Ivory Coast rebel factions prepare to sign truce
( 2003-01-13 08:48 ) (7 )

Leaders of Ivory Coast's rebel factions flew into Togo aboard a French military plane on Sunday to sign a truce halting a four-month war in the world's top cocoa grower ahead of peace talks in Paris.

A cease-fire due to be signed on Monday should formally end fighting by two rebel groups in the cocoa-rich west, Togolese officials said. The main rebel movement in the West African country agreed to rest its guns in mid-October.

Fighting since a failed coup on September 19 has killed hundreds of people, driven more than 600,000 from their homes and shattered Ivory Coast's former reputation as a haven of stability in a turbulent region.

Among the rebel leaders who arrived in the Togolese capital late on Sunday was Major Deli Gaspard of the Movement for Justice and Peace, who had earlier said he would not travel to Lome to sign the cease-fire.

He was joined by representatives of an allied rebel group from the west and an observer from the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI), which holds the mostly Muslim northern half of the country and had already signed a truce.

Togolese officials said the two western factions would sign the cease-fire on Monday to bring an end to fighting with President Laurent Gbagbo's government on all fronts ahead of a peace meeting due to start in Paris on Wednesday.

"I think this will allow the upcoming meeting to follow the path of success," government peace negotiator Laurent Dona Fologo told reporters in Lome.

FRENCH MUSCLE

Western diplomats said France exerted pressure on the western rebel factions to make sure they came to Lome, allowing a more auspicious start for the Paris talks involving rebels, government officials and political parties.

France has committed a 2,500-strong force to Ivory Coast in its biggest African intervention since the 1980s to stop the crisis spiralling out of control in a country where it has big business interests and up to 20,000 citizens.

But there are few signs of compromise ahead of talks.

"There is nothing to negotiate with Gbagbo because Gbagbo does not respect his word," said Louis Dacoury-Tabley, a leader of the MPCI, which signed a cease-fire after failing to make serious inroads into the mostly Christian south.

All three rebel groups are united in their desire to see the end of Gbagbo, who was elected in disputed polls in 2000, and want new elections.

However, Gbagbo has said he will not go, proposing instead a national unity government and amnesty for the rebels.

The western groups have said they will take part in the Paris talks despite announcing on Friday that they were pulling out after attacks by loyalist forces backed by foreign mercenaries and helicopter gunships.

The army said on Sunday that it had frozen its positions in the west as long it was not provoked by the rebels.