ABIDJAN, Oct 12 (AFP) - Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo came under
mounting pressure Saturday to accept a ceasefire as rebels who have battled
his government for the past three weeks, held talks with regional
mediators.
The African Union (AU) called late Friday for an immediate ceasefire in
the west African nation and expressed its concern over the "serious
humanitarian consequences" of the crisis.
The AU's Central Organ for Conflict Prevention, Management and
Resolution -- akin to the UN's Security Council -- called in a statement
for "an immediate ceasefire", saying it "expresses its support for the
efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to end
the hostilities and create conditions conducive to resolving the crisis."
Nigeria's junior foreign minister, Dubem Onyia, said Friday that the
Ivory Coast government has no choice but to back the ECOWAS peace plan and
angrily accused Gbagbo's government of "playing games" with mediators.
"He has no option," Onyia told reporters. "The only other option is to
go to war, which would do nobody any good."
And, referring to an abortive mediation mission by ECOWAS mediators last
week, he said: "Before we went there the government had made no contact
with the rebels. They didn't even know who they are or where they are.
"Because we were able to feel their pulse and were able to identify them
and made contact with them the government used it to plan an attack on
them.
All the time the government was playing games with us."
The mediators drew up a ceasefire plan, but the government delayed
signing it three times, and on Sunday Gbagbo -- who had promised the
mediators the government would sign it -- declared he would sign a truce
only after the rebels had laid down their arms.
Onyia told Nigeria's Guardian newspaper Saturday that his government had
started evacuating its citizens from Ivory Coast, a few days after it
withdrew three fighter jets it had earlier sent to the troubled country.
They had been on standby in Abidjan to support any west African
peacekeeping force, envisaged as a buffer to keep the two sides apart
rather than backing up the government army.
Niger's parliament voted Friday to contribute 250 soldiers to any force,
and Benin announced on October 3 that it was ready to contribute 300
troops.
Onyia said 500 Nigerians had already been brought back home, the
Guardian reported.
The Ivorian presidency declared last weekend that the "war of
occupation" was "orchestrated and financed" by external and internal forces
and backed by "neighbouring countries", and the 4.5 million west African
immigrants in Ivory Coast fear for their lives after hate-attacks.
Hundreds of their shacks have been burnt down in Abidjan shantytowns,
and more than 4,000 Burkina Faso nationals have been chased out of their
homes in the central-western cocoa-growing region.
Several other west African countries have also drawn up plans to
evacuate nationals, and the United States has urged all its citizens --
close to 3,000 -- to leave Ivory Coast immediately.
Onyia, who was part of ECOWAS mediation team that met the Ivorian rebel
soldiers last weekend in the central city of Bouake, their headquarters,
described the insurgents as "disciplined and well-kitted soldiers".
The rebels "want a united Cote d'Ivoire", he added, using the French
name of the country.
"They sure have people behind them," said the minister who did not give
further details.
ECOWAS secretary general Mohamed Ibn Chambas was expected Saturday in
Ivory Coast to try to restart talks with the government.
Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheik Tidiane Gadio, whose country heads the
15-nation ECOWAS, was meeting separately with the army mutineers in Bouake,
and was understood to be carrying a new ceasefire proposal.
Rebel spokesman Tuho Fozie said late Friday that his group would meet
Gadio "out of politeness first, then to see what happens at the meeting,
what he wants to propose to us to seek a settlement of the crisis."
The rebellion broke out September 19 when army mutineers and soldiers
who returned from exile staged an uprising. They have since succeeded in
winning control over the north and center of Ivory Coast.
The United States has warned of a possible "meltdown" in Ivory Coast,
while the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) said it feared "a large-
scale humanitarian crisis" could ripple through the region.
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