Gbagbo rules out resumption of conflict

President Laurent Gbagbo ruled out a return to military conflict to break the deadlock in Cote d'Ivoire's flagging peace process in an interview published on Tuesday. Asked whether he was now looking seriously at the "military option" favoured by many of his supporters to solve the latest impasse, Gbagbo told the French daily newspaper Le Figaro in an interview: "It is me who decides and that is not part of my plans. Otherwise, do you think I would have spent two years negotiating and anticipating reforms?" The president's remarks followed a call by Pascal Affi N'guessan, his former prime minister and a close political associate, for the resignation of Seydou Diarra, the prime minister of Cote d'Ivoire's power-sharing government of national reconciliation, and preparations for a possible return to war. Affi N'Guessan, who is the president of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party, told a press conference on Saturday that Diarra's government, which includes representatives of the rebel movement and the opposition parties in parliament, should be disolved. He said genuine patriots should mobilise "all political, diplomatic and military means" to liberate the rebel-occupied north of Cote d'Ivoire and restore the government's authority throughout the country." Asked whether this meant that he favoured a military solution to the current crisis, Affi N'Guessan told IRIN on Monday: "All means are good. A military solution is one possibility." UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has meanwhile expressed concern that the July 30 Accra Three agreement, which was designed to put Cote d'Ivoire's deadlocked peace process back on track, has not been implemented on schedule. "The Secretary General notes with concern that key deadlines of the Accra Three Agreement for the adoption of legislative reforms, the revision of article 35 of the constitution on eligibility to the presidency and the commencement of the disarmament process have not been met," his spokesman said in a statement. The reforms, most of which are aimed at giving greater rights to the four million immigrants from other West African countries and their descendents, were due to have been on the statute book by the end of September. However, they were stalled by Gbagbo and the FPI group in parliament, so the rebels refused to start handing in their weapons to UN peacekeepers on 15 October as planned. Annan's spokesman called for the "adoption of all legislative reforms without delay" and urged "all armed elements, including militias, to commence disarmament at the earliest." Diplomats said the reference to militias was an implicit reminder to Gbagbo that he was expected to disarm the militia-style youth groups known as Young Patriots, who have frequently attacked immigrants and suspected rebel sympathisers in the south of Cote d'Ivoire and who have staged a series of rowdy demonstrations against French and UN peacekeeping troops in the economic capital Abidjan. Gbagbo showed a marked reluctance to rein in the Young Patriots in his interview with Le Figaro. The hardline militants are widely viewed as taking their orders from the presidential palace. "In Cote d'Ivoire, 70 percent of the population is below the age of 30 and 40 percent of these young people are unemployed," Gbagbo remarked. "A small proportion of these young people have taken up arms to attack the country. Others have taken to the streets to defend the republic. I am just saying that I prefer the latter." "How can you expect me to bring Guillaume Soro (the 35-year-old rebel leader) into government and put Charles Ble Goude (the leader of the Young Patriots) in prison?" he added. The president said he could not rule out further disturbances by the Young Patriots during the current period of political tension. "It is difficult to predict crowd behaviour. Nothing can be really ruled out until the situation in the country returns to normal," he said. Although Gbagbo dismissed the idea of an early return to conflict to defeat the rebels by force, he admitted to Le Figaro that his government was continuing to re-arm. Asked if it was true that he had stocked up with new weaponry in recent months, Gbagbo replied: "This is the duty of a head of state who has been surprised once because his army was not properly equipped." Gbagbo offered nothing new in the way of political concessions to the rebels and their allies in Cote d'Ivoire's parliamentary opposition, insisting that he would only begin the process of reforming article 35 of the constitution once disarmament had begun. The current wording of article 35 demands that both parents of all presidential candidates be Ivorian nationals. This clause was used to ban former prime minister Alassane Ouattara from standing against Gbagbo in the 2000 presidential election on the disputed grounds that his father was born in Burkina Faso. Ouattara is a popular figure in the north of Cote d'Ivoire and his Rally of the Republicans party is widely viewed as being close to the rebel movement.