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Article 137 of Côte d'Ivoire's Code Pénal Americas | Europe | Africa | Asia-Pacific Global News Monitor

News Monitor Côte d'Ivoire 2002 (last updated Dec 14) Also News Monitor Cote d'Ivoire 2001

Côte d'Ivoire became a party to the Genocide Convention (Français) by accession on December 18, 1995.
Côte d'Ivoire became a party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 by succession on December 28, 1961 and ratified the Additional Geneva Protocols of 1977 on September 20, 1989.
Côte d'Ivoire signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Français) on November 30, 1998, but has not ratified the Statute.

IRIN 5 Feb 2002 West Africa; Regional Seminar On International Criminal Court The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held a three-day regional seminar last week in Abidjan on the statute of the International Criminal Court(ICC). The aim of the conference, attended mainly by senior officials of ECOWAS member states and law specialists, was to inform the regional experts on the role and purpose of the Court, its powers and its methods of operation, ICRC's regional office in Abidjan said in a statement. Participants were also briefed on the measures countries need to take to implement the statute of the Court. At the end of the conference, three recommendations were adopted, including one calling on those West African countries that have not ratified the court's statute to do so. Countries were also urged to implement measures to facilitate cooperation with the Court once it becomes effective, and to strengthen legislation prohibiting violations of international humanitarian law. Six of the 15 ECOWAS states - Benin, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone have ratified the statute of the proposed court. Eight others - Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Niger - have signed but not yet ratified, ICRC said. Togo has done neither. The statute of the ICC was adopted in Rome on 17 July 1998. According to ICRC, 49 countries have so far ratified it. It will come into force two months after its 60th ratification. The ICC will judge those deemed most responsible for violations of international law including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Reuters 26 Jun 2002 New flames of ethnic violence flare in Ivory Coast By Matthew Tostevin DALOA, Flames leapt skywards from a burning market in Ivory Coast's town of Daloa on Wednesday as security forces fought to control ethnic and political clashes that have left at least three dead. The violence at the midwestern town was the worst for more than a year in the West African country, which has been trying to regain its balance since a 1999 coup destroyed its reputation for stability in a poor and troubled region. Some hideously burnt, others shot, stabbed or beaten, the injured continued to trickle into Daloa's hospital after clashes that flared on Tuesday during a rally by the ruling Ivorian Popular Front ahead of July 7 district elections. The violence has brought back to the surface Ivory Coast's old bitterness dividing the tribes of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara in the largely Muslim north from those of the more heavily Christian and animist south. As Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou tried to broker a peace between the rivals at a parley in the town hall on Wednesday, a gang of youths set ablaze market stalls held by Dioula tribe traders from the north. "The Bete (tribesmen) came armed with machetes and cans of petrol. Nobody was there to stop them because people had fled in the fighting," said Meite Abou, a northerner, as men fought to stop the flames from reaching a nearby petrol station. Officers of the paramilitary gendarmerie reported continuing disturbances in Daloa and the surrounding villages, at the heart of the cocoa-growing belt in the world's biggest producer. SHOOTINGS, STABBINGS, RAPES A government fighter jet made repeated passes over Daloa. According to officials, at least three people have been killed -- two shot and one stabbed repeatedly until he died -- but residents said they saw two more on the streets with throats slashed. They also said many women had been raped. Boga Doudou said he would order a curfew for at least two days but did not specify from which hours. Asked what was to blame for the clashes, he replied simply: "Intolerance". As a town with large populations from both sides of the divide, Daloa is an obvious flashpoint. "They jumped on us just after we left the hospital, where I had taken my father because he was ill," said Digbeu Desire, a Bete tribesman like President Laurent Gbagbo, his shirt torn and darkened by blood. Plasters covered many cuts and bruises. "The Dioula beat us savagely until we could reach the barricades where the Bete protected us," he said. Tension has been building ahead of the July elections for district councillors, the first ballot since a series of elections to end army rule in late 2000 and early 2001 during which at least 300 died in political and ethnic violence. Then, trouble was brought to boiling point by a court ban on Ouattara, a former prime minister who was barred from contesting presidential and parliamentary elections. Courts ruled that his roots lay in Burkina Faso like those of millions migrant workers. He said it was a ploy to exclude him from power in the former French colony of about 16 million. Ouattara's supporters now accuse the government of trying to stop them from voting next month by changing the rules on who is eligible to allow only those with an official identity card -- something they say few hold. The government says it has nothing to do with the elections since they are the responsibility of an independent electoral commission. Unhappy that Ouattara has not yet been granted nationality papers despite official hints he would get them, militants of his Rally of the Republicans are planning a march for July 9 which many Ivorians fear will lead to more violence. An Interior Ministry spokesman said Boga Doudou would meet party leaders on Thursday to discuss the situation.

NYT 1 Oct 2002 Ethnic Clenching: Misrule in Ivory Coast By NORIMITSU ONISHI ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Sept. 30 — The conflict that has gripped this country for almost two weeks has its source in xenophobic policies unleashed nine years ago by the death of Félix Houphouët-Boigny. He was the autocrat who made Ivory Coast into one of Africa's most stable countries, keeping close links with France and emphasizing ethnic harmony in a region with sharp divisions. When he went, so did his vision. In the decade since, the three men who have led Ivory Coast have differed greatly, except on one front: all three have used ethnic and religious differences to gain and keep power, at the expense of national stability. The three leaders, Christians from the south, saw the cold numerical reality that they were outnumbered by Muslims from the north. So they invented a logic, called "ivoirité," which held that the southerners were the only pure Ivoirians. Over the years, through one ploy or another, the leaders made sure that Alassane D. Ouattara, a popular northerner who would almost surely have carried a general election, was disqualified from running for president. They said he was a phony Ivoirian, a citizen from neighboring Burkina Faso, even though he had once served as Mr. Houphouët-Boigny's prime minister. Under the politics of xenophobia, ordinary northerners began facing daily harassment from the authorities, including the police and military. Northerners were removed from positions of power in the security forces, or shunted aside. In large part it is these disaffected soldiers who rose up in three cities two Thursdays ago. And today the country's ethnic and religious divisions are physically manifest. Ivory Coast is split in half. The rebel soldiers control the north and the government clings to the south. So far, President Laurent Gbagbo's government has rejected any suggestion that internal problems may have caused the uprising. To do so would, of course, mean acknowledging misguided ethnic policies. At first the government said the uprising stemmed from a failed coup by the former military ruler, Gen. Robert Gueï, who during the unrest was killed with a bullet through the head. Then, through its media, the government shifted the blame to Mr. Ouattara and the president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré. The rebels were branded terrorists. At a meeting of West African leaders in Accra, Ghana, on Sunday, Abdoulaye Wade, the president of Senegal, who is known for his blunt talk, seemed to dismiss the Ivoirian government's explanation. "It was not a coup d'état," he said. "It was not a mutiny. It is a group of military — former military, including officers — who have taken up arms to make a number of demands." What Mr. Wade left unsaid, at least this time, was how the government's policies had pushed those soldiers and others to such a desperate act. Last year he was not so reserved on the subject, asserting that a native of Burkina Faso faced more discrimination living in Ivory Coast than an African living in France. The Ivoirian government's policies were condemned throughout West Africa, though more discreetly. On a continent with poorly educated, easily manipulated people, many believe that talk of ethnic purity opens a Pandora's box leading to catastrophes like the Rwandan genocide. In Nigeria, generals held power for years, partly by arguing that politicians would inflame ethnic and religious divisions for selfish goals. Since Nigeria was handed over to civilian politicians in 1999, about 10,000 Nigerians have been killed in ethnic and religious clashes fueled by politicians, more than at any other time in the country's history. West African leaders may feel little genuine sympathy for the Ivoirian government's present predicament. But given its regional importance, they quickly agreed in Accra on Sunday to send mediators and perhaps, eventually, a peacekeeping force. "A threat to Ivory Coast is a threat to all of us," said President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the country that would almost certainly dominate any regional peacekeeping force. During the glory years under Mr. Houphouët-Boigny, Western and African tourists flocked to Abidjan, the so-called Paris of Africa, where they could go to the Hôtel Ivoire and skate on its ice rink. The hotel so impressed Mobutu Sese Seko, the ruler of Zaire, that he had a similar one built in Kinshasa (albeit without the rink). In the Ivoirian capital, Yamoussoukro, tourists visit Notre Dame de la Paix basilica, which is bigger than St. Peter's in Rome. But since a coup in 1999, instability has become part of everyday life here. Soldier mutinies have occurred every few months. Restaurants and clubs have had to factor in periodic curfews. The Gbagbo government has pursued the politics of ethnic exclusion. Tourists have scratched the country off their lists. The ice at the Hôtel Ivoire rink has melted. And what used to be one of Africa's most stable countries may soon witness the arrival of the West African intervention force — the same one deployed in recent years in failed states like Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Prévention Génocides (Belgium) 3 Oct 2002 Release Ivory Coast , A Crisis Foreseen The Ivory Coast is now undergoing an attempted coup d’état that has cost numerous deaths. The situation is worsening and becoming more complex each day. Some observers are warning of another Rwanda. For more than two years, the non-governmental organization (NGO), Prévention Génocides, based in Brussels, Belgium, has attempted to call attention both to Ivorians and to Western policy makers, of the dangers of ethnic, xenophobic identity politics that has developed for a dozen years during the Ivorian economic crisis. A film was produced entitled, "Ivory Coast, An Explosive Identity Crisis". Paradoxically, this alert got more attention in Ivory Coast than in Belgium and the West. The film was broadcast on Ivorian television in August 2001 and provoked a debate in the press. Steps of the original analysis Our involvement began in October 2000. A team of sociologists of our NGO was sent to the Ivory Coast . Field research was carried out including hundreds of in depth interviews at many levels of the society and in many geographical regions. An analysis of recorded narratives, testimony, and images by Spring 2001 resulted in a clear diagnosis: Ivorian society is undermined by several crises: A crisis of the political elites: a battle among four leaders ( Bédié, Guéi, Ouattara and Gbagbo ) has rocked the political life of the country for ten years and has often led to petty tactical calculation to gain or preserve power at the expense of the long-term goals of development. Corruption has also undermined the foundations of the rule of law. A crisis of finances of the Ivorian state due primarily to the fall of the price of cacao, and the suspension of certain international assistance in light of evidence of massive theft of subsidies from the European Fund for Development in the health sector. A deep identity crisis. For almost ten years the concept of "ivoirité" ("ivorianess") was fabricated by politicians in search of legitimacy. An ideology and propaganda directed by those in power created, little by little, in the social imagination two identity groups: the "100 percent Ivorians" from the "roots"; and the "dubious Ivorians, " of whom the leader is Alassane Ouattara, leader of the opposition RDR (former prime minister of Houphoët Boigny.) He was excluded from elections for his "dubious Ivorianess." Besides him, his whole community is targeted. Beyond his own community, there is a linkage of "dubious Ivoirians" with foreigners. An equation is readily made: Ouattara = RDR militants = people of the north = Muslims = Dioulas = foreigners. In these representations, the cleavage "us versus them" is deeply embedded. There is nothing "natural" about such images. They are socially constructed. In Ivory Coast , there is the desire to portray one part of the inhabitants as not belonging to the political community. It is the place of birth, the village, and blood that count. This is the logic of a political elite. It is a politicization of identity to gain or maintain power. It is an ideology founded on purity of identity determined by origin. It is a paradox that such an illusion of identity founded on blood, on a myth of a common past, appears in particularly mixed societies, thereby including some and excluding others. It is said of a naturalized Ivorian whose family has lived in the country for many generations,"It is not because of his papers that he is Ivorian." Thus the culture is "naturalized." It becomes, as the sociologist Michel Wieviorka says, a sort of "genetic" attribute that one acquires at birth and that one cannot acquire otherwise. This is the idea of "essence." It is why in the Ivory Coast , certain people call themselves "100 percent Ivorian" of multisecular origin. It is this way that collective life is deeply racialized and ethnicized. It leads to practices of apartheid, of forced emigration, and finally of ethnic cleansing. A second aspect of this ideology and propaganda is the self-perceived victimization of the "true Ivorians." They are would-be victims of the RDR, the Dioulas, the foreigners, the foreign press, etc. Stereotypes are durably fixed in people’s minds and feed their hatreds. These social markings are powerful. The propaganda feeds fear and hatred of the "other", perceived as impure and threatening. Humiliations, extortions, and discriminations are daily. They constitute social landmines, and the smallest thing can make them explode. The virus of origins and the powderkeg The Ivory Coast appears to us to be a veritable powderkeg. Most of the elements that preceded the conflagrations like the ethnic cleansings in Bosnia and Kosovo or the Rwandan genocide are present. These are what we call the "constants." Among the most important of these is the policy of manipulating identity and ethnicity. We are not determinists. On the contrary, we are convinced like the writer Gilles Deleuze, that history has forks in the road, and we think that even if the probability of a crisis is only one in a hundred, one must do everything to avoid it. On the strength of this sociological analysis, and despite acts of intimidation by certain Ivoirian groups, we have attempted to deliver our message of prevention and alert. We have notably pled for a substantial augmentation of the aid to the Ivory Coast . (We have often called publicly for a Marshall Plan for the Ivory Coast .) This aid should be directed to new socio-cultural conditions in addition to the classical criteria of good government and respect of formal rights. For example: judgment of those responsible for ethno-political crimes, such as the perpetrators of the mass grave at Yopougon, because impunity always feeds the spiral of desire for vengeance; condemnation of the concept of "ivoirité" (Ivorianess); promotion of multiculturality, development of a politics of integration, etc. Along with good government and formal democracy, addressing these new social dimensions would reverse the logic of hatred and rejection of the "other". Prevention: Mission Impossible? In doing this, we have been confronted with difficulties in the work of prevention and in alerting Western decision makers. This situation presents the following obstacles to awareness: How can one act when very little has happened so far? The regime of Laurent Gbagbo has launched several initiatives for reconciliation, including a forum held in Autumn 2001. Why not let oneself be convinced that the Ivory Coast is taking the route of pacification, because that is the line of Ivorian opinion leaders? Based on our sociological analysis of the Ivorian culture (the images of self and of others, the relationship to the world, to time and space), we remain convinced that the conditions for long-term reconciliation have not yet come together. Without them, reconciliation will be reduced to an arrangement at the top, which can only leave buried the seeds for future conflict. As Claudine Vidal (CNRS, specialist on the Ivory Coast ) has noted, "the political action of the principal leaders is entirely oriented toward the 2005 presidential elections, without addressing the fundamental conflicts that divide the society." (Le Monde, 27 September 2002) The blindness of the Western lenders In reality, international lenders are content to condition the resumption of aid, notably that of the European Union, upon economic structural adjustment (privatization) and formal political reforms. It is a sign of short-term memory. Collette Braeckman, journalist for the Brussels newspaper "Le Soir" and recognized internationally as an expert on Africa, reminds us in her interview at the end of the film, "Ivory Coast, An Explosive Identity Crisis" that in Rwanda, the Arusha Accords, praised by Western foreign ministries as a decisive step for reconciliation, preceded the genocide by only a few months. The fundamental problem is to understand the reality of a society, of its dynamics, in order to deduce the role that international aid can play. The sociological task attempts to understand the rationality of individual or collective actions. It analyzes representations, beliefs, values, and social discourse that determine the social behavior of actors as functions of the results they expect. For a sociologist, abstract collective entities such as the state, the nation, the law, or the school have no autonomous existence by themselves, but can only be understood according to the representations of actors, even when these abstractions are the objects of proceedings by jurists or diplomats. A powderkeg and the pyromaniacs Today, in the light of the sparks from the fire, we see that the risks that we pointed out yesterday, are unfortunately becoming realities. Listening to the speeches of political leaders and reading the press, one is led to conclude that the fragile reconciliation process is dead. More than ever, fear and hatred of the other are manufactured. Old stereotypes are again dominant. Everything is to be done again. If only the worst could be avoided! What is to be done? As administrators and directors of the NGO, "Prévention génocides" : We earnestly and strongly call upon all Ivorians (political, press, and leaders of civil society) to voluntarily abstain from any act that could accentuate the ethnicization of the conflict. This often results from speech that is indirect but damaging. For example, When Alassane Ouattara reported that "the police who came to assassinate me spoke the Bété language," his words could be perceived as suspicion cast upon the whole ethnic group of his rival, the president Gbagbo. When the President called on television for the "cleansing of the neighborhoods" and the press of his party cited explicitly Burkina Faso as an invader of the Ivory Coast , such statements could appear as encouragement of ethnic cleansing of Burkinans living in the country. They are about three million out of sixteen million inhabitants ! Passing from these words to deeds, the police have burned many Abidjan shantytowns whose population is mostly of foreign origin. All references to individual acts can in this context lead to the collective: it is the whole group that is immediately designated for popular revenge, if not for massacres. The most xenophobic Ivorian press fans the flames, accusing pell-mell the Western media, neighboring African countries, opposition parties, and foreigners on Ivorian soil of wanting to destroy the country. They are thus putting in place all the conditions necessary for a large-scale conflagration. We ask the international community to quickly conceive an integrated plan for the support of the Ivory Coast in order to create conditions for long-term reconciliation. We reiterate our call for criteria of good government and formal democracy to be well-suited to socio-cultural conditions in the Ivorian context. Without this intervention, the worst-case scenario is to be feared. If the calls for xenophobic and ethnic hatred do not stop and if, on the contrary, politicians continue to exploit ethnicity, the following may occur: Massive emigration of a major part of the three million Burkinans living in Ivory Coast to their country of origin. For Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries on earth, this would be a catastrophe; they would be inassimilable because of incapacity to receive, much less to feed, such an influx of refugees. An essential resource of its fragile economy would disappear – financial transfers from its citizens working in Ivory Coast . The economy of the Ivory Coast would probably be heavily affected by the brutal disappearance of such a large number of laborers essential to the survival and vitality of its economy. Consequences for Ivorian society would be frightening: virulent ethnic hate speech, growing rancor, search for economic scapegoats, and social catastrophe that could lead straight to civil war. Contrary to what is sometimes prophesied, this will not be a "simple" war of secession between North and South. Many religious and ethnic groups of the Ivory Coast are present in each city, village, neighborhood, and courtyard of the country, as intricately inter-related as are the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda. A civil war in Ivory Coast would soon turn into thousands of local pogroms, and if there were secession, it would come at a price of mass forced displacements of the population as occurred in India and Pakistan. The dissolution of the state and the rule of force that would follow could only lead the Ivory Coast into a situation like Sierra Leone or Liberia, with all the predictable effects on the stability of the sub-region, of which the Ivory Coast is the economic heart (40 percent of the GDP of the West African Economic Community). Brussels, 3 October 2002

News 24 SA 4 Oct 2002 Ivory Coast's demons are back Abidjan - Ivory Coast's ethnic demons are coming back to haunt it, two weeks after a rebellion, which has seen mostly Muslim rebels from the north - soldiers who had fled into exile, and mutineers - seize half the west African cocoa-producing nation. The demons, some let loose by former leaders, are national identity, xenophobia, tribal tensions, and animosity between the predominantly Muslim and animist north and the mostly Christian south. President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who ruled from independence from France in 1960 until his death in 1993, was able to keep the demons bottled up, but they emerged triumphant as soon as he was gone. President Laurent Gbagbo, a Christian from the southwest, set up a National Reconciliation Forum towards the end of last year in a bid to end several years of political violence, but it manifestly failed to bring Ivory Coast's disparate population of 16 million together. The country is now cut in half, with the rebels controlling part of the centre and the whole of the north, from Guinea to Ghana, while the loyalist army controls the south and the Atlantic seaboard. The two sides were due on Friday to sign a ceasefire as a prelude to examining the rebels' grievances. The last census, in 1995, which gave Ivory Coast a population of 15 million (it is estimated to have increased by a million since then), showed that close to a third of the population - 4.5 million - were foreign-born. Most of the "foreign Ivorians" were immigrants who had come from nearby west African states to work. Houphouet-Boigny encouraged the migrants to come to Ivory Coast to work in the cocoa plantations - under his rule, the country became the world's biggest producer, now exporting 40% of the world total - or to set up businesses. He gave them land, government jobs, and the right to vote. In 1990, Gbagbo, running against Houphouet-Boigny in presidential elections, contested that policy, accusing the president of using the foreigners as "electoral fodder". But it was Houphouet-Boigny's successor as president, Henri Konan Bedie, who campaigned from 1995 for the concept of "Ivorianness" - excluding foreigners, and Ivorians with foreign roots, from the mainstream. That explosive concept quickly saw Muslim immigrants from countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali make common cause with their "brothers" in the north of Ivory Coast. In many cases they were ethnic Dioulas, from a tribe that spreads across half a dozen countries in the region. In recent years, conflict between locals and immigrants over land has become a major problem, particularly in the southwest, leading to thousands of Burkinabes being displaced, and some of them killed. Even if the rebels advance south into territory controlled by Houphouet-Boigny's tribe, the Bouale, its political and military heart will remain in the north. Some pro-government newspapers in Abidjan are fanning the flames by describing leading opposition figure and former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, a Muslim Dioula from the northern town of Kong who has taken refuge with the French ambassador in Abidjan, as a Burkinabe. The rebels are making it clear they are fed up with such discrimination. "We're sick of being described as Malians, as Burkinabes," said one. "We're Ivorians, like everybody else. Enough is enough." Dozos, a hunter caste renowned for their markmanship, and reputed to have mystical powers, are also fighting alongside the rebels. Abidjan has long accused Ouattara of using Dozos as a private army. A diplomat in Abidjan opined that the current crisis was a clear posthumous indication of the role "the old man", as Houphouet-Boigny was respectfully known, played during his 33 years in power. "He alone, like Tito in Yugoslavia, was capable of keeping the country united." Ouattara, whose nickname, from his initials, is ADO, took refuge with the French ambassador during the first day of the uprising, with the blessing of the government. Defence Minister Moise Lida Kouassi warned at the time: "If anyone touches a single hair on ADO's head this country will explode." Since then, many of the officials of Ouattara's Rally of Republicans party have been arrested and others are in hiding, as the security forces, officially hunting down rebels, have stormed into shantytowns inhabited largely by migrants, where they have burnt down hundreds of shacks. The Burkinabes and other foreigners are now the best customers of the vendors selling rosettes in the Ivorian colours of orange, white and green - wearing their "patriotism" on their lapels. - Sapa-AFP

AFP 7 Oct 2002 Ivory Coast president snubs peace efforts Jacques Lhuillery Posted Mon, 07 Oct 2002 Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has not only angered West African mediators by snubbing their attempts to broker a ceasefire with rebel soldiers but also clearly demonstrated that he is now in war mode. The embattled Gbagbo, whose government has been struggling with an army rebellion which has claimed the lives of some 400 people and seen half the country fall into rebel hands, on Sunday spurned mediation attempts after dragging his feet for a week. Going against the counsel of senior regional ministers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who had been advocating prudence and a truce, Gbagbo now appears to have burnt his bridges. The army uprising, which began on September 19, shows no sign of abating and all-out war seems the only option left. Signing of peace pact deferred The rebels are bent on toppling Gbagbo, whose regime they say fosters a policy of discrimination against the Muslim-majority population of northern Ivory Coast. The ECOWAS-brokered ceasefire accord was due to be signed on Friday but was deferred as both sides examined the fine print. On Saturday, the Ivorian government failed to send a document authorising a military official to sign the pact on Gbagbo's behalf. On Sunday, Gbagbo finally spelt out the truth: he was not signing the pact because his was a "legitimate" government which could not be put on a par with rebels. He said the rebels had to disarm before any pact was signed. Mediators furious at Gbagbo’s refusal to sign The ECOWAS mediators were furious. Drawn from about half a dozen countries, they immediately packed their bags and left, without attending a dinner hosted by Gbagbo. Gbagbo on Sunday claimed that the ECOWAS mediators had "moved away" from the tenets of an ECOWAS emergency summit in the Ghanaian capital Accra on September 29, where it decided to despatch mediators to broker peace and to send regional peace keepers to act as a buffer force between government troops and rebels. "It's totally false, it's a lie!", a minister from the ECOWAS contact group exclaimed as he left the Ivorian presidency. Gbagbo “open to dialogue” – aide However, an aide to Gbagbo said the Ivorian president "is open to dialogue and is not opposed in principle to a cessation of hostilities," but parroted the line that ECOWAS mediators "must know that legitimacy is on the side of Laurent Gbagbo." The president's stance has upset local politicians. A leading politician said he feared the crisis could assume "dangerous" ethnic proportions. Crisis takes on ethnic overtones Ivory Coast's state television on Sunday, in an echo of "hate-radio" Mille Collines in Rwanda during the genocide there, said the "key to victory" against rebel soldiers who have overrun half the country lay in expelling immigrants from neighbouring Burkina Faso. "According to a 1998 census, Burkinabes represent 50 percent of foreigners living in Ivory Coast with 2.3 million individuals," the journalist said. Ivory Coast has blamed a regional "rogue state" for the military uprising which has effectively split the country into Muslim-dominated north and Christian-dominated south. An Ivorian daily has directly fingered neighbouring Burkina Faso, a charge Ouagadougou denies.

AFP 10 Oct 2002 Ivory Coast rebels rule out ceasefire, want transitional government KORHOGO, Ivory Coast, Oct 10 (AFP) - Rebels in Ivory Coast believe a ceasefire with the government army is now out of the question, and want President Laurent Gbagbo to quit to make way for a transitional government, an insurgent commander declared Thursday. Warrant Officer Messamba Kone, the rebel chief in Korhogo, the main town in the Muslim-dominated north of the west African nation, said he had agreed on these aims with Master Sergeant Tuho Fozie, a rebel commander in the central city of Bouake, during a telephone conversation Thursday. "What interests us from now on is the liberation of Ivory Coast, with a transitional government," he told AFP. "Our principal concern now is the reconconstruction of Ivory Coast, so that anyone who wants to can contest democratic elections." The rebels had earlier said they were open to a ceasefire. Gbagbo told west African mediators last week that he would sign one, and then negotiate with the rebels on their grievances, but reneged on that pledge on Sunday, saying he would not put his elected government on a par with the insurgents. The rebels, former soldiers who have returned from exile, and mutineers, want an end to discrimination against northerners. Kone confirmed rebel plans to launch a general offensive as the uprising enters its fourth week. The insurgents hold the entire north and key towns in the centre, west and east. "We shall attack simultaneously on several fronts, including the town of Daloa," Kone said, adding that the rebels were just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Daloa, a strategic crossroads town in the western cocoa-growing region. Ivory Coast produces 40 percent of the world's cocoa crop, and prices have shot up to 17-year highs on fears that the imminent harvest will be disrupted. Foreign journalists in Korhogo saw men and weapons leaving the northern town Thursday. Rebels said they were headed for Daloa. An AFP correspondent in Korhogo also saw around 100 young men enrolling in rebel ranks. \

Xinhua 11 Oct 2002 WFP launches emergency operation in Cote d'Ivoire LAGOS, Oct 11, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) - The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Friday said the agency launched an emergency operation in Cote d' Ivoire to address pending "large-scale humanitarian crisis." Btu Arnold Vercken, deputy WFP directory general for west Africa, told a press conference here that the agency's normal operations would be replaced by the emergency program in the troubled country, where more than 300,000 people, mostly children, have been receiving WFP food. Vercken said that the priority is helping people coming south from rebel-held areas and foreigners who had been attacked. There was heavy fighting this week around rebel stronghold of Bouake during two days of failed assaults by government troops. The International Committee of the Red Cross said up to 150,000 people had left the strategic central city of Bouake since fighting erupted after a failed coup three weeks ago. The WFP said it was looking at what it could do in the event of massive movements of people within west African region, which has been already racked by hundreds of thousands of refugees from wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The security situation in Cote d' Ivoire is becoming increasingly volatile as thousands of terrified people were on the move in the west African country on Friday. The rebel soldiers, who are holding about half of the world's largest cocoa-producing country, have extended their control in the north by holding a string of towns in the center, north and west since they launched a rebellion on Sept. 19. A diplomatic mission launched by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) collapsed earlier this week after President Laurent Gbagbo refused to agree to a ceasefire. However, Gbagbo is facing increased pressure to seek a negotiated settlement to the crisis. The ECOWAS has said that it will try and revive negotiations between the government and rebels. ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas is to travel to the country on Saturday. Meanwhile, Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio is in Cote d'Ivoire on a new mediation mission and is hoping to meet rebel leaders in the second largest city of Bouake, on Friday. France, the former colonial power in Cote d' Ivoire which has sent logistical and military assistance as well as more than 1,000 troops, has urged Gbagbo to sign a ceasefire with the rebels. The rebellion has plunged Cote d' Ivoire into its worst crisis since its independence from France in 1960 and has claimed hundreds of lives and wounded thousands of people.

Reuters 11 Oct 2002 Frightened civilians flee in Ivory Coast By Silvia Aloisi BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Thousands of terrified people were on the move in Ivory Coast on Friday after rebels vowed to press on with a revolt that has sent prices for the cocoa beans used to make chocolate spiralling higher. In a country poisoned by years of ethnic hate, the three-week-old war has sharpened divisions between the mostly Christian south, the Muslim north and immigrants who make up a quarter of the West African country's 16 million people. The rebels, who hold most of the north, were expected to meet later on Friday with a new regional negotiator, Senegal's Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, but there was little sign the latest mediation effort would fare better than the last. "There is no more ceasefire to negotiate," one rebel, Cherif Ousmane, told reporters in the stronghold of Bouake, the biggest city after the coastal business hub Abidjan 360 km (225 miles) to the south, where President Laurent Gbagbo is based. "We're going to tell him to tell Gbagbo to resign before we march on Abidjan," he added. Gbagbo's forces launched a major offensive this week but failed to capture Bouake. They have said they are keeping to their positions to allow the rebel Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast to consider a government offer of talks if they disarm. But Cherif ruled out freezing the front line, saying: "While we're talking, if we can advance, we will advance". THOUSANDS FLEE ETHNIC ATTACKS Thousands of people have fled their homes in Bouake and in the main cocoa growing region further west, fearing more ethnic bloodshed after several people were burned to death this week. French troops helped foreigners escape from behind rebel lines and the International Committee of the Red Cross says up to 150,000 people have fled Bouake, a city of over 500,000 that is running short of food three weeks after a failed coup. The U.N. World Food Programme said it was looking at what it could do in the event of massive movements of people within a region already burdened by hundreds of thousands of refugees from wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The conflict has fed a tide of nationalism in Ivory Coast, increasing ethnic tensions. Gbagbo has urged an end to a wave of attacks on immigrants, but foreign relations remain tense. "If the abuses and humiliations suffered by our compatriots in Ivory Coast should continue despite our repeated appeals, the people of Burkina Faso and its government are prepared for any eventuality," Prime Minister Paramanga Ernest Yonli of Ivory Coast's northern neighbour Burkina Faso said on Thursday. Millions of Burkina Faso nationals live in Ivory Coast, providing labour to the world's biggest cocoa industry. In the western region where most beans are grown, at least 5,500 immigrants, mostly from Burkina Faso, have fled farms after attacks by locals who accuse them of backing the rebels. Benchmark London cocoa futures neared 17-year highs on Thursday as rebels advanced to just 30 km (20 miles) from the key industry town of Daloa. Traders said cocoa shipments had already been disrupted since fighting began on September 19. Some of the rebels are soldiers who say they were unfairly kicked out of the army. But they also complain of ethnic discrimination and say they will put in place a system in which all Ivorians are treated equally so fair elections can be held.

IRIN 11 Oct 2002 Increasing number of civilians flee war zones YAMOUSSOUKRO, 11 Oct 2002 (IRIN) - Three weeks after the 19 September failed coup d'etat, the number of civilians fleeing Cote d'Ivoire's "war zones" was increasing rapidly and the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro, was by Friday turning into a transit town for the displaced. The secretary general of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Mohammed Ibn Chambas, was expected to return to the commercial capital, Abidjan, on Saturday to re-start peace negotiations between the government and rebellious soldiers controlling the "war zones", news reports said. President Laurent Gbagbo had on Tuesday said he was not opposed to talks as long the rebels first disarmed. He also said the ECOWAS chairman President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal had suggested a new peace proposal. In Yamoussoukro, four hundred people arrived on Thursday at St. Augustin cathedral from Bouake, 111 km to the north, church officials said. Some had walked through the bushes. The number, mostly women and children, was the largest to arrive at the town in a single day. They told church workers that "several hundreds were still on their way". Their displacement was motivated by "fears of an attack" on the besieged town of Bouake, they told Church officials. Some 114 people had arrived on Wednesday. A few rooms have been temporarily converted into sleeping rooms, Cathedral officials said. As at 9 October, the cathedral had received 1,065 people of whom 603 were women, 232 children and 230 men. Yamoussoukro's Catholic Diocesan Center has also been transformed into a shelter area and had received 450 people. Some of them were from the northern town of Korhogo, 353 km from Yamoussoukro. A logistics base was being established by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Yamoussoukro "to respond to the unfolding crisis in the northern areas of the country". Plans were being made to provide emergency food aid rations to 2,000 displaced people. WFP, in a press statement in Abidjan on Friday, also reported that together with its partners, it was assessing the food aid needs of nearly 10,000 displaced immigrant workers in the western Man region. These included 6,500 people in Duekoue town. It was discussing with the Burkina Faso government a mechanism to cater for a massive return of immigrants from Cote d'Ivoire, of whom some 4,500 had reportedly already arrived in Burkina Faso. WFP said five transit centers would be set up and assistance would be provided for two months. A mechanism was also being set up in Mali to respond to possible return of Malians, of whom 4,000 had already crossed back. "The UN Country Team has mapped out available resources in the country and put together a set of Reponses for the Malians," the WFP statement said. Similar discussions were going on with Ghana. "The WFP food stocks in Ghana are very limited and by next week 40 tons of emergency food rations and high energy biscuits will be airlifted to the country," WFP said. In Yamoussoukro, church officials said food, accommodation and medical attention ranked as the most urgent needs as some walked for days with little or no food. Most of the displaced, they said, were on "transit" and would be assisted to join their families in the economic hub Abidjan or other major towns. The Ivorian Ministry of Solidarity and Social Security, The Red Cross, NGOs such as CARITAS and Medecins sans Frontieres, the District of Yamoussoukro, some business owners and others had been providing aid to the displaced. A UN inter-agency humanitarian needs assessment of the displaced was being conducted in the areas around Yamoussoukro, Bouake and neighbouring towns.

Reuters 15 Oct 2002 Shooting Sweeps Across Key Ivory Coast Cocoa Town By David Clarke DALOA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Machinegun fire and explosions Tuesday swept across Ivory Coast's battle-scarred town of Daloa, which has changed hands twice in four days of fighting. Rebels who control most of the north of the country after a failed September 19 coup said they had sent massive reinforcements to fight off a government offensive at Daloa. "Parts of Daloa are putting up resistance (to government forces). We have sent massive reinforcements," Guillaume Soro Kigbafori, secretary-general of the political wing of the rebel Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI) told Reuters by phone. Fighting has plunged the West African country into crisis, left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands from their homes, terrifying a region little prepared to cope with the turmoil that could spill over from a full-blown civil war. Days of fighting in Daloa, a hub for the cocoa industry in the world's biggest grower, has pushed futures to their highest level in nearly 17 years, though prices were off their highs on Tuesday. The town is a microcosm of the political, ethnic and religious tensions that have poisoned Ivory Coast in recent years and which have been sharpened by the rebellion. On one side of the central town are southerners, for the most part Christians and backers of the government. On the other are Muslim northerners who cheered the arrival of the rebels, many of them their kinsmen. Army spokesman Jules Yao Yao called on citizens not to take the law into their own hands, and not to turn it into an ethnic or religious conflict. HEAVY FIGHTING Monday's fighting left Daloa, 450 km (250 miles) northwest of Abidjan, littered with smashed and burned vehicles. A cemetery worker said 16 bodies brought in included one young man caught in crossfire. Witnesses said the others were mostly rebels, including one wearing the charms of a traditional northern Dozo hunter, believed to give magic protection. The rebels, who say they want to hold fresh elections and end ethnic discrimination, said Monday they had stopped all negotiations, saying Angolan forces had flown in to help President Laurent Gbagbo, himself a Christian from the west. "It was the Angolans who cleaned up this sector," said Londry Tagro, 29. "We know that it was the Angolans because of their special combat uniforms and because they are much fitter than our men." President Gbagbo has spoken of seeking help from friendly countries, though not specifically troops. Angolan embassy officials repeated their denial Tuesday that Angolan forces were in Ivory Coast either officially or as mercenaries. Some of the soldiers on the pickup trucks cruising Daloa's streets wore battle-dress that was clearly different from that of the Ivorian forces, but they would not speak to reporters. "We are ready to systematically massacre the Angolan soldiers who are on our soil and we have the means to do it," said commander Cherif Ousmane in the rebel stronghold of Bouake, 225 miles north of Abidjan. Senegalese envoy Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, who has been trying to bring the two sides together, said he was still waiting to hear from the rebels after their pullout. "What we want is to convince them it is in the best interest of the country to sign an agreement," he told Reuters. He said he would not comment on the possible presence of Angolans. West African countries fear that a civil war in Ivory Coast could send millions of refugees spreading over their borders and create a crisis even bigger than that resulting from more than a dozen years of war in nearby Liberia and Sierra Leone. Tens of thousands of people have already been displaced by the fighting in northern and western Ivory Coast. "The humanitarian situation in the north...seems to be deteriorating by the day," said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

IRIN 19 Oct 2002 Peace advocates join together to avert civil war ABIDJAN, 29 Oct 2002 (IRIN) - Civil society groups in Cote d'Ivoire have come together to avert civil war with the support of the international community. The Collectif de la Societe Civile pour la Paix (Civil Society Collective for Peace), inaugurated on Tuesday, plans to "conduct a vaste campaign of sensitization, throughout the national territory, to prevent and curb ethnic or religious conflicts", the group said in a peace declaration. Hundreds of people have died, material damage has been considerable and the economy has slowed significantly as a result of the worst socio-political crisis in Cote d'Ivoire's history, the Collectif noted. It warned, however, things could get much worse "if nothing decisive is done now to stop the beginnings of ethnic or religious clashes observed in certain areas of the country". Lessons could be learnt, in this regard, "from the unfortunate example" of other African countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia, the group said. A rebel war in Cote d'Ivoire broke out on 19 September, when a force including former members of the Ivorian military failed in bid to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo but took over the towns of Bouake and Korhogo in the centre and north of the country respectively. A ceasefire agreement signed by the insurgents and mediators from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) entered into effect on 17 October, paving the way for talks last week in Abidjan between Ivorian and ECOWAS officials followed by negotiations this week in Lome, Togo, between the rebels and representatives of the state. The rebels' representives at the talks, which were scheduled to start on Wednesday, included the secretary-general of their political arm, former student leader Soro Guillaume, along with Tuo Fozie and Cherif Ousmane, two of the rebels’ most visible commanders. A senior military official, Col Michel Gueu, was also reported to be on the rebel delegation. The state will be represented by a team led by the chairman of the government’s Economic and Social Council, Laurent Dona Fologo. The delegation also includes officials of all parties represented in Gbagbo's coalition government, along with the National Assembly armed forces, gendarmerie, police, and civil society. Addressing the team on Monday before its departure for the Togolese capital, Gbagbo explained the state's preconditions for negotiations. "You represent the entire people of Cote d'Ivoire," he said "tell them what Cote d'Ivoire is saying ... The assailants must lay down their weapons. We want the integrity of our territory to be respected. We want our sovereignty to be respected. Then, and only then, everything can be discussed, everything can be negotiated." Pending the cessation of fighting between the two sides, civil society aims to prevent an even deeper rift from developing in the society. War between armies, whatever the atrocities committed, can eventually be controlled, but a civil war between ethnic and religious groups is uncontrollable and its sequels remain engrained in people's psyches, said the spokesman of the Collectif, Honore Guie. The Collectif includes the local chapters of two international organisations that promote democracy - the Groupe d'etude et de recherche sur la Democratie et le Developpement social en Afrique (GERDDES-CI) and Association internationale pour la democratie (AID-CI). Its other members are religious leaders representing Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, and the country's two main human rights organisations, the Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l'homme (LIDHO) and Movement ivoirien des droits de l'homme (MIDH). According to its spokesman, Honore Guie, it will send delegations comprising six persons - one Christian and one Muslim priest along with a representative each from LIDHO, MIDH, GERDDES-CI and AID-CI to various parts of Cote d'Ivoire, starting with areas under government control. Each team will hold separate sensitisation meetings with the administrative authorities of the area, chiefs of ethnic and religious communities followed by general meetings in which elected local representatives will also take part. A follow-up committee made up of community representatives would then pursue the sensitisation with a view to avoiding any ethnic or religious conflicts. The committee is being supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), European Commission, Canada and Belgium. Speaking on their behalf, UNDP Resident Representative Mostafa Benlamlih said they were happy to back the initiative since "above and beyond the political solutions, real peace will be built within communities and individuals". "While contacts are being pursued for a peaceful solution of the crisis, your effort will create the conditions for lasting peace," he said.

AFP 31 Oct 2002 26 Malians killed in Ivory Coast cocoa town: consulate BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Oct 31 (AFP) - Men dressed in fatigues killed 26 Malians in mid-October in Ivory Coast, after loyalist forces recaptured the cocoa town of Daloa, a source at the Malian consulate in the rebel stronghold of Bouake said Thursday. "One of our diplomats returned Wednesday from Daloa, and that's the latest count that he made," the source said. "Our compatriots there are still in shock. Before our diplomat arrived, they were hiding at home," he said. He described Daloa as being in a state of "psychosis." During a parliamentary debate Tuesday in Bamako, Foreign Minister Lassana Traore said that 16 Malians have been confirmed dead in Ivory Coast -- 10 in Daloa, three in Bouake, and three in the main city Abidjan -- since the military uprising began on September 19. Rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report Monday that 22 Malians were among dozens of victims in Daloa. "These people were Ivorians with Muslim names or expatriates from countries in the sub-region -- especially from Mali and Burkina Faso -- suspected of supporting the forces of the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI)," the rebels' political wing, the report said.

Reuters 1 Nov 2002 West African rivalries threaten Ivory Coast force By Silvia Aloisi ABIDJAN, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Regional rivalries and funding concerns have raised questions about a West African peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast even before troops have been deployed. West African countries have agreed to send a 2,000-strong force to replace troops from former colonial power France monitoring a two-week-old truce in the world's top cocoa producer. Hundreds of people died in a month of fighting that followed a failed September 19 coup against President Laurent Gbagbo. The truce has split the rebel-held Muslim north from the mostly Christian south. The so-called Ecomog force is meant to be on the ground in the next 10 days or so. But behind-the-scenes negotiations on the composition and command of the force do not appear to be moving any faster than peace talks in Togo, where little has come from three days of wrangling between rebels and government negotiators. Senegal, whose soldiers have a good reputation, effectively ruled itself out as leader of the force this week by refusing to increase its commitment of 250 troops and contribute the biggest contingent. Senegalese officials say Togo's criticism of Senegal's high-profile role in securing the truce is behind the snub -- a clear setback given that Senegal chairs the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is behind the force. "We will just stick to our original pledge and let Togo or Guinea Bissau take the leadership," Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio told Reuters. Regional giant Nigeria, which led interventions in the civil wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone, says it might not contribute because of possible confusion arising from its English-speaking soldiers being deployed in a French-speaking country. Privately, Nigerian officials are fuming that Gbagbo spurned an earlier offer for help in the war and made West African mediators look silly by rejecting their first truce proposal. UNCERTAIN COMMAND Given that Guinea Bissau's offer of 380 troops is the biggest so far, command of the force should on paper go to the tiny state. But Guinea Bissau is suffering from years of instability and Togo now seems a more likely candidate. There are also big questions about how the force will be funded. ECOWAS has asked nine contributing countries to advance money for the first month's operations until Western donors can kick in with support. Despite Western pledges of help, the only countries to come up with cash so far are Britain and France, which one West African official said was "itching to leave". But French Lieutenant Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia said: "We will not leave until the West African force is fully deployed." Whatever its composition and leadership, the force will struggle to shake off a far from distinguished reputation acquired during missions to end messy wars in neighbouring Liberia and nearby Sierra Leone. In both countries, large Ecomog contingents ended up staying for years, got sucked into heavy fighting and were accused of summary executions, looting, illegal diamond mining, drug dealing and various other forms of criminal activity. Particularly on the government side, Ivorians are distinctly reluctant to see a West African force deployed and even Gbagbo was at first opposed to the idea. Anti-Ecomog placards are a feature of every pro-government march. "Experience has shown that ECOWAS forces have not always been successful in resolving crises and that is something we are aware of," said one Ivorian official.

BBC 4 Nov 2002 Ivorian rebels warn of talks pull-out The two sides have agreed an amnesty Rebels in Ivory Coast have warned that they may withdraw from the latest round of peace talks, due to resume in neighbouring Togo on Tuesday. Rebel leader Guillaume Soro told a news conference in the stronghold of Bouake that they would not travel unless their political demands were met. The government last week agreed to a deal which would grant an amnesty to the rebels, and reintegrate mutineers into the army. But this ignored the key demands of both sides - fresh elections for the rebels and the government's insistence on disarming those behind the uprising. Ivory Coast has been divided into the rebel-held north and the government controlled south for the past six weeks. Opposition death Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in the fighting. French troops are currently deployed in a buffer zone between the two forces and they are due to be replaced by a West African force within the next two weeks. "We will not set foot in Lome unless it's accepted that we can discuss all problems without any taboos," Mr Soro said. "It is not ruled out that we could be in Lome tomorrow, as long as we are allowed to discuss all of our demands," said the secretary-general of the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI). The talks were initially scheduled to restart on Monday but were postponed at the rebels' request. Meanwhile, an opposition leader has been found shot dead in the main city, Abidjan, according to officials from the Ivorian Popular Movement. Emile Tehe was arrested by paramilitary gendarmes on Friday and found on Saturday with five bullet holes in his body. Retaliate On Sunday, Mr Soro told thousands of supporters in Bouake that they would not lay down their weapons. "We took up arms to demand the departure of [President Laurent] Gbagbo. If not for that, we would not have started fighting," he said. President Gbagbo has refused to step down "If our political demands are not met at the negotiations, we are ready to resume the war," Mr Soro said. "If Gbagbo breaks the ceasefire, we have the means to retaliate... We will go all the way to Abidjan," he said. "If it weren't for the French presence, we would already be there." For the Ivorian Government, Mr Soro's remarks were "further proof the rebels are against peace". "You can't promise one thing in Lome, and another thing in Bouake, in front of a crowd that has been forced to demonstrate," presidential spokesman Toussaint Alain told AP news agency. Surprised The negotiations in Togo have been organised by the West African regional body, Ecowas, and follow a truce in the fighting, which has held for two weeks. The mediators in the crisis said they were surprised by Mr Soro's earlier comments. The rebels want President Gbagbo to step down "That's not what he was saying during the negotiations last week," said Ecowas executive secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas. The conflict has intensified ethnic tension between the country's mostly Muslim north - now controlled by rebels - and largely Christian south. Both sides agreed last week to allow humanitarian aid to reach rebel-held regions and to grant "the immediate release of all civilian and military prisoners of war".

IRIN 20 Nov 2002 Man arrested in Belgium with gold worth $500,000 from South Kivu BRUSSELS, 20 Nov 2002 (IRIN) - Belgian police have arrested in Brussels a Canadian carrying gold bullion from South Kivu worth US $500,000 and charged him with money laundering, the city's police force announced on Wednesday. Zulfa Karim Panju, 60, was carrying five gold bullion bars each weighing 10 kg. Police displayed the bullion at a news conference on Wednesday. The Brussels prosecutor's office said the gold originated from Bukavu, a town in the South Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The metal was transported in plastic boxes bearing the seal of the [Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie rebel movement] RCD-Goma", Glenn Audenaert, a director of the police, said. The boxes were concealed in a backpack. Police said that Panju had for four years, every two weeks, carried fake corporate invoices, along with 50 kg of gold, destined notably for Belgium, UK, USA and Switzerland. The gold was then sold and laundered through non-resident bank accounts, such as at the BBL bank in Belgium. The gold was smelted in Antwerp before appearing on the international market. The profits of the transactions were then sent to Rwanda, where they were used to buy arms, clothes and vehicles for the RCD rebellion, the prosecutor's office in Brussels said. The arrest occurs in the wake of an investigation into the business affairs of Aziza Kulsum, alias Mrs Gulamali, 50, who headed the Societe Miniere des Grands Lacs (Somigl); a company that from November 2000 to April 2001 organised a coltan monopoly for the benefit of RCD-Goma. On 4 November, police in Brussels arrested Belgian businessman Jacques Van den Abeele for forgery and money laundering. He is accused of involvement in a major operation to smuggle coltan. However, Belgian judicial authorities said Van den Abeele was only an intermediary for a highly complex network headed by Gulamali, who is being sought by Belgian authorities. In both the Van den Abeele and Panju cases, Belgian judicial authorities froze the accounts used for transactions, "representing several millions of US dollars", they said. Accounts in other European countries, notably Switzerland, have also been frozen. Since the Van den Abeele case, the DRC government, through a Congolese lawyer established in Belgium, has elected to associate itself as a plaintiff in court action by the Belgian public prosecutor against money laundering of proceeds from the plundering of minerals originating from DRC.

IRIN 21 Nov 2002 - Côte d'Ivoire: Rebels dismiss referendum proposal ABIDJAN, 21 November (IRIN) - Cote d'Ivoire's insurgents on Wednesday dismissed a promise by President Laurent Gbagbo to hold a constitutional referendum next year, news organisations reported. "Our demands are a whole. There must be complete and far-reaching solutions," Reuters quoted rebel leader Guillaume Soro as saying. "They speak of a referendum, but that is only one step." Gbagbo had said on Tuesday in a televised speech that he was ready to hold a referendum "to ask the people, 'do you want to change the constitution, yes or not?'" "It is just a first step. Our requests regard an overall revision of the administration of power, for which complete solutions are necessary," the Missionary News Agency (MISNA) quoted Soro as saying. According to BBC, Gbagbo's promise came after the rebels dropped their original demands for his resignation and fresh elections at ongoing talks in Lome. The demands do not figure in their latest proposals to the mediator of the talks, Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema. The mediator and his team are currently going through the proposals presented by the two sides.

PANA 29 Nov 2002 - Monitors say Ivorian govt forces crossed cease-fire line Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) - Côte d'Ivoire National armed forces (FANCI) on Thursday launched an offensive against the city of Vavoua which has been under rebel control since 19 September, French military sources revealed in Abidjan. Commander Frédéric Thomazo, of the information and communication service of the French Forces monitoring the cease-fire in Côte d'Ivoire, told PANA in a telephone interview on Thursday that government forces crossed the cease-fire line held by French troops, and headed for Vavoua, 439 km north-west of Abidjan. He said the troops comprised two columns of about 300 men, including "several English-speaking black and white mercenaries," who took the direction of the locality controlled by Sergeant Koné Zacharia's men, a warlord most hated by the FANCI. Asked about why French forces allowed the loyalist troops to cross the ceasefire line, Thomazo explained that French troops were not "an intervention force." "We are here simply to monitor the cease-fire agreement. If one of the warring sides decides to resume hostilities by crossing the cease-fire line, we can only note the act," he added. The government repeatedly broadcast a communiqué for 13 hours on national television on Wednesday, citing an attack against its "positions on the Man-Séguéla road," and vowing "to take action." Some 620 French troops coming from the 43rd BIMA (Maritime Infantry Battalion) based in Abidjan have been monitoring the cease-fire line since 17 October between loyalist forces and Ivorian military rebels who control more than 40 percent of the country. The cease-fire agreement was signed in Bouaké (379 km north of Abidjan), between the revel movement and Senegalese mediators, sent by President Abdoulaye Wade, current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

 

BBC 30 Nov 2002 Ivory Coast: Who are the rebels? There are now at least three groups of rebels By Paul Welsh BBC West Africa correspondent Perhaps the only thing now clear about Ivory Coast's war is that it is confused. Until now, what began here on 19 September has been called a mutiny, an uprising or a failed coup; it is taking on all the characteristics of a classic West African fight. We took up arms because they killed Robert Guei - I am fighting to avenge the general Felix Doh, MPIGO There are chilling similarities with the beginnings of the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone when new rebel groups sprang from the bush with alarming suddenness and regularity. There are now three rebel groups under arms in the country: The Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) - which was the first to take up arms against the government The Movement for Justice and Peace The Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West Attacks marked arrival The two new groups took advantage of a break in the ceasefire between the Ivory Coast Government and the MPCI to announce their arrival with attacks on cities in the west of the country. The city of Danane, 20 kilometres from the Liberian border, was the first to fall to the new rebels on 28 November - both of the largely unknown groups claim to have been responsible for its capture. The Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP) then took Man, the main city of the region, 70 kilometres further towards the centre of the country. Guei was killed as the uprising began On 30 November, the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West (MPIGO) moved further south and attacked Toulepleu. The region where they are fighting is by the Liberian border in the tribal homeland of the former military ruler General Robert Guei. The general was killed in mysterious circumstances on the first day of the original uprising in September. He had been accused of being behind the unrest; he had seized power in a coup in December 1999 and later lost it to the current President, Laurent Gbagbo, in elections. Both the MJP and the MPIGO say they are fighting to avenge General Guei's death and that they want President Gbagbo out of power. Family affair The MPIGO appears to be led by one of the late general's sons. A man who gave his name as Felix Doh telephoned the French news agency AFP saying he represented the MPIGO. "My men have taken Danane, are going all the way to San Pedro" he said, speaking of the second biggest port in Ivory Coast. "We took up arms because they killed Robert Guei. I am fighting to avenge the general." The Reuters news agency was contacted by a man representing the MJP who said he wanted the head of Laurent Gbagbo and that "we are going to go all the way to Abidjan," the main city of Ivory Coast and capital in all but name. Some of those fighting for the two new rebel groups came over the border from Liberia to fight. According to people in the newly taken areas, others have accents which suggest they are from Sierra Leone. The two countries have both suffered from long, vicious and inter-related wars involving numerous rebel movements. The rebels from both countries and from Guinea have supported and provoked each other's conflicts. The United Nations has just extended sanctions against Liberia because of the role it played in supporting rebels in Sierra Leone during the bloody conflict there. Stable neighbour collapses Ivory Coast had traditionally been the stable neighbour, now it looks in danger of being added to a sad list. Some rebels are more disciplined than others The idea that many of the fighters are linked to previous conflicts is supported by the difference between their behaviour and the way the original rebel force, the MPCI, is conducting itself. There are reports from Danane and Man of drug-taking and looting among the rebels there. They are said to be scruffy and undisciplined. Those who have held the northern half of the country since September are the opposite. They are not angels. I have seen some under the influence of drink or drugs, and they have carried out summary executions, but they are famously said to pay for everything they consume and there is an air of discipline among their number. It is the MPCI who have signed a truce with the government and who have entered into peace talks in the nearby country of Togo. Threatened demobilisation They began as a group of around 700 soldiers who took up arms against their own country because they were about to be demobilised against their wishes. They had been brought into the army by General Guei when he was in power and some had fought in the first coup. Some rebels have called for Gbagbo's head The mutineers, as they were, finished the first day of fighting in control of the northern half of the country but they were forced out of Abidjan and the south. Since then, they have been joined by others, including ex-soldiers who had been living abroad. Their movement slowly changed, adopted the name MPCI, and made more definite demands. They want President Gbagbo to step down and for there to be elections within six months, open to all Ivorians. Previously, leading opposition politicians have been refused the right to stand and a controversial new Ivorian identity card is likely to prevent many people - most of them opponents of the government - from voting The government says the MPCI is supported and directed from abroad, with the backing of a foreign country. No evidence has been offered to support the claims, but it is clear that the rebels are getting funds from somewhere. What is much more clear is that the new, more shady, groups do have links across the borders.

BBC 1 Dec 2002 Ivorian troops shell rebel-held town An evacuee worries about her father, left behind in Man Government forces have attacked the rebel-held town of Man in western Ivory Coast just hours after French troops evacuated foreigners from the area. President Laurent Gbagbo's forces first secured the airport in Man after the French moved out, then attacked the town itself. "The objective is to take the town before nightfall," said a military spokesman. A Canadian missionary in Man quoted by Reuters news agency said there had been "a heavy bombardment" and "lots of stray bullets". He said 150 people were sheltering at the Catholic Mission there. Evacuees from Man said the rebels were looting and firing into homes, terrorising the population, the BBC's Paul Welsh reports. Convoys of heavily armed troops headed towards Man on Sunday from Duekoue, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the town, and pickups were also seen carrying some white mercenaries towards the fighting, Reuters reported. Man and nearby Danane fell on Thursday to two previously unknown opposition groups who say they are not linked to the original rebel movement which sparked the anti-government revolt. Evacuation French troops recaptured Man airport on Saturday and evacuated 40 French nationals and another 120 foreigners - half of them Lebanese - from Man and Danane. Ex-military ruler Robert Guei was killed in September It was the first time the French soldiers had been drawn into combat since being sent to protect French citizens and other foreigners in the former colony. The intervention and evacuation - in which at least five guerrillas were killed - apparently angered the new rebel movements who call themselves the Movement for Justice and Peace and the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West. But residents fleeing Man said they were certain that the rebel groups there also included members of the main Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast and fighters from war-ravaged Liberia across the border. One evacuee, Raj Angebat, told the BBC that the rebels were "going from house to house, taking cellphones, televisions, killing the dogs". Earlier, Gato Guillaume Prospere - a man calling himself a rebel commander - called the BBC to issue a warning to the French forces. The rebels started the Ivorian uprising 10 weeks ago "If France continues to attack our positions, they will raise the spectre of Rwanda here," he said. "They have no right to attack us and we will react." The rebel groups - who now control the mainly Muslim north of Ivory Coast - have moved the battle lines further south by attacking Toulepleu. The new rebels are from the Yacouba tribe and say they want to avenge the death of Ivory Coast's former military ruler General Robert Guei, who was killed on the first day of the uprising in September. But President Gbagbo has promised to end rebel control of all Ivorian areas and drive his opponents out of the country. The United Nations refugee agency says there are 47,000 displaced people in the area now controlled or being fought for by the rebels and a further 25,000 elsewhere in the country.

AP 1 Dec 2002 France Moves Foreigners From City in Ivory Coast By Clar Ni Chonghaile Associated Press Sunday, December 1, 2002; Page A32 ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Nov. 30 -- French troops evacuated foreigners today from a rebel-held city in western Ivory Coast as loyalist troops headed toward the area with orders to oust the insurgents. Eighty-three of 160 foreigners seeking to leave the city of Man were flown south to Abidjan, the commercial capital of this former French colony. The others were expected to follow on a second plane during the night, said Lt. Col. Ange-Antoine Leccia, spokesman for the French force. It was not known if any Americans were among the evacuees, half of whom are thought to be French citizens. Earlier, French soldiers fought gun battles with the rebels in Man -- a city of 135,000 people northwest of Abidjan -- while trying to secure the airport for the evacuation. One French soldier was wounded and at least five rebels were killed, Leccia said. Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer, has been divided three ways as a two-month rebel uprising evolves into a multi-front war in the former French colony. The government holds the south, including Abidjan. The rebels who launched the Sept. 19 uprising control the north, and the new insurgents claim the west. French forces evacuated hundreds of French, American and other foreigners from rebel-held towns in the north at the start of the uprising. The French troops are also monitoring a cease-fire agreed to by the northern rebels and the army on Oct. 17, but which has crumbled in recent days. Rebels calling themselves the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Greater West now hold two towns in the mountainous west -- Man, the center of a cocoa-producing area, and Danane, 40 miles farther west. Residents of the two cities described the rebels as young men dressed in a mix of military fatigues, black jeans, T-shirts and flip-flops. Some rode scooters and others had commandeered cars, the residents said, but there seemed to be little discipline among them. Peace talks in nearby Togo seemed on the brink of collapse after West African mediators rejected the latest rebel proposals. The increasingly acrimonious discussions have stalled on rebel demands that President Laurent Gbagbo step down -- a demand Ivorian authorities refuse to meet. The conflict has fanned tensions between northern and southern groups. The northern rebels say they oppose discrimination against mainly Muslim northern tribes by Christian and animist southern groups that have traditionally dominated the government.

IRIN 4 Dec 2002 Preparing for peace amid war ABIDJAN, 4 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - Ensuring that the fight between loyalist forces and insurgents in Cote d’Ivoire does not degenerate into civil conflict pitting communities against each other is the task a section of Ivorian civil society has set itself. “You have to prepare for the postwar period while the war is going on, and that’s what we’re doing,” Honore Guie, spokesman of the Collectif de la Societe Civile pour la Paix (Civil Society Collective for Peace) told IRIN. “We are preparing people’s minds for the postwar period so that they do not try to seek revenge after the war.” The Collectif, launched on 29 October, includes the local chapters of two international organisations that promote democracy - the Groupe d'etude et de recherche sur la Democratie et le Developpement social en Afrique (GERDDES-CI) and Association internationale pour la democratie (AID-CI). Its other members are Buddhist, Christian and Muslim leaders, and country's two main human rights organisations - the Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l'homme (LIDHO) and Movement ivoirien des droits de l'homme (MIDH). Its work is supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Belgium, Canada, the European Commission, the UN Development Programme and the UN Children’s Fund. The more than 16 million inhabitants of the West African country have been affected in various ways by an insurgency that began on 19 September. The civil society groups’ decision to come together was motivated by the realisation that things could get much worse "if nothing decisive is done now to stop the beginnings of ethnic or religious clashes observed in certain areas of the country" as they said during the launch of the Collectif. During a pilot phase that ended in mid-November, the Collectif sent teams to Abidjan neighbourhoods and 10 of the country’s 58 departments, where they met administrative officials, ethnic, religious and political leaders, as well as representatives of women, young people and foreign communities. Follow-up committees made up of community representatives were formed with a view to pursuing the sensitisation so as to avoid ethnic or religious conflicts. "We still have 48 departments to visit," Guie told IRIN. "But these departments include some that are located in the zone that is in the hands of the insurgents. While it was easy for us to go to the areas controlled by loyalist forces with the support of the government, we haven't yet found the necessary security conditions that can allow us to go to the north. "However, we are trying to obtain those conditions through the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS - which is mediating between Cote d'Ivoire's government and rebels] and the UN system so that we can also reach all departments located in the territory occupied by the insurgents". One of the main challenges faced by the peace advocates is fear. In some areas, this prevented some political parties from responding to the invitations the teams sent out to prospective interlocutors. Fear has also conditioned the way communities view each other. "All ethnic communities are afraid," Guie said. Communities in the part of the country under the control of loyalist forces are afraid of the insurgents and communities who supposedly back the insurgents. Communities from the north of the country living in southern localities are afraid of being assimilated to the insurgents, and they are also afraid of being attacked by other communities." This fear, he said, was being kept up by individuals who have spreading rumours. In at least one case in October, level heads from two communities in the centre of the country were able to prevent rumours that one community was preparing to attack another from giving rise to clashes. Clashes have also occurred just after the insurgents took a town or just after its recapture by loyalist forces, Guie said. In some cases, the insecurity Cote d'Ivoire is now experiencing has added to existing tensions as in the southwest, where the sensitive issue of land ownership has given rise to periodic conflicts. These conflicts have opposed indigenous people and farmers from other Ivorian regions in some cases. In others they have pitted indigenes against migrants from neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso. Such conflicts have sometimes caused massive displacement. In 1999, about 12,000 Burkinabe were displaced from an area near Tabou in the southwest. In 2000, other Burkinabe were displaced from Grand-Bereby, just east of Tabou. Guie admits his group has its work cut out. However, it does not pretend to be able to resolve such deep-rooted problems. "In the first analysis we are trying to calm everyone, to try to get people to live together pending a reduction in the tension," he says. "Once the tension is reduced, once the war is over, we think in-depth issues such as the land problem can be discussed calmly, with contributions from everyone. "Since we've seen now what war is, I think many concessions are going to be made on all sides so that we don't go through war again, a war that has traumatised everyone."

IRIN 5 Dec 2002 AU concerned at persistence of crisis ABIDJAN, 5 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The African Union has expressed grave concern at the persistence of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire and the armed incidents which have recently taken place in the western part of the country. In a communiqué issued on Wednesday from its headquarters in Addis Ababa, the AU urged the Ivorian government and the rebel Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) to extend full cooperation to mediation efforts in order to speed up the negotiation process. This, the AU said, should be done with regard for the respect of constitutional legality, unity and territorial integrity of the country, the communiqué issued after the 87th ordinary session of the central organ of the mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution at ambassadorial level, said. Commending the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the mediation by the Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema and other regional efforts, the AU expressed support for the establishment of a liaison office in Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital, Abidjan, to ensure closer monitoring of the situation. It appealed for funding for the ECOWAS to facilitate rapid deployment of a peacekeeping force in the country. It also welcomed the dispatch to Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Ghana of a delegation from the AU commission on refugees and displaced persons to assess the humanitarian impact of the crisis and to examine the modalities of AU assistance to the affected populations. Meanwhile, a west African summit that was scheduled to take place in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on 7 December has been postponed, news organisations reported on Thursday. The summit was to examine the modalities for the deployment of an ECOWAS peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire. The force was to replace the French troops who have been monitoring a ceasefire signed on 17 October by MPCI and accepted the government. Radio France International (RFI) reported that the new rebel group - Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) - had captured Koro, a town about 20 km north of Touba in western Cote d'Ivoire. Koro, in sugar-producing zone, was captured on Wednesday. While in the western town of Man, which the government said it had retaken from MPJ rebels early this week, BBC quoted eyewitnesses as saying bodies were littered on the streets. "I'm traumatized... There are bodies everywhere," Frenchman Carlos Fardom was quoted by the Associated Press as saying after fleeing the town on Wednesday. "Some people don't want to go out, because the bodies in the streets are decomposing, and it smells bad," a young man called Ndri said. The crisis which had started as a mutiny on 19 September and saw the country divided in two with the south in the government's hand and the north in the hands of MPCI, took a new twist on 28 November with the emergence of two new rebel groups MPJ and Ivorian Populaire Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) who captured four towns in the west.

IRIN 6 Dec 20002 ICRC urges respect for humanitarian law © ICRC ABIDJAN, 6 Dec 2002 (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Friday urged parties in the Ivorian conflict to comply with the rules of the international humanitarian law. In a news release, ICRC reminded all those bearing weapons of their obligation to respect in particular, the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols and to spare civilians and their property. It said furthermore that all those taking direct part in the hostilities, included wounded and captured combatants who were no longer able to defend themselves, must be treated with humanity and without discrimination. To execute such people without a fair trial, to loot civilian property or to hinder humanitarian action in any way were serious violations of humanitarian law, it noted. In the meantime, the organisation in collaboration with the Ivoirian Red Cross are providing emergency medical care for wounded soldiers and civilians in the western town of Man. In the other western towns of Toulepleu and Danane the National Society volunteers were also treating victims of the recent fighting and emergency medical supplies have been dispatched to Daloa military hospital also in the west, where soldiers wounded at the front are brought, it added. The World Food Programme has received a contribution of US $400,000 from the government of Switzerland to support its air operations in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, a WFP news release said on Friday. "The US $400,000 Swiss donation in West Africa comes at a time when needs in the region have become acute increasingly urgent," WFP Regional Director Manuel Aranda da Silva said. "Should WFP be forced to cut back these air operations, the ability of WFP as well as other UN agencies and NGOs {non-governmental organizations] to serve the region would be severely hampered," he added. The continuing crisis in Liberia, as well as the civil unrest in Cote d'Ivoire makes WFP's air operation vital - not only for passenger transport but also for the rapid delivery of emergency food rations, medical supplies and security evacuations, the agency stated. The Swiss contribution enables WFP to pursue air operations up to the end of February 2003. Meanwhile, French troops monitoring the ceasefire signed on 17 October by rebels of the Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) and accepted by the government said on Friday they had discovered a mass grave western area of Pelezi some 70 km from Daloa, news organisations reported. French army spokesman Ange-Antoine Leccia told Reuters that the grave was 30 metres long by two metres wide. Legs were protruding from the earth. "We do not know how many bodies are there, who killed these people, or when," he said. "It is not our mission to exhume the bodies and we are simply reporting what we have found," he added. The crisis Cote d'Ivoire started as a mutiny on 19 September and saw the country divided in two with the south in the government's hand and the north in the hands of MPCI. It however took a new twist on 28 November with the emergence of two new rebel groups MPJ and Ivorian Populaire Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) which captured four towns in the west.

AFP 6 Dec 2002 French troops discover mass grave in conflict-torn Ivory Coast ABIDJAN, Dec 6 (AFP) - French troops Friday reported the discovery of a mass grave in the west of divided Ivory Coast amid a government offensive against rebels and a call by the African Union for intensified efforts to end the deepening 11-week conflict. French troops policing a tattered ceasefire found the grave on Thursday in an area named Monoko-Zohi, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the key town of Daloa, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia told AFP. It was "a mound 30 metres (yards) long and two metres high from which bodies protruded," he said. "We do not know who the people are who were killed. Nor do we know how, why or by whom." The grave is near Pelezi, which the rebels from the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) claimed government troops bombarded on Wednesday night, killing 12 civilians and wounding a similar number. Leccia said a villager who had led the French soldiers to the grave "also pointed out a well nearby where, according to him, there could be more bodies." The Ivorian army on Friday immediately denied responsibility. Lieutenant-Colonel Jules Yao Yao, the spokesman for the Ivorian army's chief of staff, said the grave was in a village "under rebel control". "The republican forces have nothing to do with this affair. These killings can only be the work of the insurgents, whose methods are known to all," he said. In October, residents of Daloa accused members of the Ivorian security forces of kidnapping and killing dozens of people in the town, a major cocoa-growing centre. They alleged that the victims had been ethnic Dioulas and were killed on suspicion of supporting the rebels, many of whom belong to the same tribe. The Ivory Coast army meanwhile said Friday it was continuing an offensive against two new rebel movements who took up arms last week. Spokesman Jules Yao Yao said the army was conducting mopping up operations at Man, the main town in the mountainous west where it has been trying to rout rebels since Sunday. "The cleaning up operations and the consolidation of republican forces positions is still continuing in this town and the region. Life has returned to normal in this area," he said. Man, Danane, Toulepleu and Touba, all near the Liberian border, fell to the new rebel groups last week. The army and rebels have for days made contradictory claims about who was winning the battle for Man. Yao Yao said "wider operations to flush out .... rebels from the Eighteen Mountains region" were going on successfully, adding that according to a "provisionary toll" two soldiers had been killed and 12 wounded in the fighting while "several had been killed on the side of the enemy". He said security forces would from Friday impose even stricter war-time measures in the country, where a curfew has been in place for 11 weeks. Police would step up their searches in residential areas and would have permission to shoot without warning at anybody they considered suspicious, he said. The African Union (AU), in a communique sent on Friday to AFP in Addis Ababa, meanwhile stressed "the need for the region to strengthen its cohesion and its unity of action" in the handling of the Ivorian crisis. The AU Central Organ for Conflict Management -- akin to the United Nations' Security Council -- "urged the leaders of the region to intensify their efforts at promoting confidence and understanding, in order to facilitate peace." West African mediators managed to broker a ceasefire in October but the truce was shattered last week. Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, a regional heavyweight, also initiated peace talks which have been deadlocked. Regional peace efforts have recently been marred by complaints from Senegal, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, that it had been sidelined in efforts to end the Ivorian crisis.

BBC 7 Dec 2002 'Foreigners' in Ivory Coast mass grave The army claims to have retaken the western town of Man A mass grave found in the western village of Monoko-Zohi in Ivory Coast on Thursday contained bodies of immigrants, representatives of the local community say. The leader of the village's Burkinabe` community, Ibrahima Ouedraogo, said the grave held 120 men. Mr Ouedraogo said the men had been killed by Ivory Coast soldiers, and buried by villagers when the soldiers left two days later. French soldiers found the grave following fierce fighting between government soldiers and rebel groups. The French have not investigated who was behind the massacre. The government denies any responsibility, saying the rebels are to blame - the village is in rebel-held territory. Ivory Coast used to be West Africa's richest country but 11 weeks after an army mutiny, some diplomats fear that it could descend into the anarchy and massive blood-letting of civil wars in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone. The conflict could also draw in several neighbouring countries, which have many thousands of citizens in Ivory Coast or which are accused of backing one or other sides. Weeks of talks mediated by West African diplomats have failed to find a political solution to the crisis, which escalated last week when two new rebel groups emerged in the west of the country. Massacre The mass grave was found in territory held by the rebel Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) 70km north-west of the key cocoa-trading town of Daloa, which is now in loyalist hands. Mr Ouedraogo said Ivorian army troops arrived in the village, travelling in six trucks with Ivorian military markings. The victims had been killed by "men in uniform," who were "aided by some villagers". The rebels are recruiting young Ivorians He said soldiers had accused merchants of feeding the rebels before going from house to house rounding up and killing men, at times working from a list of names. The bodies were found protruding from a mound which was 30 metres wide and two metres high, said a spokesman for the French forces in Ivory Coast, Lieutenant Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia. The MPCI dominates the largely Muslim north of the country, while troops loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo retain control of the mainly Christian south. MPCI regional commander Zacharias Kone blamed the killings on the government, which attacked earlier this week. Mr Gbagbo has blamed the rebels for the mass killing. "The president has been informed and he is profoundly shocked by this macabre discovery. This can only be a crime committed by the rebellion," his spokesman Alain Toussaint said. Corpses everywhere People have been fleeing the fighting in Man, one of four towns captured last weekend by new rebel groups the Movement for Justice and Peace and the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Great West. Eyewitnesses fleeing Man, which the army said they recaptured earlier this week, report that the streets are littered with bodies. People are fleeing Ivory Coast for Liberia "There were hundreds of dead... Everywhere we went was piled with corpses," said philosophy teacher Julien Adeko Achi, adding that the bodies had fallen "like dead chickens ahead of a New Year feast". They say they are fighting to avenge the death of former military ruler, Robert Guei, who was killed in the first days of the rebellion in late September. The United Nations human rights commissioner, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has warned both sides in the conflict that they would be brought to trial by the International Criminal Court for any serious crimes committed during the fighting.

AP 7 Dec 2002 120 Civilians Killed in Ivory Coast MONOKO-ZOHI, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Terrorized villagers on Saturday showed the burnt shops and covered corpses from what appeared to be the worst bloodletting of Ivory Coast's three-month war -- a massacre of 120 unarmed civilians by government soldiers, survivors claimed. Revelations of the mass grave at the central village of Monoko-Zohi came amid reports of heavy fighting in western Ivory Coast. Rebels and locals said Saturday that insurgents had taken another town, Blolekin, while pushing east into the heart of Ivory Coast, said Maj. Frederic Thomazo, part of a 1,000-strong French contingent in the former French colony. Meanwhile, the government called for a ``general mobilization'' Saturday, urging all Ivorians between the ages of 20 to 26 ``who have decided to go to the front to defend the republic'' to sign up with the army. ``In order to finish with these aggressors and free our country, I want to appeal solemnly for a general mobilization of Ivorians beneath the flag,'' Defense Minister Bertin Kadet said on state television. Tensions heightened further over emerging allegations of the massacre at Monoko-Zohi. Ivory Coast's army and government strongly denied wrongdoing, insisting Saturday that the dead were not civilians but rebels killed in combat. However, insurgents denied having their militia in the village of Monoko-Zohi and surviving villagers said the massacre victims were merchants and African guest workers on the region's lush cocoa and coffee fields. Villagers said the killing in Monoko-Zohi started when six marked Ivory Coast military trucks arrived Nov. 27 carrying uniformed Ivory Coast soldiers. Soldiers accused the villagers of feeding rebels and then went house-to-house in the hamlet with a list of names, survivors alleged. ``We heard the shooting -- we panicked, and we all ran,'' said Kamousse, a merchant who was showing a customer a radio when the soldiers arrived. ``But my brother stayed in the house. He said, 'Maybe it's just someone shooting into the air.' Afterward, they took him behind the house to the latrine and shot him,'' Kamousse said. French troops, who are in Ivory Coast to enforce a now-shattered cease-fire, first reported the mass grave Friday. The Associated Press viewed the scene Saturday. Monoko-Zohi is about 70 miles northwest of the government-held city of Daloa. A spokesman for President Laurent Gbagbo invited international human rights experts and doctors to the site. He also said rebels dug a mass grave near the rebel-held central city of Bouake. ``The French army and the special correspondents of Western media know of the existence of a mass grave near Bouake where the bodies of around 100 soldiers and their families were buried after they were taken and executed by the rebels,'' spokesman Toussaint Alain said. A nearly 3-month-old rebellion has torn the once prosperous West African nation into three parts. Rebels hold the north and are struggling now to hold the west and move east against a fierce government offensive. Fierce fighting continued Saturday with the reported rebel capture of the town of Blolekin. The reported advance put the rebels about 60 miles further east of the Liberian border. Civilians at a village east of Blolekin were said to be fleeing Saturday, escaping a feared showdown there between advancing rebel and government forces. In government territory Saturday, AP journalists saw pickup trucks full of Ivorian soldiers and white mercenaries -- some in black balaclavas to hide their faces -- rushing west to the offensive. Young village men and a vastly increased number of rebels roamed the insurgent region with weapons that included Uzis, AK-47s and an anti-aircraft gun. At Monoko-Zohi, bloody gore marked the scene of the alleged massacre. Limbs stuck out of a mass grave 90 feet long and 30 feet wide. Over two days, Nov. 27-28, soldiers shot some victims where they found them and gathered others for mass executions, said Ibrahima Ouedraogo, a surviving village elder. Survivors said loyalist forces killed some by slitting their throats. Villagers insisted they had no doubt the killers were government soldiers. ``We know their uniforms,'' said Adiriara Ouedraogo, a female worker from Burkina Faso who fled after the killings. Ivory Coast authorities initially said rebels must have been responsible for the killings. On Saturday, an army spokesman indicated loyalist forces were responsible, but said the dead were rebel combatants, not civilians. ``Look, this is very simple,'' spokesman Lt. Col. Jules Yao Yao said by telephone. ``The victims were rebels who were killed in combat. They then gathered the bodies, and buried them together. It's as simple as that.'' The French military says the village is on the rebel side of an Oct. 17 cease-fire line. However, a rebel commander claimed Saturday that rebels had no fighters in the hamlet before the shooting and fighters moved in only after villagers came to tell them of the killings and ask for help. ``At that point we didn't even know this area. It wasn't our territory,'' commander Zacharia Kone said at the village. Gbagbo took office in 2000 elections meant to restore democratic rule. The coup-installed military government tried to steal the vote, however, and violence aborted the election. A people's revolt put Gbagbo in power. Rebels, including hundreds of disgruntled former army officers, are demanding Gbagbo resign and make way for new elections. They launched their uprising with a failed Sept. 19 coup attempt.

Reuters 14 Dec 2002 France Boosts Ivory Coast Force, Rebels Warn of War By Alistair Thomson ABIDJAN (Reuters) - France prepared to send the first of hundreds more troops to war-torn Ivory Coast on Saturday, building up its biggest intervention force in a former African colony since the 1980s. Thousands of angry people marched against the French in the second city Bouake, controlled for almost three months by rebels who accuse Paris of trying to occupy the West African country, and have threatened the French forces with war. France has some 1,500 soldiers monitoring a shaky cease-fire between the government and rebels who seized the north of the country in a September uprising. But after the appearance of two new rebel groups in the west thrust once stable Ivory Coast closer to the anarchy that has engulfed nearby nations in West Africa, France said it would step up its efforts to restore stability to its former colony. French military spokesman Ange-Antoine Leccia said hundreds of extra troops would arrive by air and sea in the next 10 days. The first company -- over 100 soldiers -- were due in by Sunday morning after their flight was delayed on Saturday. France, which initially sent troops to protect thousands of its citizens in Ivory Coast, said the rebel Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI) could be invited to peace talks in Paris if it proved its political credentials. The French deployment -- dubbed "Operation Unicorn" -- is the biggest in Africa since 1983 when Paris sent 3,000 troops to another former colony, Chad, to push back Libyan-backed forces. But the rebels' chief negotiator at talks in the Togolese capital Lome told France on Friday to get out or face war. "The French force in Ivory Coast is deviating from its mission and becoming a true force of occupation. In light of this, the MPCI will fight and its forces are ready to take up the challenge of war," Guillaume Soro said. Leccia declined to respond to Soro's threat. "These are political comments -- we have no response to make to them," he said. THOUSANDS MARCH AGAINST FRENCH Thousands of people marched from rebel-controlled Bouake to the gates of a French base outside the town, demanding that the French leave. Four people were injured, one by a bullet when shots were fired, apparently by rebels trying to control the crowd, witnesses said. "French accomplices in (President Laurent) Gbagbo's genocide. Take your accomplice and go," said one of their placards. Hundreds of people have died and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes in a country once a haven for the troubled region's refugees. Regional leaders plan a summit to try to end the crisis, but six weeks of peace talks in Togo have yielded little so far and a planned regional peacekeeping force has not materialized. U.N. agencies said they were preparing for a possible refugee crisis in the world's top cocoa grower, after attacks in the west by the newborn rebel factions, which have been joined by hundreds of fighters from neighboring Liberia. Assistant U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Kamel Morjane said he was looking at ways to move thousands of refugees from a camp in the volatile western region near the Liberian border. "We have to be ready for any eventuality -- especially, unfortunately, the tragic ones," he said at an Abidjan transit center during a visit to assess the region's needs. He said the government had guaranteed aid workers access to refugees. Morjane's agency says 100,000 people, mainly immigrants, have already fled abroad, and many more have left their homes. France also said it would ask the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate massacres in Ivory Coast, split between northern-based rebels and loyalist forces. Both sides are accused of summary executions and other abuses. The government has hired foreign mercenaries and thousands of youths have volunteered to fight the rebels. Growing animosity between northern Muslims and Christians from the south, who back President Laurent Gbagbo, have been at the heart of Ivory Coast's crisis since a military coup in 1999.