Ivory Coast government, rebels clash
( 2003-04-15 08:56 ) (7 )

Fighting between army and rebel forces broke out Monday even as leaders of the rebellion assumed posts in a unity government mean to end six months of fighting.

It was not immediately clear how the violence would affect the new government, which includes members of the ruling party, the political opposition and rebels. The arrangement is part of a French-brokered peace deal signed in January near Paris.

Each side accused the other for Monday's attack in the village of Bin-Houye, in the western borderlands near Liberia. Army spokesman Lt. Col. N'Goran Aka said about 500 rebels attacked government troops, while rebel spokesman Antoine Beugre said the rebels were defending themselves from soldiers.

Later, Beugre released another statement claiming government forces had subsequently bombed Zouan-Hounien, 12 miles north of Bin-Houye, killing three people and injuring 14 others - all civilians.

Aka denied the army had used helicopters, which were ordered grounded in a January 13 cease-fire agreement.

Meanwhile in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city, five of the nine rebels with ministerial seats participated in a ceremony and signed papers that officially made them part of the new government.

Their presence was the first of its kind since the rebellion took off after a failed attempt to oust President Laurent Gbagbo last September. The four remaining rebel ministers are expected to arrive in Abidjan later this week.

The violence came only days after a United Nations committee monitoring the Ivory Coast peace accord accused the government of using attack helicopters in fighting last week. The committee said it was preparing a report on the situation for the U.N. Security Council.

Ivory Coast, the world's top producer of cocoa, has been plagued by instability since a 1999 coup shattered its decades-long reputation as a West African economic powerhouse and bastion of peace.

Fighting has killed more than 3,000 people, according to government estimates, and has displaced more than a million.

New York-based Human Rights Watch released a statement Monday charging rebel and government forces with carrying out massacres, rape, reprisal killings and systematic looting.

The group said many of the abuses were done by Liberian mercenaries fighting for both sides, and it urged the United Nations to monitor the situation.

Rebel and government forces have denied responsibility and blamed each other for such attacks.

(AP)