LOME, Nov 15 (AFP) - Ivory Coast rebels on Friday again rejected a west
African peace plan, and said they also opposed the deployment of regional
peacekeeping force until their political demands are met.
The rebels, who have seized the northern half of the west African state
in a bloody army mutiny, said the peace proposals were unacceptable because
it would assure President Laurent Gbagbo of control over the whole of the
country.
"A durable peace is one that takes into account the strong need for
change expressed by Ivorians, the region and the international community,"
the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement, the rebels' political wing, said in a
statement issued in the Togolese capital Lome.
"It is for this reason that we deplore the proposals the mediation has
put on the table thus far. It serves only to assure the control of the
government of Mr. Gbagbo over the whole of Ivory Coast."
The rebels have been demanding Gbagbo's resignation, a reworked
constitution and new elections ever since the talks opened here on October
30.
For his part the embattled president has said there can be no serious
negotiations with the rebels until they disarm, something they refuse to
contemplate.
The deadlock has endured for nearly two weeks, leaving the country
effectively carved in two and threatening to cripple the economy of the
once-prosperous country, the world's largest cocoa producer.
Togo's President Gnassingbe Eyadema, the chief mediator in the Ivorian
crisis, on Friday asked the rebels to reconsider and the MPCI said it was
working on "refining" its reaction to the peace proposals.
For its part former colonial power France announced it was dispatching
its former ambassador to Ivory Coast, Christian Dutheil de-le-Rochere, to
the negotiations in Lome.
French foreign ministry spokesman Franois Rivasseau told a press
conference in Paris the move showed "France's support for west African
mediation and our strong wish that they succeed."
French troops have for four weeks been monitoring a ceasefire the
rebels and the government signed on October 17, but its soldiers were
meant to be replaced by a 1,264-strong regional force by the end of the
month.
Senegal on Friday agreed to lead the force from the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS) after dithering for weeks, and a
preparatory team of 20 officers were due to arrive in Ivory Coast at the
weekend.
But the rebels said Friday from their stronghold city of Bouake that
they were opposed to the African troops arriving before a political accord
had been reached.
"We are against deploying an African intervention force before we have
signed a political accord with the government of President Laurent Gbagbo,"
rebel spokesman Antoine Beugre told AFP after rebel leaders met in Bouake.
"We need to first sign an accord in Lome that takes into account our
demands, especially our political demands," he added.
In the meanwhile Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade declared that the
Lome talks had "failed" and offered to replace Eyadema as mediator.
The rebellion began on September 19 when disgruntled soldiers took up
arms against Gbagbo, swiftly seizing control of the Muslim majority north
of the country in bitter fighting that claimed 400 lives.
Since then their demands have grown from calls for better conditions in
the military to a quest for political change, and they appear to have
gathered political support on the way.
The deepening crisis is considered Ivory Coast's worst since
independence in 1960 and has seen long-simmering tension between different
ethnic and religious groups flare.
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