Johannesburg — Government troops in Cote dIvoire report fresh fighting in the west of the country on Sunday, as efforts continued to persuade President Laurent Gbagbo and his rivals to implement a peace accord agreed in France last month.
Quoted by Reuters, the Ivorian loyalist army spokesman, Jules Yao Yao, issued a statement Sunday afternoon saying that the rebels had attacked government positions in Toulepleu, a small town in the west, close to Cote dIvoires border with Liberia.
"The attack was launched simultaneously from three directions: north, south and west of the town," Sunday morning, the army statement said. "The fighting lasted one hour and the enemy, mainly comprising Liberians, was repulsed."
Reports say both the government and the rebels are using mercenaries to help fight their battles.
The rebels accused the government troops of attacking first. In a satellite phone conversation with Reuters, a rebel commander calling himself "Israel" denied the army claim that the rebels were responsible for the latest reported upsurge in fighting. "Israel" said rebel positions were bombarded by government tanks and heavy weapons and that the clashes were continuing.
These troubling developments come as West African leaders struggle to bring the rival Ivorian sides together for a mini-summit, which they hope will consolidate agreement to implement the French-brokered peace deal.
But there is some confusion about the venue for the talks. The Ivorian presidency said the meeting was to be held Monday in the Ivorian capital, Yamoussoukro, 250km (160 miles) north of the coastal commercial centre, Abidjan.
Reports said the rebels were unhappy to attend a meeting in government-held territory, despite assurances from the former colonial power, France. Paris said its military on the ground in Cote dIvoire could guarantee the rebels security.
Speaking from their stronghold in the central city of Bouake, rebel commander, Tuo Fozie - representing the main faction, the Patriotic Movement of Cote dIvoire (MPCI) - said they had not yet decided whether or not to go to Yamoussoukro, 100km (60 miles) to the south.
The French have upwards of 3,000 troops in Cote dIvoire, sent in initially to protect their nationals and other foreigners. Since October, French forces have been trying to enforce ceasefires between government and rebel troops and keep the rival sides apart.
More French troops
Paris has considerably bolstered its military presence in Cote dIvoire since violent anti-French riots broke out in Abidjan late last month, led by angry pro-Gbagbo supporters demonstrating their strength in the governments power base. The protestors hold the French responsible for imposing a peace package on the Ivorian leader which they claim both favours and rewards the rebels, to the detriment of Gbagbo.
The peace deal signed by rebels, Gbagbo's negotiators and Ivorian political parties - and ultimately by Gbagbo himself - is known as the Marcoussis accord, named after the venue of the talks last month in Linas-Marcoussis, outside Paris.
After signing the accord in Paris, Gbagbo allowed two weeks to elapse before addressing the nation on the agreement. His critics argue that his silence allowed tensions in Abidjan to rise sharply, with his supporters demanding the agreement should be ditched, and the rebels insisting from afar that it was non-negotiable. But Gbagbo gave the agreement a provisional green-light on Friday, albeit conditional upon certain factors, and while insisting that it could not override the Ivorian constitution. "I invite you to accept the spirit of the Marcoussis agreements and therefore the test of the Marcoussis accord, as a basis to work on," Gbagbo said on national television. Earlier he had called the accord a set of proposals".
"Lets try this medicine. If we get better, then we keep it. If not, we try something else," said the Ivorian leader.
But, crucially, he cast doubt on whether the rebels would be granted the strategic and powerful defence and interior ministries they claimed they had been assigned under the agreement.
It was this information that had incensed Gbagbos followers, who immediately went on the warpath against French targets in Abidjan, denouncing the Marcoussis accord as a conspiracy by Paris and a constitutional coup.
The Ivorian security forces, leading political parties, traditional leaders and pro-government civilians all opposed rebel control of the key ministerial portfolios. Not only did the armed forces warn that they would refuse to report to rebel ministers, but they also objected vehemently to a provision in the agreement for the security units to disarm and return to barracks, calling the Paris agreement a national humiliation which Ivorians could not accept.
Gbagbos wife Simone Ehivet - herself an influential member of his governing Popular Front Party (FPI) - added her voice to the chorus of condemnation of Marcoussis this week. She said the accord, as it stood, had been roundly rejected by Ivorians. "I can tell you, he (Gbagbo) cannot take all thats in the (Marcoussis) text and there is not a single Ivorian who could do that," Ehivet told independent French radio.
Ehivet, who heads the FPIs parliamentary group, said: "We Ivorians dont want the rebels to enter the government. There have been too many dead, too many massacres." Gbagbos wife said she wanted to "bring the rebels back to reason," and criticised the French peace mediators. She said the main French peace broker, foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, must also behave reasonably.
Ehivet went further and told Radio France International that "France should mind its own business. It has caused enough problems already. It is my wish, and I believe it will be wise on its part, for France to be kind enough to step aside and leave Ivorians to solve their own problems."
She described Frances attitude as "unfortunate" during the Cote dIvoire crisis. "(France) has not contributed to a peaceful settlement to the question. Today, anti-French sentiment is at a peak, despite the fact that the French were loved and were almost the object of adulation before."
Rebel ultimatum
Hours before Gbagbo spoke Friday, the rebels issued an ultimatum calling on the president to accept and implement the Paris accord or face the prospect of renewed fighting and a "march on Abidjan". "Were going to give the international community a week to make Gbagbo respect the deal," said civilian rebel leader, Guillaume Soro.
In his long-awaited speech, broadcast nationwide on Friday night - after days of consultations across the board - Gbagbo sought to soothe the fury of his supporters.
Charles Ble Goude, the firebrand leader of the Young Patriots movement that backs Gbagbo and has orchestrated the violent anti-French, anti-rebel demonstrations in Abidjan over the past two weeks, on Saturday give a thumbs-up to Gbagbos explanations. "The spirit (of the deal) is peace and everyone wants peace," he said.
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Gbagbo also strove to satisfy both regional and Western leaders who have been pressuring him to respect the Paris peace deal.
Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the recently elected chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), held a series of meetings in his capital, Accra, with both Gbagbo and rebel leaders during the week.
On Sunday, Kufuor was scheduled to hold talks with Seydou Diarra, the widely-respected man named as the new prime minister of Cote dIvoire, who is supposed, under the agreement, to head a national unity and reconciliation government. Diarra had delayed his return to Abidjan because of the hostile reception to the news that he was to lead a coalition cabinet, which sparked the ugly clashes back home.
On Saturday, Ble Goude also endorsed the appointment of Diarra that he had previously opposed, without giving reasons for his change of heart. "We are waiting for him. Tell (Diarra) to come back, he has nothing to fear," he said. But there was a warning for the new prime minister that he should "respect the will of the people (who) dont want rebels in our government."
Until the French stepped in to broker fresh peace talks, the regional community had tried and failed to end the five month civil war in Cote dIvoire. Weeks of negotiations, mediated by Togos Gnassingbe Eyadema at his presidential residence in the Togolese capital, Lome, stalled at end of last year.
Hundreds of people have been killed - some reports say thousands - and up to one million people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes in Cote dIvoire.
Gbagbos government has retained control of Abidjan and the south, but most of the north and parts of the west remain in the hands of three rebel factions.
