COTE D'IVOIRE
Former Rebels Call for President's
Resignation after Killings
DAKAR, 27 March (IRIN) - The leader of the former rebel group, the New
Forces, Guillaume Soro has called for President Laurent Gbagbo to resign after Thursday's fatal clashes
with security forces in the main city of Abidjan, according to local press reports on Saturday.
Sidiki Konate, spokesman for the New Forces has backed Soro. He said that members of the government
of reconciliation could not be asked to work with Gbagbo after the deaths of civilians on the streets of
Abidjan on Thursday.
According to figures released by the authorities, 25 people were killed when security forces clamped
down on the city's suburbs in the early morning, when protestors were preparing to stage a banned march
for peace.
Opposition parties who organised the march have advanced different figures, from 100 up to 300 dead.
Reports from diplomats and other independent sources have also pointed to much higher casualties than
the state has so far acknowledged.
Rival newspapers, many of which are openly aligned with different political tendencies, offered similarly
very different accounts of Thursday's developments.
"March of the Marcoussistes repressed amidst bloodshed", said 24 hours, a daily which is seen as close to
the opposition. Notre Voie, which is strongly pro-Gbagbo, talked of "scenarios from a failed insurrection",
stressing that security forces had been welcomed as heroes in areas of
Abidjan like Abobo where some of the highest casualty figures were reported.
Gbagbo appeared on state television on Friday evening as an uneasy calm began to settle over most of the
city. He promised that "every light possible will be shed on these tragic events" and expressed his
condolences to the families of the dead.
But the head of state explicitly blamed the deaths and injuries witnessed in Abidjan on the march
organisers, arguing that they had been given due warning and knew the likely consequences of their
actions. He reiterated accusations made in an earlier FP communiqué, arguing that the march had not been
for peace but an attempt "to bring insurrection into the heart of the republic".
However, at the same time Gbagbo invited opposition parties, which have quit the transitional government,
to come back into his cabinet. He concluded by reminding signatories of the Linas-Marcoussis peace
accords that their would be a fresh opportunity to air their grievances at a meeting with him on Monday,
adding that he would be willing to meet anyone earlier if so required.
None of the parties have yet taken up the offer.
The Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), which walked out of government last week saying that
Gbabgo was obstructing the peace process and circumventing the authority of PDCI ministers, refused to
meet the president until security and freedom of expression was reinstated.
The Rally of the Republicans (RDR), which has a strong following amongst northerners, said it would not
meet with the "executioner" of their supporters.
Cote d'Ivoire, a former model of stability in West Africa, was plunged into civil war after a failed coup
d'etat in September 2002.
The first ever United Nations peacekeeping force is due to begin deployment to the divided country on the
4th April. Renewed violence and the withdrawal of the opposition parties from the government of
reconciliation has cast doubt over that deployment.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, has called for all players to resume negotiations in a bid to prevent
further violence. The UN Security
Council reviewed the situation in Cote d'Ivoire in New York on Friday. Its current President, Jean-Marie
de la Sablière of France, later issued a statement urging all parties to implement the Linas-Marcoussis
accords.
On the streets of Abidjan on Saturday, shops were cautiously reopening and people were again moving
around the city, if not in their usual numbers.
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©2003 The African Independent, Inc.