BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Oct 1 (AFP) - Rebels holding towns in the centre and
north of Ivory Coast aim to overthrow the government of President Laurent
Gbagbo, a rebel officer who said he was the insurgents' supreme commander
told journalists Tuesday.
"It is obligatory for us that we overthrow the regime of President
Gbagbo to restore justice, peace and equality among all the sons of Ivory
Coast," said the officer, who introduced himself at a press conference in
the rebel-held central city of Bouake under the nom de guerre of Lieutenant
Elinder.
He also called on French troops in Ivory Coast who deployed Tuesday to
block any southward move by the rebels to display "strict neutrality".
Another rebel leader, Warrant Officer Tuo Fozie (his real name),
declared that the rebels' demands were:
- the release of soldiers and paramilitary gendarmes being held in
prisons; - the reintegration into the armed forces of military in exile,
and compensation for them;
- the disbanding of a gendarmerie contingent now in the process of
being established "because it is based on ethnic recruiting".
Some soldiers and gendarmes loyal to military ruler General Robert Guei,
who seized power on Christmas Day, 1999, fled the country or were
imprisoned after he lost violence-wracked elections to Gbagbo 10 months
later.
Guei was killed in Abidjan on September 19, the first day of the
uprising, as loyalist troops put down the mutiny in the Atlantic coast city
at a cost of 270 dead and 300 wounded, by government count. The rebels
captured Bouake,Ivory Coast's second city, the same day, along with
Korhogo, the main town in the predominantly Muslim north. They have
captured other towns in the centre and north since then.
Elinder said that at certain points the French troops "are hampering our
progress, but we most definitely do not want to attack them".
"The message we would like to get through to our French brothers is that
for the moment we have confidence in them," he said.
"We don't want France to interfere in strictly Ivorian problems and we
ask our French brothers to maintain a strict neutrality."
He added that the rebels had no problem with the French troops
evacuating foreigners from rebel-held towns, which they have been doing
since the middle of last week, noting that the rebels had even assisted
with the evacuations from Bouake.
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