Ivorian soldier charged with murder of French peacekeeper

An Ivorian soldier has been charged with murdering a French peacekeeper in the official capital Yamoussoukro last month, a source at the Ivorian military tribunal said on Wednesday. Sebastien N’Dri, a private in the national army, was charged in Abidjan on Tuesday after being held in the city’s military prison since the incident, the source said. "He’s been charged with murder. He is presumed to have killed him", the source said, adding that no trial date had been set. French soldier Kevin Ziolkowski was shot in the back on 25 June as he was patrolling with colleagues in a military vehicle in Yamoussoukro, 250 km northwest of the country's main city Abidjan. Last year, two French soldiers died in an exchange of fire with rebel fighters near the town of Sakassou, which is close to the frontline between the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south of the country in central Cote d'Ivoire. The Ivorian army issued a statement shortly after the latest killing, condemning the act and stressing that its soldier had acted "alone and without orders." Ziolkowski‘s murder came nine months after French journalist Jean Helene was killed at point blank range in Abidjan by an Ivorian policeman, who the government said was also acting on his own. The policeman was convicted of murder by a military tribunal in January and is now serving a 17-year jail sentence. The French news agency AFP quoted Military Prosecutor Ange Kessi as saying that N'Dri faced up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. France has deployed 4,000 soldiers to maintain a ceasefire between government forces and rebels in its former colony. The French troops now act in support of a UN peacekeeping force which will eventually number more than 6,000 men. France has said its troops will remain in Cote d'Ivoire at least until elections due in October 2005. The 15,000-strong French community in Cote d'Ivoire has frequently been the target of anti-French demonstrations by supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo. Although Gbagbo officially insists that the French peacekeepers are there with his approval and consent, his supporters have repeatedly accused Paris of siding with the rebels in the civil war that broke out in September 2002. The two sides signed a French-brokered peace agreement in January last year and fighting stopped three months later, but implementation of the peace accord has ground to a halt, threatening a fresh outbreak of conflict.