In a message dated 12/27/99 7:11:02 AM Central Standard Time,
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<< CoteIvoire-France-refuse,2ndlead
Cote d'Ivoire strongman rejects French military build-up
ATTENTION - ADDS more from interview, background ///
ABIDJAN, Dec 25 (AFP) - New Cote d'Ivoire strongman Robert Guei refused
Saturday to allow France to send military reinforcements to the west African
country, telling AFP it would lead to bloodshed.
"We say 'no' to that," he said in a telephone interview.
The current force of some 550 French troops "is sufficient,"
General Guei
said.
France reinforced its garrison near Abidjan with 40 men Saturday to protect
its nationals in Cote d'Ivoire after the ouster of president Henri Konan
Bedie, who took refuge at the base, just beside the airport, the foreign
ministry announced in Paris.
A force of 300 more soldiers was due to fly into Dakar, Senegal, late on
Saturday, ready to deploy to Cote d'Ivoire if needed to protect French
residents in the former colony or undertake evacuations.
Guei, who was speaking after a meeting of senior officers called following
France's announcement, said that he would defend French interests and
guarantee the safety of foreign nationals.
He urged people with a "hidden agenda" to abandon their aims-an implicit
accusation that France wanted to restore Bedie by force, and reiterated that
he should leave Cote d'Ivoire as soon as possible.
"If he does not leave Cote d'Ivoire, the French ambassador will be
responsible for whatever happens," he warned, adding that the young army
mutineers who launched the uprising on Thursday "want to go and get" Bedie.
French authorities have made no demand since Friday's coup for Bedie's
restoration, calling simply for "the immediate re-establishment of order and
security in Abidjan."
A French diplomat in Abidjan told AFP the French were assuring Bedie's
security and were negotiating with the coup leaders on how best to evacuate
him, but Guei accused the French of foot-dragging.
The general on Saturday reiterated dusk-to-dawn curfew instructions-after
two nights of looting and sporadic gunfire in districts of the city-adding a
warning that those who violated it would be fired on without warning.
Bedie was overthrown on Friday when Guei, a former armed forces chief, took
power after a mutiny. He has set up a 10-man junta and urged opposition and
ruling Democratic Party politicians to engage in "consultations" to form a
"national unity government."
Forty French troops were transferred by helicopter from Libreville in Gabon
to the French base at Port-Bouet on the Abidjan lagoon, the French foreign
ministry announced.
Diplomatic sources said that 300 more reinforcements would be based at first
in Senegal, where they would be stationed in the base of the 23rd Marine
Infantry Battalion.
Officials in Paris indicated before Guei's interview with AFP that the
strongman had given his approval for the deployment of French troops and
also that lines of communication had been opened between French authorities
and those behind the coup.
Military experts said the reinforcement of French troops in the region and
eventually in Cote d'Ivoire itself was aimed at securing Abidjan's airport
should it prove necessary to evacuate foreigners.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne Gazeau-Secret said "all contacts necessary
to implement these measures have been made.".
The French regional deployment comes with the risk of destabilisation of one
of the pillars of Paris's influence in west Africa. Officials on Saturday
said that warnings of caution had been "repeated regularly" to French
nationals in Cote d'Ivoire, estimated at some 20,000.
Relations between France and the country, which was long seen as a model of
African democracy and relative economic powerhouse, have deteriorated in the
past few months because of differences between Bedie and would-be head of
state Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister and deputy director of the
International Monetary Fund.
Ouattara, seen as a serious challenger to the long-time rule of the
Democratic Party (PDCI), had sought to take on Bedie in elections next year,
but the ousted president's government barred him from standing on grounds
that he was not fully of Ivorian nationality.
Authorities close to Bedie claimed that Ouattara is Burkinabe and accused
him of fraud over his identity documents, but lawyers for the opposition
politician charged that the regime was manipulating judicial means to
political ends.
jng-hr/dc-nb/hn/gj
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