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War Declared Over

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
July 8, 2003
Posted to the web July 8, 2003

TEN months after an armed rebellion split the Ivory Coast in two, military
chiefs from the national army and former rebel forces have announced that the
war is over.
In a hastily convened and highly symbolic ceremony at the presidential palace,
former rebels handed President Laurent Gbagbo a Kalashnikov rifle in a sign
they are finally ready to disarm.
They are ready to recognise the man they tried to oust only a few months ago.
It seems a timely visit by an influential UN delegation overseeing the peace
process has persuaded both sides to have another stab at peace.
Just days ago, the former rebels announced a state of emergency in territories
under their control.
They also said they were suspending disarmament in the wake of an assassination
attempt on one of their ministers last week.
President Gbagbo welcomed the statement by the military and especially their
recognition of himself as supreme chief of the armed forces.
But he warned that peace was not yet a fait accompli.
The military has done its part and this is a good thing but it is not in itself
the end of the war, he said, adding that politicians must now follow suit.
And he went on to urge deputies in parliament to approve a new law of amnesty
pardoning all those who took part in last year's armed rebellion.
The amnesty, he said, should be viewed as an invitation by a father for all his
sons to come home.
However, some are yet to be convinced of the father's willingness to discipline
his most wayward sons.
Early on Friday thousands of pro-Gbagbo youths gathered in Abidjan threatening
to demonstrate on Saturday in protest at rebel ministers in government and to
attack them if they saw them in the street.

   

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