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Hope raised of Ivory Coast talks as rebels advance
( 2002-10-14 09:53 ) (7 )

Ivory Coast's rebels tightened their hold on the key cocoa industry town of Daloa as a West African envoy held out the hope of talks to end a conflict that has shaken the fragile continent.

Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced by a war that has blown up from a failed September 19 coup and sharpened divisions between the Muslim north and Christian south of the country of 16 million.

The latest rebel advance was likely to have a big impact on cocoa markets, already near 17-year highs, when they open on Monday. Buyers said it could effectively block in a third of the production of the world's top grower.

Odd gunshots rang out after dark in Daloa, many of them followed by cheers of celebration, as rebels of the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast cruised the streets in pickup trucks and reinforced positions on the outskirts.

Daloa lies 250 miles northwest of the main city of Abidjan at the boundary between the south that largely supports President Laurent Gbagbo and the north, the opposition heartland where many of the insurgents originate.

Rebels accused France, which has more than 1,000 troops in its former colony, of giving weapons to the soldiers who had defended Daloa. France says it gives logistic support to Gbagbo's forces, but will not join the fighting.

"We captured more than 300 new weapons of French origin here and we are calling on France to get out of this conflict," said rebel Sergeant Kone. He said his troops had no plan to advance further for the moment, but would consolidate their hold.

"Our intention is to get Gbagbo to leave power," he said.

POSSIBILITY OF TALKS

Other rebel commanders held open the door for talks, saying after a meeting with a West African envoy at their stronghold of Bouake that they were willing to freeze their frontlines if they were not attacked.

Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio said in Bouake, 225 miles north of Abidjan, he had reached a verbal understanding with both sides on a peace plan that would lead to a cease-fire and then negotiations.

West African countries fear if they cannot halt the conflict, it could blow up into a full-scale civil war like those in nearby Liberia and Sierra Leone, which scattered more than a million refugees through the region.

Tens of thousands of people have already been displaced by the fighting. Up to 10,000 are immigrants from northern neighbor Burkina Faso, which is accused by many Ivorians of backing the rebels.

The rebels say they want to end ethnic discrimination and hold fresh elections. Many are also soldiers unhappy at being booted out of the army and want to be reinstated.

No clear leader of the rebels has emerged, but commanders in Bouake announced on Sunday that Guillaume Soro Kigbaforo was the movement's secretary-general.

Rumors of discontent in the army over the government's handling of the war have set on edge the economic capital Abidjan, where there has been no fighting since the attacks on the first day.