Rebel leader in Abidjan for first time in more than a year

Guillaume Soro, who heads Cote d’Ivoire’s rebel New Forces movement, for the first time in more than a year flew into the country’s main city on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the power-sharing transitional government.

Soro flew into Abidjan from his stronghold of Bouake in the rebel-held north, in a French army helicopter just before 11 a.m. His insurgent movement seized control of northern Cote d’Ivoire more than three years ago.

“I have arrived in Abidjan to take my place in government in a calm and serene manner,” Soro told reporters as he landed outside the Golf Hotel in Abidjan. Citing security concerns, Soro had refused to travel to Abidjan since November 2004, when President Laurent Gbagbo’s air force broke a cease-fire and bombarded rebel positions in the north.

Soro was given the portfolio for reconstruction and reinsertion last year as part of attempts to resuscitate a peace agreement to reunify the country under a new prime minister, Charles Konan Banny. He will join cabinet ministers at a meeting on Wednesday, said rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate.

Soro’s arrival in Abidjan is the latest in a string of encouraging advances made since Banny took over as prime minister, including a first face-to-face meeting in Cote d’Ivoire since the beginning of the war between Soro, Gbagbo and the country’s two other leading politicians, Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara. Another step forward last month was the long delayed establishment of an electoral commission charged with organising elections before October 2006.