Abidjan — President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire received his first official visit from a head of state Friday -- a week after he was sworn into office. The fleeting stopover was by President Charles Taylor of Liberia, who was heading home after talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria.
Cote d'Ivoire rolled out the red carpet and laid on the military brass band and ceremonial guards -- in thigh-high black boots, plumed helmets and scarlet capes -- to greet the VIP visitor, who shook hands with awaiting cabinet ministers and senior military personnel, after inspecting the guard.
Taylor, carrying a cane and sitting beside Gbagbo, briefly addressed journalists, before joining the Ivorian leader in the presidential limousine for a high-speed drive in convoy to Gbagbo's office on Plateau, the central business district of Abidjan a few miles away. His visit lasted two hours.
Charles Taylor, whose country emerged from eight years of civil war in 1997 but is still feuding with neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone and facing a simmering rebellion, said he had come to Cote d'Ivoire to give his full backing to the fledgling government of Laurent Gbagbo. He may need Gbagbo's support to try to end the Liberian conflict in and outside his nation.
"After the Ivorian people have spoken over the last few days, it is time for Liberia and even the West African sub-region to embrace the administration and begin to restore peace and stability in this beautiful country, la Cote d'Ivoire".
Taylor said Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire shared a "very long border", adding that with family and traditional ties the two countries were closely linked. He said this expression of solidarity was shared by ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States.
President Taylor did not specify whether he was speaking solely in his capacity as the Liberian leader or as an ECOWAS envoy to Cote d'Ivoire. He did however tell President Gbagbo and journalists at a news conference at Houphouet Boigny Airport in Abidjan that he had been in regional consultations with 'my brothers' and was conveying these messages to Gbagbo.
Taylor would not be drawn on the outcome of his unscheduled discussions with President Obasanjo in Nigeria. But it was later reported that he had appealed for urgent talks with his Guinean counterpart, President Lansana Conte in a bid to end the Liberian-Guinean border conflict.
President Taylor said he had not been asked, either by the authorities in Abidjan or by the ousted Ivorian military head of state General Robert Guei, to offer the General political asylum in Liberia. He did not say whether such a request would be favourably received.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
But Charles Taylor noted that "one thing I'm sure about and the President (Gbagbo) may do... it may be in the best interests of the everybody for General Guei, if possible, to remain in Cote d'Ivoire to work and rebuild his country instead of trying to run away to Liberia or any other place."
Taylor hastily concluded that such a decision would be entirely in the hands of President Gbagbo and the Ivorian people. He said he had heard the rumours that General Guei was in Liberia, "but that's not true, I don't know where he is right now...I have no idea".
General Guei, from the Yacouba tribe, comes from the area of Cote d'Ivoire in the west that borders Liberia. Guei was the army commander in the late Houphouet government early in the Liberian civil war and is thought to know Charles Taylor from those days.
