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French peacekeepers to deploy more widely in north

French peacekeeping troops will soon start to fan out from the front-line between government and rebel forces to deploy more widely in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire, French Defence Minister Michele Aillot-Marie said on Wednesday. "We are at the point where the rebels agree that the neutral forces should move into the north," she told reporters after an hour-long meeting with President Laurent Gbagbo. Alliot-Marie said France would maintain its military force in Cote d'Ivoire at its present strength of 4,000 men, and would not increase it in the run-up to a planned programme of disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation. In a series of confidence-building measures over the past two weeks, the government army and the rebels have both pulled back their heavy artillery from the front line and have dismantled dozens of check points on main roads. This has taken some of the pressure off the French and West African peacekeeping troops patrolling the demilitarised zone that separates the two sides. The French news agency AFP quoted General Pierre-Michel Joanna, the head of the French peace-keeping force, as saying his troops would initially deploy along the main transport routes linking the port of Abidjan to landlocked Burkina Faso and Mali. He specifically mentioned the establishment of bases in the northern towns of Korhogo and Ferkessedougou. Alliot-Marie said French peacekeeping forces would remain in Cote d'Ivoire until after the next presidential election, which is due to take place in 2005. "The Unicorn Force [official name of the French contingent] is very expensive, but we feel that the peace and security of a friendly country like Cote d'ivoire deserves this financial commitment by French taxpayers", she said, before heading up-country to celebrate the New Year with French troops on the frontline. Alliot-Marie was due to see the New Year in at Sakassou, a small lakeside town in central Cote d'Ivoire, where two French peacekeepers were shot dead in a skirmish with a group of drunken rebels on 25 August. Her visit capped a series of positive developments in Cote d'Ivoire's fragile peace process in December. On 4 December Gbagbo agreed in principle with the rebel military commander, Colonel Soumaila Bakayoko, that the long delayed process of rebel disarmament would get under way. At the same time the president pledged that he would implement in full a French-brokered peace agreement signed in January. Then on 22 December, as military confidence building measures got under way, the rebels, who are officially known as "The New Forces" pledged that they would resume participation in a broad-based government of national reconciliation, which they had boycotted since 23 September. All their nine ministers are expected to turn up for the next cabinet meeting on 6 January. As political and military tension wound down after the three-month stand-off, politicians started talking more seriously about the 2005 elections. Trade Minister Amadou Soumahoro, who belongs to opposition party, Rally of the Republicans", was quoted as saying on Tuesday that "I don't see who can beat the RDR in 2005. He said RDR leader Alassane Ouattara was "the only one who can reconcile Cote d'Ivoire with the rest of the world." Ouattara, a former prime minister of Cote d'Ivoire and senior official of the International Monetary Fund,was barred from the October 2000 presidential election on the grounds that his mother was Burkinabe. The law under which he was banned from taking part in the poll is due to be revised as part of the terms of the January 2003 peace agreement. On Wednesday, the government-owned daily Fraternite-Matin quoted rebel leader and communication minisster, Guillaume Soro, as saying that "it was time to come together to prepare the 2005 elections." Earlier this year, independent Prime Minister Seydou Diarra asked the United Nations to help organise the 2005 elections.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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