Party calls on its representatives to quit government

Cote d'Ivoire's minister of transport, Marcel Amon-Tanoh, resigned on Monday following a call by his party, the Rassemblement des Repubicains (RDR), for the withdrawal of its representatives from the ruling coalition.

AFP quoted Amon-Tanoh as saying that his resignation was motivated by human rights abuses. "My conscience can no longer stand all these exactions, rapes, summary executions, murders perpetrated by the death squad, in all impunity, against innocent victims," AFP reported him as saying.

He said his resignation was in reaction to the "inability of the government to provide adequate responses to the resolution of this crisis despite initiatives which I personally proposed to the President of the Republic, but in vain."

Amon-Tanoh is the director of the cabinet of RDR leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara, who sought refuge in the residence of the French ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire after a 19 September uprising by army mutineers marked the start of a two-month-old rebellion.

On Monday, RDR leaders called on Ouattara to withdraw the party's four ministers from the coalition government, which is led by President Laurent Gbagbo's Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI).

The coalition also includes ministers from the Parti Democratique de Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), which ruled from independence in 1960 to 1999, and the smaller Ivorian Workers Party.

The call, made in a communique published in local media, came in response to statements on Friday by the Secretary-General of the FPI, Sylvain Miaka Oreto, who accused Ouattara of being behind the rebellion.

The RDR denounced the accusation, which it said was baseless and aimed at discrediting the party and its president. It also condemned "the many human rights violations, in particular summary executions", and called on the government to "put an end to the exactions of all types to which RDR militants and sympathisers are subjected".

Meanwhile, negotiations in Lome, Togo, between delegations representing the state and the Mouvement Patriotique de Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI - rebels) have been adjourned. MPCI spokesman Sidiki Konate said the insurgents would respond by Thursday to a draft peace accord presented by Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema.