Chirac says ready to pull troops if asked, worried about elections

The prospect of Cote d'Ivoire holding elections on schedule in October is looking increasingly tricky and France will only keep its peacekeeping troops in the country if it is asked to do so by African leaders, President Jacques Chirac has said. "For France, the situation is clear. We will do what we are asked. If people want us to stay, then we will stay. If they don't want us to stay, then we will leave," Chirac told reporters as he began a two-day visit to Senegal on Wednesday night. "If the United Nations asks France's Unicorn Force to stay, we will examine that request positively but only on the condition that the African leaders ask for it... starting of course with the Ivorian government," Chirac added. More than 4,000 French soldiers have been helping a 6,000-strong UN force to keep the peace in the West African nation. It has been split into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south since civil war broke out in September 2002. The mandate of the French troops, who provide a rapid intervention capacity to back up the more lightly armed UN peacekeepers, is up for renewal at the beginning of April. Relations between Abidjan and Paris plunged to a new low in November after nine French peacekeepers were killed in an air raid during an Ivorian army attack on the rebel-held north. France retaliated by crippling the Ivorian air force, a move which prompted anti-French mobs to rampage through the streets of Abidjan. French forces have admitted killing "about 20" in the days of chaos that followed, but the government said the number was closer to 60. Some diplomats in Abidjan have said that the short-lived but intense flare-up in violence prompted a serious rethink at the Elysee about how to proceed in Cote d'Ivoire, the most prosperous of France's former African colonies. Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo criticised France's action in November, but stopped short of publicly calling for their withdrawal. However, his hard-line supporters have shown no such reticence. Many of them have repeatedly demanded that the French quit Cote d'Ivoire, accusing them of continuing to act like colonial masters. “Chirac’s statement is important because it passes back the responsibility for the presence of the French army to Gbagbo," Meite Sindou, the editor of the Ivorian opposition newspaper Le Patriote, told IRIN. “It’s a perfect opportunity for Gbagbo to prove the coherency of his anti-French policy,” he went on. "Now, if Gbagbo...sticks to his logic, he should do two things. He should first renounce the 1961 defence agreement between France and Côte d’Ivoire and then ask the French army to withdraw. Either way, it’s time he made up his mind.” An African Union (AU) peace drive, being spearheaded by South African President Thabo Mbeki, is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at ending the two and a half-year-old conflict. Chirac said he fully supportive of Mbeki's mediation attempts, although he added that they had not had "a particularly strong impact so far." The rebel New Forces movement has refused to return to Cote d'Ivoire's power-sharing government of national reconciliation, since Gbagbo broke an 18-month ceasefire by launching air raids against the north in November. It says the security of its nine ministers cannot be guaranteed in Abidjan where cabinet meetings take place. Diplomats say there is no chance of firming up a timetable for disarmament until this deadlock is broken. And disarmament is essential for the Cote d'Ivoire to be reunified so that free and fair elections can take place in eight months time. Presidential and parliamentary elections have been scheduled for October, but Chirac cast doubt on the feasibility of holding them by this target date, established in a January 2003 peace agreement that Mbeki is still trying to persuade both sides to apply in full. "Unfortunately, the elections which are being planned in theory, are today, in my opinion, being called into question, because elections require preparation," he told reporters. "And I do not see today any real effort to prepare and organise elections - which worries me somewhat." On Monday, Albert Tevoedjre, the outgoing UN special envoy to Cote d'Ivoire, also expressed doubts about organising presidential elections on schedule. "Some people already think we should review the electoral calendar," he told Radio France Internationale in an interview. "I might mention the idea of holding legislative elections prior to the presidential poll."