IVORY COAST: FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN ARRIVES IN BID TO BROKER PEACE IN WAR-TORN COUNTRY

Record ID: 183553

  • Title: IVORY COAST: FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN ARRIVES IN BID TO BROKER PEACE IN WAR-TORN COUNTRY
  • Date: 5th January 2003
  • Summary: (EU) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (JANUARY 3, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SOLDIERS FROM GHANA, BENIN AND TOGO ARRIVING AT AIRPORT: MV SOLDIERS CHECKING PERSONAL BAGGAGE AFTER THEY ARRIVE (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. MV GHANAIAN SOLDIERS LINED UP ON THE TARMAC 0.13 3. MV MV GHANAIAN COLONEL ROBERT SACKEY, THE DEPUTY FORCE COMMANDER FOR THE ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOMOG) FORCE ADDRESSING TROOPS 0.18 4. SLV WEST AFRICAN AND FRENCH SOLDIERS LOADING SUPPLIES ONTO A TRUCK; SLV / MV SOLDIERS TALKING (4 SHOTS) 0.32 5. MV FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER DOMINIQUE VILLEPIN ARRIVING AT ABIDJAN AIRPORT AND BEING GREETED BY IVORIAN PRIME MINISTER AFFI N'GUESSAN; MV VILLEPIN GREETING OFFICIALS; SLV VILLEPIN AND N'GUESSAN WALKING TOWARDS THE AIRPORT (2 SHOTS) 1.00 (W6) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (JANUARY 3, 2003) (REUTERS) 6. SLV CROWDS SHOUTING; SLV VILLEPIN AMONG CROWDS; SLV PEOPLE HOLDING BACK CHANTING CROWD; MV VILLEPIN OBSERVING CHANTING CROWD (4 SHOTS) 1.16 7. SOUNDBITE (French) PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO SAYING "Dominique de Villepin came here today for us to find a solution quickly, by the end of January." 1.28 8. SLV CROWD SHOUTING; SLV VILLEPIN AND GBAGBO FACE CROWD (2 SHOTS) 1.35 (W7) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (JANUARY 3, 2003) (REUTERS) 9. MV IVORY COAST PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO AND FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN COMING OUT OF GBAGBO RESIDENCE 1.40 10. (SOUNDBITE) (French) IVORY COAST PRESIDENT LAURENT GBAGBO SAYING "We will refrain from all acts of war, on all fronts, in the North, in the centre and in the West. We will even ground our helicopters and stop our men in the positions they are (now)." 1.58 11. SCU JOURNALISTS LISTENING 2.00 12. (SOUNDBITE) (French) DE VILLEPIN SAYING "From the 15th of January, all political forces will be meeting at a roundtable in Paris under the control of African Organizations such ECOWAS, the United Nations, the African Union. It will be to support the efforts of the one side and the other, and to find the way to a political solution to the difficult questions that are at the heart of the Ivorian problem." 2.21 13. MV DE VILLEPIN LEAVING 2.25 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Reuters ID: LVA3S20AGK5DS6QNC0J9STZAOTTN
  • Story Text: France's foreign minister has begun a bid to broker
    peace in war-torn Ivory Coast and was blocked by hundreds of
    angry protesters after initial talks with President Laurent
    Gbagbo.

    Dominique de Villepin arrived on a hastily arranged
    two-day visit to France's former West African colony on Friday
    (January 3, 2003) as fighting between rebels and government
    troops raged in the cocoa-rich west.

    Angry crowds prevented Villepin from leaving Gbagbo's
    residence for more than half an hour after rumours spread that
    he had come to urge the president to resign.

    Gbagbo, elected in 2000 in a disputed poll, intervened to
    calm the several hundred protesters.

    Villepin will also hold talks with representatives of the
    main rebel faction, the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast
    (MPCI), to press for a Paris summit to stop civil war sparked
    by a failed September 19 coup in the world's biggest cocoa
    grower.

    His task has been made more urgent by fresh fighting in
    the west that has seen rebels advance to within 200 km (125
    miles) of the port of San Pedro, which exports a fifth of the
    world cocoa crop.

    Villepin told reporters after his talks with Gbagbo at the
    presidential residence that talks were planned in Paris.

    "From the 15th of January, all political forces will be
    meeting at a roundtable in Paris under the control of African
    Organisations such ECOWAS, the United Nations, the African
    Union. It will be to support the efforts of the one side and
    the other, and to find the way to a political solution to the
    difficult questions that are at the heart of the Ivorian
    problem," he said.

    Gbagbo said: "We will refrain from all acts of war, on all
    fronts, in the North, in the centre and in the West. We will
    even ground our helicopters and stop our men in the positions
    they are (now)."
    Villepin was due to travel north to the rebel-held second
    city, Bouake, on Saturday (January 4).

    France fears the war will spiral out of control after
    weeks of West African-brokered peace talks failed to make any
    major progress. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens
    of thousands driven from their homes.

    West African leaders fear the conflict, which has split
    the country along ethnic lines, could blight the whole region.

    French President Jacques Chirac was keeping a close eye on
    Villepin's visit and phoned him in Abidjan on Friday, a
    presidential spokeswoman in Paris said.

    France has sent 2,500 troops to Ivory Coast, its biggest
    African intervention in years, to try to restore peace to a
    country that was once a bulwark of stability in the region.

    A ceasefire has been agreed between the government,
    holding the mainly Christian south, and the MPCI, controlling
    the mostly Muslim north. But two allied western rebel groups
    sprang up after the October 17 deal, and do not consider
    themselves bound by it.

    Even the existing truce is under mounting pressure after a
    government helicopter gunship crossed the ceasefire line on
    Tuesday and killed 12 civilians, an attack condemned by France.


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