AFRICA/IVORY COAST - Positive results from meeting between Prime Minister and Opposition. Agreement on freedom of press, security for Party leaders and party headquarters, freedom of assembly and demonstration

Monday, 19 April 2004

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Abidjan (Fides Service)- “This is a positive result which inspires cautious optimism”. Local Church sources voiced to Fides satisfaction for the outcome of talks on 17 April between Prime Minister Seydou Diarra and 7 parties which walked out of the national unity government in March accusing President Laurent Gbagbo of failing to implement points of the peace agreement signed in France in January 2003 to put an end to civil war started in September 2002.
“It was agreed to re-launch dialogue which should bring the 7 parties back into the national unity government” the sources told Fides. “Main points of the agreement include freedom of press, security for Party leaders and party headquarters, freedom of assembly and demonstration”. The last point is important for the Opposition since a demonstration which they organised for March 25 was repressed with bloodshed. The victims of the incident will be commemorated during an inter-confessional service in Abidjan Saturday 24 April.
“The international community is exerting pressure for a return of peace” our sources told Fides. “Now it is up to the Ivorians to reach a definitive pact”. Recently the President of Niger and an envoy of the UN Secretary General went to Ivory Coast to mediate. The United Nations has also appointed an international enquiry to ascertain who was responsible for the violence on March 25.
The local Catholic Church is tireless in her efforts to promote reconciliation and peace. The Catholic Bishops of Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso will meet in Abidjan from 22-25 April. “They discuss among other things the legal situation of 2 million immigrants from Burkina Faso who have resided in Ivory Coast for years” the sources told Fides. The question of their full insertion in society was one of the causes of the civil conflict.
Civil war started in 2002, when rebels led an unsuccessful coup and then took control of the north and west of the country. Since then Ivory Coast has been divided: the centre-south under the government and the north-west under the New Forces rebels. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 19/4/2004, righe 32 parole 397)