UN envoy sees disarmament starting on 1 October

Albert Tevoedjre, the United Nations special envoy to Cote d'Ivoire, has said that following the appointment of new ministers of defence and external security, he expects the demobilisation and disarmament of rebel forces occupying the north of the country to start on 1 October. Tevoedjre brushed aside rebel objections to the way President Laurent Gbagbo appointed the new ministers. He told reporters on Wednesday: "At the point where we are now, after so many delays have built up, should we respect point by point certain elements of the (peace) accords?" The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General added: "What we really want is to start disarmament as quickly as possible on 1 October." A team of officials from the UN Security Council, he said, would arrive in Cote d'Ivoire on Monday to observe the start of the process. Tevoedjre also stressed the importance of restoring government administration to the north so that education and health services could be fully restored in the region. He reminded the government and rebels that about US $450 million of aid from the European Union and World Bank was held up pending an effective start to the process of disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation. The process of disarming the rebels, who seized control of the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire following a failed coup attempt on 19 September last year, is two months behind schedule. It should have started on 1 August, but was delayed pending the passage of an amnesty law and the naming of ministers in the broad-based government of national reconciliation, to the vacant portfolios of defence and internal security. The amnesty law was passed by parliament on 6 August, but Gbagbo did not name the new ministers until 14 September, having rejected all previous candidates put to him over the past six months. He finally chose law professor and human rights activist Martin Bleou as Minister for Internal Security and Rene Amani, a political independent with close personal links to Prime Minister Seydou Diarra as Defence Minister. They were chosen from a list of four names put forward by Diarra. The Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI) rebel movement, which has nine seats in the cabinet, subsequently objected to the way the new ministers were selected, but stopped short of rejecting their appointment outright. The MPCI has since been mollified by France's decision to release from custody Master Sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly, a prominent figure in several coup attempts since 1999. Coulibaly, widely known as "IB," was arrested in Paris in late August, along with 11 other people, on suspicion of recruiting mercenaries to destabilise Cote d'Ivoire, a former French colony. Shortly afterwards Gbagbo accused Coulibaly of hatching a plot backed by the MPCI to assassinate him and seize power. Military sources said more than 50 suspected participants in the alleged coup plot were subsequently rounded up in Abidjan, although the government has only admitted to holding 18 people. An appeal court judge in Paris ordered Coulibaly's release on bail last Tuesday on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence against the former soldier to warrant his continued detention. Only four of those originally arrested in France remain in custody.