Rebels declare state of emergency, warn of return to war

The rebel movement which controls the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire declared a state of emergency on Thursday and warned that the West African country was heading back towards an early resumption of civil war. "Disarmament is no longer a live issue, because the war isn't over yet. It is going to resume shortly," rebel leader Guillaume Soro told a press conference in Bouake, the rebel capital in central Cote d'Ivoire. He said the New Forces rebel movement had ordered its seven ministers in Cote d'Ivoire's broad-based government of national reconciliation to return to Bouake immediately for consultations. This move raises the prospect that the rebels may withdraw from the power-sharing government for the third time in 13 months. Colonel Soumaila Bakayoko, the rebel military commander, meanwhile announced the imposition of a state of emergency and a 9.00pm to 6.00am curfew in all rebel-controlled areas. Following the discovery of a large consignment of weapons and ammunition hidden in a commercial truck entering Bouake on Tuesday, all vehicles would be searched as they entered the rebel zone, including UN vehicles and the vehicles of humanitarian organisations, he added. The rebels displayed 80 AK-47 assault rifles, nine RPG-7 rocket grenade launches, 20 hand grenades and a large cache of ammunition which they said had been hidden in the truck beneath bags of rice. They accused President Laurent Gbagbo of sending the weaponry clandestinely to supporters of Ibrahim Coulibaly, an exiled rebel leader known as "IB," who is widely seen as a challenger to Soro for the leadership of the rebel movement. At least 99 people died during two days of clashes between supporters of Soro and IB in the northern city of Korhogo in June, according to the UN human rights mission which conducted an inquiry afterwards. The rebels' decision to reconsider their participation in Cote d'Ivoire's power-sharing government follows a fresh impasse in the country's flagging peace process. President Gbagbo, the rebels, and parliamentary opposition parties agreed at a meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra on July 30 to a timetable for the rapid implementation of political reforms and an early start to disarmament. However, Ggagbo failed to deliver the promised reforms by the agreed deadline of 30 September, so the rebels refused to begin handing in their weapons to UN peacekeepers on 15 October as planned. The civil war broke out in September 2002 and rebel forces quickly seized control of the north of Cote d'Ivoire, whose cocoa and coffee exports have made it the most prosperous country in West Africa. However, the fighting stopped seven months later following the signing of the French-brokered Linas-Marcoussis peace accord in January 2003. Gbagbo has never disguised his dislike of Marcoussis, saying it gave too many concessions to the rebels. He and his Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party have dragged their feet over implementing many of the political reforms which the peace agreement demands before the holding of fresh presidential elections in October 2005. The rebels have cited slow progress in the implementation of these reforms to justify their refusal to disarm. Despite the presence in Cote d'Ivoire of 4,000 French troops and 6,000 UN peacekeepers to keep the two sides apart, a series of government crises over the past year have raised the ugly prospect of the country sliding back into conflict. Tension has increased markedly over the past week. A group of rebel fighters exchanged fire with a patrol of French peacekeepers 50 km south of Korhogo on Tuesday, a French military spokesman said. Meanwhile, in Abidjan, the "Young Patriots," a militia-style youth movement which supports President Gbagbo, has resumed its former tactic of seizing and ripping up opposition newspapers on sale in the street. Soro's decision to recall all rebel ministers to Bouake meant that the rebels were unlikely to take part in a special cabinet meeting on Friday, called to accelerate the passage of the remaining political reforms. Most of these are aimed at giving greater rights to four million immigrants in Cote d'Ivoire from other West African countries and their descendants. Specific measures to be discussed on Friday include a new nationality law and the creation of an independent national electoral commission to oversee future elections and the organisation of a referendum to approve a constitutional ammendment that would make it easier for the children of immigrants to run for the presidency. One official close to independent Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, said the embattled prime minister still hoped the rebels would turn up for the meeting. "The Prime Minister cannot give a reaction now, but I am sure he will be hoping to the last minute that everybody will come tomorrow," she told IRIN. Officials at the presidency were not immediately available for comment.