- Title: IVORY COAST: FRENCH TROOPS PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS.
- Date: 25th December 2002
- Summary: (U6) BONOUFLA, IVORY COAST (DECEMBER 24, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VEHICLE PASSES FRENCH MILITARY CHECKPOINT 2. FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION PARATROOPER CARRYING CHRISTMAS TREE THEN DECORATING IT 3. FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION PARATROOPERS MANNING CHECKPOINT 4. CIVILIANS WALKING ALONG ROAD 5. FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION PARATROOPERS MAKING NATIVITY SCENE 6. EXTERIOR OF HUT Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 9th January 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BONOUFLA, IVORY COAST
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Reuters ID: LVA51JVX4FGY247KWMRNQEAO6NV4
- Story Text: Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo, struggling to
survive at the head of a country ripped apart by war, has
offered to form a government of unity to bring about lasting
peace, according to a draft plan.
In a sign that tempers were also subsiding on the other
side of the frontline, rebel factions on Tuesday (December 24)
said recent clashes with truce monitors from former colonial
power France had been a mistake and they were ready to join a
peaceful solution to the crisis.
That will be good news for French units such as the
foreign legion paratroopers manning a checkpoint at Bonoufla,
around 30 kms (20 miles) from the rebel-held Vavoua.
On Tuesday, they were preparing for their own Christmas
celebrations far from home.
Ivory Coast's war sprang from a failed September 19 coup
and has increasingly fractured the world's top cocoa grower of
16 million people along ethnic lines. Hundreds of people have
been killed in fighting and tens of thousands forced to flee
their homes.
A 10-point draft peace plan seen by Reuters on Tuesday
would answer many rebel demands except for Gbagbo's departure.
As well as the unity government, it offered a referendum
on issues of importance to the rebels and the abolition of
much-maligned "residency cards".
The main rebel group signed a truce in mid-October, but
peace talks in Togo made little headway and have been
suspended for Christmas. The recent emergence of two new rebel
factions in the west has shattered the ceasefire.
All three rebel groups want to see the back of Gbagbo and
accuse him of fanning ethnic tension after winning disputed
elections in 2000. The government says the rebels are simply
hungry for power and get help from neighbouring states.
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