Gbagbo's speech is expected tonight.  To many, this is the last chance for
CI to avert an all-out ethnic/religious war.  May the Almighty protect the
innocent.

Sidi Sanneh

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Ivory Coast Awaits President's Speech, Opposition to Accord Hardens

January 29, 2003
Posted to the web January 30, 2003

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton
Johannesburg

The people of Cote d’Ivoire are in a state of high anxiety as they await the
word from their president, Laurent Gbagbo, on the faltering peace accord
agreed last weekend in France.

First the Ivorian armed forces objected Tuesday to reports that the rebels
were to be given two key cabinet portfolios - defence and interior. Army
spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jules Yao Yao confirmed that senior military
officers met Gbagbo to voice their concerns. "We told him officially that
the army does not agree with certain elements of the peace agreement," said
Yao Yao.

On Wednesday it was the turn of leading political parties - including
Gbagbo’s governing Popular Front Party (FPI) and several others who had
signed the French-brokered deal in Paris. Cote d’Ivoire’s politicians are
also now saying they are opposed to giving the important defence and
interior ministries to the rebels, who first launched an uprising and failed
coup last September and still hold the north and parts of the west.

In a joint statement, the parties complained that: "The summit of (African)
heads of state, on its own authority, named the prime minister, dished out
the ministries and attributed the defence and interior posts" to the rebel
factions.

"This decision was taken against the letter and the spirit of the Marcoussis
accord," concluded the parties, referring to the venue of the
French-sponsored conference in Linas-Marcoussis in the outskirts of Paris.

Former president Henri Konan Bedie, who leads the Democratic Party of Cote
d’Ivoire (PDCI), echoed the collective statement and the reservations of the
security forces, giving his reasons for not wanting the rebels in the
government. "These are decisions that were taken by the heads of state, by
the great powers, to be more precise. The Ivorian political parties did not
have their say in the matter."

Although they say they cannot accept the rebels in government, the parties
say they are committed to power-sharing.

The Rally of the Republicans (RDR), the party of the main opposition leader
and former prime minister, Alassane Ouattara, did not put its signature to
the statement.

Rebel claims that they were to receive the sensitive cabinet posts have yet
to be confirmed officially. But Gbagbo told his supporters in the main city,
Abidjan, this week that much of what was being said in relation to the
accord was sheer speculation and rumour.

Confusion sparked by Gbagbo

Gbagbo sparked almost immediate confusion about the validity of the
agreement, on his return from Paris to Abidjan, Sunday, telling jittery and
enraged youths at his presidential palace: "Do not worry, the things that
were said [in Paris] were proposals". This was widely interpreted to mean
that the president was not ready to endorse the deal he had signed.

Paul Yao N’dre - Gbagbo’s interior minister who may lose his job under the
new coalition government of national reconciliation - is reported to have
told state television in Togo that the peace plan was now "null and void",
adding that to allow the rebels to join the government could "destabilise
the whole of the (West African) sub-region."

Everyone is awaiting his promised presidential address to the nation, to
explain his view of the accord. It was expected late Wednesday but
apparently delayed again, while the president continued his consultations.

France, the former colonial power, helped to mediate the peace package,
hosting the all-party Ivorian round-table negotiations to try to reach a
negotiated settlement on the deep roots of the problems in Cote d’Ivoire.
Paris hinted Tuesday that the ball lay now in Gbagbo’s court to ensure the
deal went ahead.

And as France prepared to evacuate its nationals from Cote d’Ivoire, the
French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin had this message Wednesday for
Gbagbo and other influential individuals. "Today everything depends on the
political courage of the Ivorian leaders. An agreement has been reached".

Villepin’s energetic shuttle diplomacy in West Africa was instrumental in
bringing the Ivorian warring factions together .

But pro-government supporters accuse Paris of pressuring Gbagbo into
accepting the peace plan, which they claim gives the rebels too much power
and too many concessions. There have been violent anti-French demonstrations
in Abidjan since Saturday by Gbagbo’s followers, enraged at the peace
settlement which, they believe, favours the insurgents and legitimises the
rebellion.

France has 2,500 troops in Cote d’Ivoire, monitoring the ceasefires agreed
between government and rebel forces but some French soldiers have had to be
redeployed to protect their embassy and military base and other French
interests, as well as French citizens.

Evacuation plans

Villepin said the evacuation of French citizens could be organised swiftly.
"Our soldiers in the area will able to do it very quickly. Of course we are
following the situation hour by hour and we will not hesitate to take such a
decision if the situation requires it."

The Cote d’Ivoire peace accord may well be a non-starter, amid so many
objections to the rebels entering the government in any form. The spokesman
of the main rebel Patriotic Movement of Cote d’Ivoire (MPCI), Guillaume
Soro, said this week that he hoped all parties would stand by the deal.

But Soro has accused Gbagbo of being two-faced: "I must say we are not
surprised by this double game and the doublespeak, because we knew he would
call these accords into question."

The agreement was witnessed in Paris by African leaders, the United Nations’
secretary general, the French president and the head of the European Union,
among other top-level dignitaries in Paris on Sunday.

But lining up the continental and international big guns to give added
credibility to the peace deal - and increase the pressure on all the parties
involved - may have backfired. France, the rebels and others are now being
blamed for putting forward proposals at the negotiations which were
unworkable back home in a bitterly divided Cote d’Ivoire.

If the agreement currently languishing in limbo collapses, then the prospect
of a return to war will again be a painful reality that the people of Cote
d’Ivoire must face.

Many Ivorians fear that a fresh outbreak of violence on Tuesday in
Agboville, 80km (50 miles) north of Abidjan - between rival political
supporters from different ethnic groups - may just be a taste of things to
come.

Churches and mosques were destroyed and as many as 12 people reported killed
in Agboville. The clashes between the local Abbey ethnic group and the
Dioulas -- Muslims from the north -- were reminiscent of the split between
the rebels, who control the predominantly Muslim north, and their government
rivals in the largely Christian and animist south.





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