chirac a réitéré lundi, la nécessité d'appliquer “rapidement et totalement” les accords de Marcoussis. Son appel a été précédé de celui de l'Union Européenne, qui, a spécifié la semaine passée qu'elle continuerait de suspendre son aide à la Côte d'Ivoire, à moins de constater un réel "progrès" dans le processus.

Le pays ouest-africain le plus prospère a sombré dans un tumulte politique en septembre 2002, suite à une tentative de coup d'état manqué. Les soldats rebelles ont pris le contrôle des régions du Nord et de l'Ouest, divisant le pays en deux. Le conflit de 14 mois a mené cette ancienne colonie française, premier pays producteur de cacao au monde, au bord de l'effondrement économique.

Rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire sent out mixed signals on Wednesday about how they intended to proceed following the failure of a West African summit to achieve a breakthrough in the country's deadlocked peace process.

Louis-Andre Dakoury-Tabley, the deputy leader of the rebel movement, officially known as "The New Forces," said in a speech that nothing more could be expected of the French-brokered peace agreement signed in January and the rebels might consider establishing a separate state in the area under their control.

However, an official statement issued at the end of a three-day Economic and Social Forum in the rebel capital Bouake, said: "The New Forces reiterate their total and unconditional adherence to the Marcoussis agreement."

Dakoury-Tabley said in a speech to the closing session of the forum, that the meeting of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo with six other West African heads of state in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Tuesday had been a failure, because Gbagbo had refused to make any of the concessions that the other leaders had demanded of him.

"Accra III failed, not because of wishes of the heads of state of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), but because President Laurent Gbagbo was summoned by his peers and refused to give ground to them," the deputy secretary general of the New Forces said.

"Those who talk about secession will from now on be right, because there is nothing more we can expect from the Marcoussis agreement," he added.

The forum was called to discuss ways of making the rebel-held zone, which mainly comprises their poorer rural areas of Cote d'Ivoire, more economically self-sufficient. The north has been financially cut off from the rest of the country since civil war broke out in September last year.

Officials at the presidency and the office of Prime Minister Seydou Diarra were not immediately available for comment on the outcome of Tuesday's summit in Accra.

It was called to find a way of bringing the rebels back into the peace process. They walked out of Diarra's broad-based government of national reconciliation on 23 September in protest at what they called Gbagbo's refusal to implement in full the terms of the Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement and froze plans to disarm.

In particular, the rebels protested at Gbagbo's refusal to delegate effective power to ministers in Diarra's coalition government.The issue has also caused tension between Diarra, a former civil servant and politically neutral figure, and the head of state.

West African leaders were due to meet in Ghana on Tuesday to discuss the deadlocked peace process in Cote d'Ivoire, but diplomats and government officials played down earlier hopes of a dramatic breakthrough to prevent the country drifting back to civil war.

They said a previously mooted reconciliation meeting between Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, leaders of the rebel movement that controls the north of Cote d'Ivoire and the leaders of the country's main opposition parties, was unlikely to take place.

Instead, the sources said, Gbagbo would meet with the presidents of Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin. They would press him to implement in full a French-brokered peace agreement which he signed with the rebels in January.

"The accord already signed provides the best way forward for the Cote d'Ivoire peace process," a senior aide to Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo told IRIN in Lagos on Monday. "If they can get Gbagbo to move on the key issues, then it might be possible that an acceptable proposal can be made to the rebels."

But a government source in Burkina Faso, whose government is sympathetic to the Ivorian rebels, said he saw little chance of progress being made at the Accra summit.

He said Gbagbo had insisted that it be a meeting of heads of state only, with the various factional leaders of Cote d'Ivoire excluded, but Burkina Faso would not agree to any deal that saw them kept away from the negotiating table.

A spokesman for the Ivorian rebels, who are officially known as "The New Forces," told IRIN in the rebel capital Bouake on Monday that their leader, Guillaume Soro, would nevertheless be present in Accra on Tuesday.

Soro and the heads of the two main opposition parties in Cote d'Ivoire, former president Henri Konan Bedie of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) and former prime minister Alassane Ouattara of the Rally of Republicans (RDR), have been touring West African capitals over the past three weeks to explain their position to regional leaders.

However, the rebels, the PDCI and the RDR said on Monday they had so far not received formal invitation to the Accra summit.

A senior Ghanaian official told IRIN in Accra: "As far as I am aware this summit is for heads of state. Perhaps others might attend, but as of Monday, there has been no confirmation of their attendance."

Diplomats in Abidjan said France, which has 4,000 peacekeeping troops stationed in Cote d'Ivoire to keep the army and rebel forces apart, was pessimistic that the Accra summit would make progress in putting the increasingly sour peace process back on track.

Although Gbagbo signed the French-brokered peace agreement 10 months ago, he has never been happy with its terms. The president has consistently alleged that it gives too many concessions to the rebels who seized control of the north of Cote d'Ivoire shortly after the country plunged into civil war in September last year.

Mamadou Koulibaly, the speaker of parliament and a senior member of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party often voices the president's unspoken thoughts. He reiterated on Sunday that in his view the simple application in full of the Linas Marcoussis peace agreement, would not solve the crisis.

"You can't say Marcoussis or nothing," Koulibaly said in a debate on Ivorian state radio and television. Koulibaly, who has consistently been a hard line critic of both France and the rebels, said that in his view, the agreement signed on the outskirts of Paris "was not by its nature made to restore peace to Cote d'Ivoire."

He also made clear that the nub of the problem was a rebel demand that Gbagbo delegate effective powers to the broad-based government of national reconciliation headed by Prime Minister Seydou Diarra.

The rebels joined the coalition cabinet in April, but pulled out in frustration on 23 September and froze their plans to disarm.

Soro, the rebel leader, took the post of Minister of Communications. But when he tried to sack the head of state television after being mobbed by gangs of pro-Gbagbo youths during a visit to its headquarters in Abidjan in July, the president simply countermanded his orders.

Koulibaly said he remained dead against giving the government more powers. "Delegating power would in essence be a coup d'etat," he warned.

Meanwhile, Gbagbo has recently expressed concern about coup plotting within his own military establishment.

The government has denounced the existence of three separate plots to assassinate civic leaders and throw the country into turmoil over the past three months. And last Wednesday Gbagbo paid a surprise visit to the main barracks of the paramilitary gendarmerie in Abidjan to warn the garrison that it should ignore politicians who came whispering that it should take part in a military uprising against him.

Since then, Gbagbo has cautiously extended a couple of olive branches to his opponents. He met with Konan Bedie, the leader of the PDCI on Friday and a few hours later Alphonse Kossonou, a senior figure in the party, was released from jail after spending three weeks in detention on suspicion of plotting against the government.

And on Sunday, Gbagbo dispatched a special envoy to Burkina Faso to reassure President Blaise Campaore that the persecution of immigrants from other West African countries would come to an end.

Immigrants, mainly from Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, and their offspring, comprised 30 percent of Cote d'Ivoire's 16 million population before the outbreak of civil war last year. But the government suspected them of being pro-rebel and they have been subject to constant harassment ever since the conflict erupted. At least 350,000 Burkinabe have returned home since the civil war broke out.

Gbagbo's special envoy, Laurent Dona Fologo, said in Ouagadougou on Sunday night that the nationalistic notion of "Ivoirete" which gave rise to much of the persecution of immigrants, should be scrapped.

"The time has come to bury this monster and go back to the great sense of brotherhood and the great love of bygone days," he said in a live interview with Burkinabe state television..

Fologo also pleaded for flexibility when it came to implementing the Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement. "We have Marcoussis, our road map to peace, but which is not easy to implement," the special envoy said. "We need to implement its complexity with delicacy," he added.

There is no love lost between Burkinabe president Blaise Campaore and his Ivorian counterpart. Gbagbo has repeatedly accused Campaore of supporting the rebels. The Burkinabe government has meanwhile implicitly accused Cote d'Ivoire of backing a coup plot which led to the arrest of 16 people in Ouagadougou last month.

Ghanaian President John Kufuour, in his capacity as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) chaired two earlier meetings in Accra to try and resolve the Ivorian conflict, the first on 29 September 2002 and the second on 8 March this year. Tuesday's summit has been labeled "Accra III."

Although Cote d'Ivoire is expected to be the main focus of the meeting, it is also due to discuss the situation in Liberia. There are worries that gunmen made idle by the August peace agreement in Liberia may drift over the border to cause trouble in Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea.

Liberian militias fought for both the government and rebels in western Cote d'Ivoire earlier this year.

Further reports of violence and lawlessness emerged from the interior of Cote d'Ivoire on Thursday as hopes of saving the country's battered peace process at a West African summit next week grew slimmer.

A spokesman for the 4,000-strong French peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire told IRIN that four people had been found shot dead on Monday with their hands tied behind their back in an execution-style killing near the government-held town of Bangolo, 500 km from Abidjan in the troubled west of Cote d'Ivoire.

The town is close to the front line with rebel forces that occupy the north of the country.

Eyewitnesses meanwhile told an IRIN correspondent in the rebel-held north that at least 14 people had been shot dead in four days of fighting between rival factions of the rebel movement in the northern town of Ferkessedougou, near the frontier with Burkina Faso. The clashes followed a raid on two commercial banks in the town last Sunday.

Thousands of immigrant farmers from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali have been chased off their land since Cote d'Ivoire plunged into civil war in September last year and relief workers told IRIN on Thursday that the process was continuing near the southern government-held town of Gagnoa.

They said that between Saturday and Monday about 500 immigrant cocoa farmers were forced by gangs of youths to abandon their farms after refusing to join local cooperatives which would have paid them a low price for their beans.

They were currently sheltering at a temporary camp in Gagnoa, the relief workers said.

UN and West African diplomats are hoping that Cote d'Ivoire's peace process will be put back on the rails at a special summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the Ghanaian capital Accra next Tuesday.

President Gbagbo, Ivorian opposition leaders and the leaders of the "New Forces" rebel movement in the north are all due to attend the meeting. It has been called specially to try and prevent Cote d'Ivoire degenerating into renwed conflict 10 months after the signing of a peace agreement which has yet to be fully implemented.

The rebels joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April, but withdrew their nine ministers from its 41-member cabinet on 23 September in protest at Gbagbo's failure to delegate meaningful powers to the government, plunging the peace process into crisis.

Diplomatic moves since then to bring the rebels back into government and persuade them to start a delayed process of disarmament have been accompanied by a further souring of the political atmosphere.

Gangs of pro-Gbagbo youths prevented the circulation of all newspapers for two days last week after waylaying distribution vans to seize and burn opposition titles.

And on Tuesday the opposition Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) withdrew its seven ministers from the government.

Like the rebels and the opposition Rally of Republicans party of former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, the PDCI is frustrated by Gbagbo's delay in implementing a series of legal reforms called for by a peace agreement signed by all sides in January and his reluctance to delegate meaningful powers to ministers in the coalition government.

But the last straw for the PDCI was the arrest of Alphonse Kobenan Kossonou, a member of the party's political bureau last month. He has since been accused of attempting to destabilise the government and associating the criminals.

Eyewitnesses told an IRIN correspondent in northern Cote d'Ivoire that the trouble in Ferkessedougou began on Sunday after the rebel commander in the town, Moussa Kone, led a raid on the local branches of two banks, BICICI and SGBCI, but then failed to share the money stolen with his men.

The eyewitnesses said at least 14 people were killed in sporadic shooting between rival factions of the 200-strong rebel garrison in Ferkessedougou. This lasted until a delegation of senior rebel officials from Bouake, the rebel capital, arrived in the town on Wednesday to restore order.

The mission was lead by Messamba Kone, who until September was Minister for Displaced Persons, War Victims and Exiles, in the government of national reconciliation. The senior rebel officials relieved the local military commander of his duties and warned a meeting of all rebel fighters in the town that they would be disarmed if there were any further trouble.

During a visit to Ferkessedougou, the IRIN correspondent observed that many of the rebel fighters were addicted to sniffing solvents which they poured onto handkerchiefs all day and inhaled.

The Burkina Faso President, Blaise Compaori, will attend an extraordinary ECOWAS summit on Cote d'Ivoire next Tuesday in Accra, the Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Nana Akuffo-Addo said.

"The president has expressed willingness to be in Accra and do what he can to contribute to the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire," Akuffo-Addo told reporters after meeting Compaori in the Burkina capital, Ouagadougou on Wednesday.

"His presence and involvement are very important to the process," the minister added.

The proposed meeting follows weeks of intense diplomacy, during which Ivorian political and rebel leaders visited President John Kufuor in Accra, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in Dakar.

ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), which is organising the meeting, aims to reconcile Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and the rebel leaders to put Cote d'Ivoire's faltering peace process back on track.

Cote d'Ivoire accuses Compaori of backing rebels who seized control of northern Cote d'Ivoire after failing to topple Gbagbo in September 2002. Burkina Faso, which denies involvement, last month also arrested 16 alleged coup plotters and pointed fingers at its neighbour for supporting the alleged plotters.

The Ivorian rebels signed a French-brokered peace agreement in January and joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation. But they suspended their participation in the peace process on September 23, complaining that Gbagbo had failed to delegate sufficient powers to cabinet ministers, resulting in a stalemate.

"We are optimistic and continue to look for ways to bring back to the rails the stalled peace process in Cote d'Ivoire. We cannot sit down and continue to let the situation deteriorate," Akuffo-Addo said.

The minister was accompanied to Ouagadougou by the ECOWAS Executive Secretary, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who said the Accra meeting would focus on re-implementation of the Marcoussis Accord.

"We need to work on identifying the key things that need to be done in the context of Marcoussis and procedures to build these things," Chambas said.

Last Thursday, the Nigerian and Ghanaian presidents flew to Cote d'Ivoire to meet Gbagbo to discuss ways of ending a five-week-old stand-off with rebels and said afterwards they had made progress.

Kufuor told reporters after their talks at Abidjan airport with Gbagbo and Seydou Diarra, the Prime Minister of Cote d'Ivoire's broad-based government of national reconciliation: "We believe that what has transpired today will provide a cooling down period in the peace process".

"Des attaques de villages font monter la tension dans d'Ivoire une région cacaoyère"

Plusieurs centaines de Maliens et de d'Ivoire Burkinabé ont été contraints de fuir leurs domiciles après une vague d'Ivoire de pillage et d'incendies dans la région productrice de cacao de d'Ivoire Gagnoa, en Côte d'Ivoire, située à 300 km à l'ouest de la capitale d'Ivoire commerciale, Abidjan.

d'Ivoire Selon des sources humanitaires, les attaques lancées par des groupes d'Ivoire de jeunes ont duré trois semaines. Des témoins ont rapporté que tout d'Ivoire comme les Burkinabé et les Maliens, les Ivoiriens du Nord et ceux d'Ivoire provenant du Centre de la Côte d'Ivoire ont été également ciblés, d'Ivoire lésés de leurs récoltes et de leurs biens.

d'Ivoire La violence a été particulièrement extrême dans le village de d'Ivoire Mahinadopa, dans la région de Ouragahio, où environ 500 Maliens sont d'Ivoire rapportés en fuite depuis l'incendie de leurs cases et maisons. d'Ivoire Ouragahio est la région natale du Président Laurent Gbagbo, qui est d'Ivoire arrivé au pouvoir en Octobre 2000.

d'Ivoire Des sources sur le terrain ont signalé que les fugitifs ont trouvé d'Ivoire refuge dans un centre à Gagnoa. Les autorités locales ont rapporté d'Ivoire avoir demandé aux chefs traditionnels de les convaincre de repartir d'Ivoire dans leurs villages. Cependant des informations faisaient état de d'Ivoire jeunes gens hostiles qui bloquaient un quelconque retour.

d'Ivoire Selon les nouvelles parvenues de Gagnoa, les jeunes gens impliqués d'Ivoire dans les attaques ont révélé qu'ils étaient en colère, à cause du d'Ivoire refus des Maliens et Burkinabé de vendre leurs productions aux d'Ivoire nouvelles coopératives locales.

d'Ivoire Le quotidien ivoirien "24 HEURES", a avancé mardi, que de nouvelles d'Ivoire mesures "d'expropriation forcée" avaient été appliquées sur les d'Ivoire populations burkinabé, malienne et ivoirienne originaire du Nord, d'Ivoire notamment les Sénoufos et les Tagbanas, communément surnommés d'Ivoire Dioulas. Les planteurs de cacao de l' ethnie Baoulé, originaires du d'Ivoire Centre de la Côte d'Ivoire, ont également entretenu des relations d'Ivoire conflictuelles violentes dans le passé, avec les populations Bété de d'Ivoire l'Ouest.

d'Ivoire Il y a eu de nombreux échos de propriétaires terriens locaux d'Ivoire demandant des rentes plus élevées aux cultivateurs, soit 50,000 CFA d'Ivoire l'hectare ($90 US), bien qu'ayant vendu les mêmes lots des années d'Ivoire auparavant.

d'Ivoire La région de Gagnoa produit, en temps normal, le quart de la d'Ivoire production annuelle de Côte d’Ivoire, qui est de 1.2 millions de d'Ivoire tonnes. Cependant, les producteurs de cacao ont averti que la d'Ivoire production demeurait basse et alarmante.

d'Ivoire La violence autour de Gagnoa survient au moment où l'Etat prévoit de d'Ivoire rétablir l'administration dans l'Ouest. Le Premier Ministre Seydou d'Ivoire Diarra vient à peine d'autoriser l'envoi de 26 administrateurs dans d'Ivoire l'Ouest, mettant l'accent sur le besoin de mettre un terme à ces d'Ivoire tensions inter-communautaires, et la prompte résolution des d'Ivoire problèmes passés.

d'Ivoire La Côte d'Ivoire fait face à des problèmes politiques depuis d'Ivoire septembre 2002, lorsqu'une mutinerie de soldats a organisé une d'Ivoire tentative de coup d'état. Les soldats rebelles ont rebroussé chemin, d'Ivoire prenant le contrôle du Nord et de l'Ouest du pays. En janvier, ils d'Ivoire ont signé un accord de paix sous les auspices de la France, approuvé d'Ivoire par le Président Laurent Gbagbo. Ils ont ensuite rejoint un d'Ivoire gouvernement de large ouverture dit de réconciliation nationale en d'Ivoire avril.

d'Ivoire Les rebelles ont toutefois suspendu leur participation au processus d'Ivoire de paix le 23 septembre, accusant M. Gbagbo d’avoir refusé de d'Ivoire déléguer ses pouvoirs effectifs au gouvernement. La Communauté d'Ivoire Economique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO) a organisé un d'Ivoire sommet de réconciliation entre M. Gbagbo et les rebelles, le 11 d'Ivoire novembre, dans la capitale ghanéenne, Accra.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) has threatened to pull out of the government of national reconciliation established in January under the French-brokered Marcoussis peace accords.

More than six weeks after the withdrawal of the new forces from the government of Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, the PDCI's Secretary-General, Alphonse Djedje Mady, called on PDCI ministers to be ready to suspend their activities.

A source close to the Prime Minister's office said that the seven PDCI ministers had not been present at the last cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Djedje Mady told IRIN that the ministers were absent because they had been recalled for consultations with the PDCI's Political Bureau.

In a televised statement on Tuesday, Djedje Mady denounced what he described as the terror of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), the party of President Laurent Gbagbo. He accused the FPI of carrying out flagrant abuses of human rights, threatening members of his party and incitement to murder.

The last straw for the PDCI appears to have been the arrest and detention of Political Bureau member Alphonse Kobenan Kossonou, now accused of "attempted destabilisation, association with criminals and conspiracy". He was transferred to prison in Abidjan on Tuesday.

Kossonou's arrest coincided with the detention of 11 activists from another opposition party, the Rally of Republicans (RDR), all of whom were subsequently released.

Reacting to the PDCI's boycott threat, President Laurent Gbagbo said on national television on Tuesday: "Blackmail has become the principal way of life for certain political parties".

For years the PDCI dominated the political landscape in Cote d'Ivoire, first under President Filix Houphouet-Boigny and then under his successor, Henri Konan Bedii. The party still has the biggest block in parliament, with 98 seats.

But despite the party's strong warning about leaving the government, some observers believe the PDCI will stay in. The PDCI reportedly sent two of its senior members to Prime Minister Seydou Diarra to announce its withdrawal from the cabinet, but no such message was delivered.

The Marcoussis accords brought together the ruling party, other political parties and rebels who control the north of the country, to create government of national unity. But the rebels pulled out of the government accusing Gbagbo of failing to delegate effective power to the ministers.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has arranged a meeting between the warring parties in Ghana next Tuesday to try and kick-start the stalled peace process.

11 / 03 / 2003

IRIN

"More vandalism as newspaper distributors count cost of distribution ban"

Acts of vandalism continued against opposition parties in Cote d'Ivoire on Monday morning, while newspaper distributors counted the cost of last week s ban on the distribution of titles.

Edipresse, the company which has a monopoly on newspaper distribution in Cote d'Ivoire, confirmed a loss of CFA 40 million (US $73,000) as a result of distribution being halted on Friday.

Newspaper sellers stopped work on Friday after a series of violent incidents in the economic capital, Abidjan. According to Edipresse, some 17 daily papers were targeted, not counting weeklies. Ivorian papers have a circulation of between 7,000 and 26,000, the rates kept down by the high prices of papers, often CFA 200 (around 35 cents).

The campaign against newspaper distribution was widely blamed on the "Young Patriots", hardline supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo who have expressed strong opposition to the implementation of the Marcoussis accords brokered by France. But contacted by IRIN, the Young Patriots said they had never called for a campaign against the opposition press.

Edipress said there had been fresh attacks on Monday, with papers including Le Patriote and 24 Heures targeted by groups of youths in upmarket districts of Abidjan like Riviera II and Riviera Golf. According to the director of an independent newspaper, who declined to give his name, the ripping up of newspapers was accompanied by threats of violence against newspaper premises.

Newspaper directors and Edipress representatives met ministers at a specially convened meeting on Friday to discuss the newspaper problem. But an expected communiqui from the ministry of defence did not appear.

Newspaper offices contacted by IRIN said the rights of the readership had been scorned. Fraterniti Matin, the oldest state-owned daily in West Africa, said it had lost CFA Five million ($9,000) since Friday, leaving aside losses in advertising revenue and other areas.

The director of Le Patriote said the paper had lost CFA Three million ($5,500) from Friday's incidents.

The attacks in Abidjan had been preceded by other episodes. Copies of 24 Heures were recently ripped up while on sale in the port city, San Pedro.

Despite the recent difficulties, the Commercial Director of Edipresse, Roussel Lore, said he hoped the problems were over. "I am optimistic for the days ahead because this is just a fleeting moment in the Ivorian crisis".

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