Ivory Coast factions trade demands
( 2003-01-16 09:56 ) (7 )

Warned by France that Africa's future lies in their hands, glum-faced leaders of Ivory Coast's warring factions traded demands Wednesday at the start of peace talks in Paris.

The spiraling conflict in the former French colony - the economic anchor of West Africa - threatens the security and prosperity of the entire region.

"Your people are watching you and they are obliging you. You do not have the right to let them down," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told the 32 negotiators from the Ivorian government and rebel groups responsible for nearly four months of killing.

"What is at stake beyond Ivory Coast is the future of the African continent," de Villepin said at the talks' opening ceremony in a conference hall near the Champs-Elysees.

France has worked hard to get all sides around the negotiating table and obtained pledges to stop hostilities for the duration of the talks.

But the obstacles to lasting peace are considerable.

Economic hardship and discriminatory citizenship rules have fanned ethnic hatreds in Ivory Coast, notably between the mostly animist and Christian south, where the government is based, and the largely Muslim north.

In the late 1990s, commodities prices collapsed, slowing Ivory Coast's growth as debt soared. Money and jobs grew scarce, and rivalries sharpened among the ethnic groups making up the country's 17-million people.

Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes since rebels launched their failed coup attempt in September to oust President Laurent Gbagbo, who came to power in 2000 elections.

In Paris, the government insist that insurgents lay down their arms, a demand that derailed previous negotiations. Rebel movements - who now control half the country - still want Gbagbo's resignation.

Gbagbo refuses on the grounds that he was democratically elected. But insurgents reject the voting, saying it excluded one of the country's leading opposition leaders, Alassane Ouattara, and was tainted by violence.

"We need new elections," said Ouattara, a former prime minister barred from the 2000 vote because of challenges to his nationality. "The government has to show that it's finally credible, which it has not been, so we have to have a government of transition."

Gbagbo said he has only one goal.

"I have a single objective, not two: that the fighting stops, my country is liberated and that administration is re-established in areas occupied by the rebels," he said in an interview published Wednesday in the French daily Le Monde.

Gbagbo has said he will not attend the talks unless other African heads of state attend. But he might attend a Paris on Jan. 24 of regional African leaders.

France has a huge stake in the outcome. With more than 2,000 troops in Ivory Coast, France is keen to avoid getting bogged down there. The soldiers were sent to protect the 20,000 French citizens and to enforce an oft-violated cease-fire.

France and other mediators are concerned about the economic impact of the war on the poverty-ridden region. Ivory Coast is the world's largest supplier of cocoa, used in chocolate.

Peace efforts have been complicated by the emergence in November of two rebel groups in western Ivory Coast. French soldiers have repeatedly clashed with insurgents in the west during a rebel drive toward Abidjan, the government-controlled economic hub and a strategic port.

Guillaume Soro, leader of the main northern rebels, expressed hope that peace was attainable but insisted they could not disarm first.

"I am optimistic. I think we will find solutions and what we hope is that everyone is flexible so that we arrive at a negotiated political solution," he told French radio.

Paris hopes to give a stamp of international legitimacy to any Ivorian peace accord by hosting a grand summit of West African leaders and other actors such as the IMF and the World Bank on Jan. 24-25.