Ivory Coast’s Warring Sides Burn Arms, Celebrate Peace
BOUAKE, Ivory Coast (AP) – President Laurent Gbagbo on Monday made his first visit to the former rebel stronghold of Bouake since a peace deal five months ago allowed for reunification of the country’s north and south. Gbagbo saluted the Ivorian flag alongside Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who until a few months ago controlled the town as the leader of the rebel-held north. The two set fire to weapons handed over by the rebels in a symbolic act of reconciliation.
“By setting fire to these guns which were the seeds of destruction, we are marking the end of the war,” Soro said. Then turning to his former enemy, he told Gbagbo: “Your coming to Bouake means that Ivory Coast has been reunited.” Marking the importance of the peace accord, Gbagbo was joined Monday by the presidents of South Africa, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Guinea-Bissau, as well as diplomats from Senegal, Ghana and Niger. The diplomats made a circle around the piled-up weapons and a torch with an open flame was passed from president to president, until it reached Gbagbo, who set fire to the arms.
The pile burst into flames with a loud explosion that sent several heads of state jumping backwards. “People of Ivory Coast, the war is over,” Gbagbo declared. For years, Ivory Coast – the world’s largest cocoa producer and once the most cosmopolitan country in the region – had been cleaved in two, with a rebel-controlled north vying for power against a government-held south.
The peace deal signed in March brought an end to the war which erupted in 2002 by installing Soro as prime minister in return for the New Forces rebels laying down their guns. Many peace deals have been signed, but the March 4 accord has so far had the most staying power. Soro’s rapprochement with Gbagbo has not been without its critics, especially in Bouake, where some former rebels did not back the peace deal. On a recent visit to Bouake, unknown assailants attacked Soro’s plane last month, shooting at it as it tried to land. Three people were killed in the emergency landing. Gbagbo arrived in Bouake this time by road.
About 9,000 U.N. troops and 3,500 French soldiers are deployed in Ivory Coast and most used to patrol the buffer zone that runs east to west, dividing the country. Since the peace deal, Ivoirians have begun dismantling the buffer zone.
