No rebel forces will present themselves this week at a disarmament site in north-eastern Côte d’Ivoire, rebel spokesperson Sidiki Konate announced on Wednesday.
”There will be nothing at the site in Bouna on Friday,” Konate said by telephone from the central rebel stronghold of Bouake.
”We will not allow ourselves to be drawn into the political manipulation by President [Laurent] Gbagbo, who is fixated on that date.”
The rebel New Forces plunged the former West African powerhouse, producer of 40% of the world’s cocoa, into a divisive civil war in September 2002 with a failed bid to oust Gbagbo.
Disarmament was mandated by a peace pact signed in January last year, which also detailed laws aimed to address rebel grievances over land ownership and national identity for the country of 17-million, one-quarter of whom are economic migrants from around West Africa.
After months of delays triggered by violence in the main city, Abidjan, Friday was set as the day the disarmament campaign would open, with the regrouping of rebel fighters in the north-eastern town of Bouna and militia forces in Bondoukou in the government-controlled zone.
But without that political reform, the rebels have said they will hold fast to their weapons and maintain control of the country’s north, which has been in their hands since their uprising to oust Gbagbo.
The president insisted on Tuesday in a televised address to the nation that disarmament of the country’s estimated 30 000 paramilitary and militia forces — 25 000 of whom are rebel troops — will begin on Friday.
”The start of disarmament does not signify the end of reform,” he said. ”Political reform is definitely important, but unlike disarmament, it does not constitute a physical obstacle in reuniting the country.”
Gbagbo also said a constitutional provision limiting who can stand for president will be decided by referendum, and then only after disarmament begins, dealing a serious blow to the political opposition in the run-up to elections set for October 2005.
Article 35, which decrees that presidential candidates have Ivorian-born parents, has been a major obstacle in reconciliation efforts.
Amended to the Constitution in 2000, the article specifically targets former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, who is enormously popular in the mostly Muslim north. It has never been conclusively determined whether both Ouattara’s parents were born in Côte d’Ivoire.
Hardliners in Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front have threatened war should Article 35 be revised.
Attempting to strike a conciliatory tone, Gbagbo said that once the rebels lay down their arms, as proof of his ”good faith” he will submit the necessary bill to Parliament to begin revising the controversial Article 35.
But, he noted, ”revising the Constitution is not definitive until after it is approved by referendum, by an absolute majority of all votes cast”. — Sapa-AFP