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Ivory Coast loyalists vow French protests
( 2003-02-18 11:18 ) (7 )

Hard-line loyalist leaders called for renewed protests against French troops in Ivory Coast, while rebels agreed to keep their guns silent and give negotiations a chance to end the 5-month civil war.

The call for revived protests against the West African nation's onetime colonial ruler threatened a return to anti-French mob rampages that have sent thousands of Westerners fleeing this once stable regional economic hub.

The threat came on the same day that rebels agreed to suspend their deadline for resuming hostilities - but urged French forces to leave cease-fire zones, saying their presence was only stalemating the conflict.

"We've asked them to leave the front lines because they're prolonging the suffering of civilians in maintaining their positions," said Antoine Beugre, spokesman for rebels holding the north.

Loyalists say a French-brokered Jan. 24 power-sharing peace accord gives too many concessions to rebels, who have seized the north and parts of the cocoa- and coffee-rich west in the former French colony.

Ble Goude, a loyalist youth leader, said a week of "peaceful" protests starting Wednesday were intended to force the French military to stay inside their base and abort patrols in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, Goude said.

"They are acting as if this is France. We will show them it is Ivory Coast," Goude said at an outdoor press conference outside a French military base in Abidjan, his words cheered by 500- to 700 ardent supporters.

Goude stressed the protests were not targeted against the estimated 15,000 French civilians still living in Ivory Coast. But he warned that French armored personnel carriers "could be burned" if they ventured off the base.

The French, who have more than 3,000 troops in the country, increasingly have come under criticism from both sides in the war.

Rebels, for their part, say the French troops on the front lines are blocking what otherwise could be their march on Abidjan, and victory.

President Laurent Gbagbo has called on all sides to respect the "spirit of the accord" but insists he reserves a final say in choosing members of a coalition government called for in the agreement.

Leaders of several parties that signed the accord, including the governing Ivorian Popular Front, met late Monday with Gbagbo, urging him to deny rebels "significant government posts" - namely the key defense and interior ministries that the insurgents claim the peace accord awards them, the party's deputy secretary-general Christine Konan said.

Gbagbo "shares the same opinion we do," Konan added. Gbagbo was not immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, rebels, who had threatened new attacks if the peace accord was not implemented by midnight Sunday, agreed to personal appeals by West African leaders to maintain a cease-fire, a mediator said.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, in talks Sunday and Monday in Abuja, had asked rebels "to utilize dialogue and negotiations to return the country to peace and stability," said Ralph Uwechue, Obasanjo's Ivory Coast envoy.

No fighting was reported Monday.

About 1,000 protesters - mostly youths - gathered in the center of Bouake, Ivory Coast's second-largest city and a rebel stronghold, to denounce Gbagbo and offer support for the rebels.

Rebels seek to oust Gbagbo, whom they accuse of stoking ethnic and regional divisions in the nation of 16 million people. Hundreds of people have been killed and more than 1 million have been displaced by the war, which erupted Sept. 19 after a failed coup attempt.