Thank you for the ongoing update brother Mo. This is a very possibly volatile
situation and I just hope that teh government of President Gkagbo will stop
playing games and sign this cesae-fire before he finds that those trying to
make peace have given up on him, and which in turn will just lead to total
chaos.

Jabou Joh

n a message dated 10/12/2002 9:23:47 PM , [log in to unmask]
writes:


> 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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