BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Oct 18 (AFP) - Ivory Coast rebels, who launched an
uprising one month ago, agreed to a truce "to bring peace" to the country,
one of the leaders said late Friday.
   "It's so that peace can return to Ivory Coast, that's why we agreed to
sign this accord, because we have the human and material resources to carry
on with combat," Sergeant Sherif Usman told AFP late Friday in the rebels'
central stronghold of Bouake.
    "Among our troops, the men are informed, and the news was taken well
by  each at their level, it's just a problem of explaining so that everyone
knows why we're fighting," he said.
   "Our fathers, the heads of state (in west Africa) explained to us that
we  can achieve our goals through negotiations. We are convinced," he
added.
   "We are going to speak among Ivorians to find solutions to the Ivorian
crisis so that Ivorians are freed," he said.
   Asked about the reluctance of rebels on the ground to accept the accord,
Usman said, "The decision wasn't hard to explain to our men, because we're
fighting for freedom, justice and the establishment of democracy."
   "If we see that there's a path that could lead us to resolve these
problems, there's no difficulty in signing this kind of document and in
having it accepted," he said.
   All the rebels in Bouake gathered during the day to hear their leaders'
reasons for signing the deal. Some were skeptical and reluctant to sign on,
voicing deep mistrust of government which has not signed anything.
   The length of the ceasefire "will depend on the negotiations," he said.
   "We have always said that we were ready for negotiations," Usman said.
   "We're going to the negotiating table and we are going to respect the
accords that we signed, and we hope for positive results," he said.
   "It's out of respect for the people of ECOWAS, for the heads of state,
that we agreed to sign this document," he said.
   Mediators from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) brokered the deal, signed Thursday by the rebels and quickly
agreed to by President Laurent Gbagbo.
   The deal took effect at midnight Thursday.

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