Rebels agree to send delegation to Abidjan

Ivorian rebels met the United Nations humanitarian envoy, Carolyn McAskie, on Tuesday at their headquarters in Bouake, 380 km north of the commercial capital, Abidjan, and confirmed that they would send a delegation to meet government officials to explore ways to return to a government of national unity. Amadou Kone, an aide to the Secretary General of the rebel "New Forces" Guillame Soro, told IRIN by telephone, that the delegation would go to Abidjan on Wednesday. It would include two civilians and two military persons led by a senior rebel leader, Louis-Angre Dacoury-Tabley. They are expected to meet the Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, the UN Special Representative, Albert Tevoedjre, as well as Assistant Secretary-General Heidi Hannabi who is presently leading a mission in Abidjan. The delegation would depart Bouake at 0600 am and stay in Abidjan for a day, Kone said. He added that McAskie had appealed to them to take a "step forward" in their negotiations. "Of all the meetings that we’ve had since 23 September when we left government, this meeting [with McAskie] was very fruitful," Kone said. The meeting between the rebel delegation and government officials will be held as part of the calendar of actions that was agreed upon on Thursday at a meeting in Yamoussoukro between President Laurent Gbagbo and the rebels. Gbagbo and the "New Forces" met for nearly four hours and agreed that from 15 December both sides would remove unnecessary checkpoints as a first stage in the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process. The president was thereafter due to travel to Bouake to launch the disarmament process. But the rebels again backtracked on Sunday, saying they were neither ready to disarm nor return to rejoin a government of national unity in Abidjan but released on Sunday 40 prisoners of war. Sources said the rebels were hardened by street protests organised by pro-Gbagbo youth militants. McAskie, who flew from Abidjan to Bouake, met rebel leader Guillaume Soro and appealed to him to seek a peaceful resolution of the Ivorian crisis. On Monday she met Gbagbo and repeated her appeal for a peaceful resolution to the Ivorian crisis. Cote d'Ivoire sunk into crisis on 19 September 2002 when a coup attempt against Gbagbo failed. the rebellious soldiers seized control of the north and west of the country and have since remained there. After being given nine posts in a government of national reconciliation following a peace agreement signed in France in January, the "New Forces" suspended participation in the government in September. They cited lack of security for their ministers and a delay by Gbagbo to implement parts of the agreement. Intense diplomatic efforts has since been on to try and persuade the rebels to return to Abidjan. According to humanitarian agencies, between 500,000-600,000 people have been internally displaced by the continuing conflict while thousands of other citizens from several West African nationals have been forced to flee and return to their countries. Bouake, which is the country's second largest city, has for example been greatly affected by population movements, the closure of the administrative services and insuffiicient basic social services. The UN has launched an appeal for US $59 million to assist war-affected civilians.