More violence and lawlessness reported in the interior

Further reports of violence and lawlessness emerged from the interior of Cote d'Ivoire on Thursday as hopes of saving the country's battered peace process at a West African summit next week grew slimmer. A spokesman for the 4,000-strong French peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire told IRIN that four people had been found shot dead on Monday with their hands tied behind their back in an execution-style killing near the government-held town of Bangolo, 500 km from Abidjan in the troubled west of Cote d'Ivoire. The town is close to the front line with rebel forces that occupy the north of the country. Eyewitnesses meanwhile told an IRIN correspondent in the rebel-held north that at least 14 people had been shot dead in four days of fighting between rival factions of the rebel movement in the northern town of Ferkessedougou, near the frontier with Burkina Faso. The clashes followed a raid on two commercial banks in the town last Sunday. Thousands of immigrant farmers from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali have been chased off their land since Cote d'Ivoire plunged into civil war in September last year and relief workers told IRIN on Thursday that the process was continuing near the southern government-held town of Gagnoa. They said that between Saturday and Monday about 500 immigrant cocoa farmers were forced by gangs of youths to abandon their farms after refusing to join local cooperatives which would have paid them a low price for their beans. They were currently sheltering at a temporary camp in Gagnoa, the relief workers said. UN and West African diplomats are hoping that Cote d'Ivoire's peace process will be put back on the rails at a special summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the Ghanaian capital Accra next Tuesday. President Gbagbo, Ivorian opposition leaders and the leaders of the "New Forces" rebel movement in the north are all due to attend the meeting. It has been called specially to try and prevent Cote d'Ivoire degenerating into renwed conflict 10 months after the signing of a peace agreement which has yet to be fully implemented. The rebels joined a broad-based government of national reconciliation in April, but withdrew their nine ministers from its 41-member cabinet on 23 September in protest at Gbagbo's failure to delegate meaningful powers to the government, plunging the peace process into crisis. Diplomatic moves since then to bring the rebels back into government and persuade them to start a delayed process of disarmament have been accompanied by a further souring of the political atmosphere. Gangs of pro-Gbagbo youths prevented the circulation of all newspapers for two days last week after waylaying distribution vans to seize and burn opposition titles. And on Tuesday the opposition Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) threatened to withdraw from the government of national reconciliation. Its seven ministers stayed away from the weekly cabinet meeting. Like the rebels and the opposition Rally of Republicans party of former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, the PDCI is frustrated by Gbagbo's delay in implementing a series of legal reforms called for by a peace agreement signed by all sides in January and his reluctance to delegate meaningful powers to ministers in the coalition government. But the last straw for the PDCI was the arrest of Alphonse Kobenan Kossonou, a member of the party's political bureau last month. He has since been accused of attempting to destabilise the government and associating the criminals. Eyewitnesses told an IRIN correspondent in northern Cote d'Ivoire that the trouble in Ferkessedougou began on Sunday after the rebel commander in the town, Moussa Kone, led a raid on the local branches of two banks, BICICI and SGBCI, but then failed to share the money stolen with his men. The eyewitnesses said at least 14 people were killed in sporadic shooting between rival factions of the 200-strong rebel garrison in Ferkessedougou. This lasted until a delegation of senior rebel officials from Bouake, the rebel capital, arrived in the town on Wednesday to restore order. The mission was lead by Messamba Kone, who until September was Minister for Displaced Persons, War Victims and Exiles, in the government of national reconciliation. The senior rebel officials relieved the local military commander of his duties and warned a meeting of all rebel fighters in the town that they would be disarmed if there were any further trouble. During a visit to Ferkessedougou, the IRIN correspondent observed that many of the rebel fighters were addicted to sniffing solvents which they poured onto handkerchiefs all day and inhaled.