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Archive of stories pre April 2007 | News submitted by: what_conspiracy
By LASSINA SERME - BOUAKE, Ivory Coast - Rebel leaders said Tuesday they were abandoning their posts in Ivory Coast's power-sharing government and halting disarmament amid spiraling tensions in the West African nation since the official end of civil war months ago.
Rebel leader Guillaume Soro — also a minister in the transitional government arranged under a French-brokered January peace deal — said insurgents would no longer attend to their duties in President Laurent Gbagbo's government.
Soro told reporters that rebels would also refuse to turn in their guns as called for under the pact.
"The risk of conflict erupting hereafter is patently obvious," Soro said.
He accused Gbagbo in a statement of stockpiling weapons, training tribal militias and not ceding some decision-making powers as stipulated in the peace accord.
Rebels earlier complained that Gbagbo was steamrolling the peace process, appointing ministers for crucial defense and security positions without properly consulting them.
Gbagbo spokesman Toussaint Alain declined comment.
Civil war broke out in September 2002 with a failed coup against Gbagbo. The war killed more than 3,000 people and displaced about 1 million people.
Fighting was officially declared over in July, but the country has become increasingly tense in recent weeks.
Speaking in the rebel stronghold of Bouake, 210 miles north of Ivory Coast's economic capital, Abidjan, Soro didn't say what concessions were needed to induce rebel-appointed government ministers back to their posts, but said insurgents are "open to dialogue."
Rebels have earlier pulled out of the power-sharing government in protest, only to rejoin it shortly afterward.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony and the world's top cocoa producer, was for decades the most prosperous and stable country in West Africa. A 1999 coup shattered that reputation, and the country has been highly volatile ever since.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=515&ncid=721&e=9&u=/ap/20030923/ap_on_re_af/ivory_coast
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