Cote d'Ivoire's Govt. Accepts Ceasefire with Rebels

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 18, 2002

Cote d'Ivoire's Govt. Accepts Ceasefire with Rebels

President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire has accepted a ceasefire agreement that the rebels signed on Thursday, local media reported on Friday.

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President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire has accepted a ceasefire agreement that the rebels signed on Thursday, local media reported on Friday.

The reports said Gbagbo made the decision when he addressed the nation on state television later Thursday.

"I can say today (Thursday) that I accept the framework of this accord as a basis for negotiation," Gbagbo said.

Rebels of the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI) signed the truce with west African mediators in their stronghold of Bouake after a 90-minute meeting.

The mediators, including Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, flew Thursday morning to Bouake for the meeting after spending the weekend and Monday in talks with the rebels.

The "cessation of hostilities" took effect at midnight on Thursday and an ECOWAS monitoring team will be deployed "shortly" to oversee the truce, paving the way to further negotiations between the two warring sides.

Gbagbo said the government will begin negotiations with MPCI rebels in a town within the country soon, probably from Tuesday.

The president asked France to form a buffer force and monitor the truce before the deployment of the ECOWAS monitoring team.

He also said he wanted French troops "to secure the assailants until ECOWAS starts to disarm them".

As Cote d'Ivoire's former colonial ruler, France has more than 1,000 troops stationing in the west African country.

In the meantime, he warned his troops to remain on a state of alert and maintain their positions in the world's largest cocoa producer.

"When we want peace, we have to prepare for war," said Gbagbo, who had Monday vowed to end the month-long rebellion within this week either by signing ceasefire or by waging war.

The Sept. 19 uprising, which plunged Cote d'Ivoire into its worst crisis since its independence from France in 1960, has claimed hundreds of lives and left tens of thousands of people homeless.

As sub-Saharan Africa's third largest economy, Cote d'Ivoire has long been considered an oasis of stability and prosperity in a blood-soaked, impoverished region.

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