Global Policy Forum

By Peter Murphy

Ivory Coast's rival faction leaders met on home territory for the first time on Tuesday since the start of a three-year-old conflict and agreed on several measures to try to revive a stagnant peace process. President Laurent Gbagbo, rebel leader Guillaume Soro and opposition politicians gathered at a huge glass and marble conference centre in the capital Yamoussoukro under the protection of U.N. peacekeepers, government and rebel soldiers.

"It was a good meeting which should give hope to Ivorians," said Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, a central banker installed in December under a U.N.-backed peace plan. He said the leaders had agreed on the need for renewed dialogue to unblock the peace process and had concurred that state television should be broadcast in the rebel-held north to "vehicle peace messages", seen as an important symbolic step. They also agreed that citizens without identity cards would be able to get new ones when voters register for elections, set for October under the terms of a U.N.-sponsored peace deal.

The rebels have said that before they will permit a ballot and disarm, thousands of northerners who never had identity papers or who had lost them should be given new ones enabling them to vote. "We think we are on the right track," rebel leader Guillaume Soro told reporters after the meeting. "We mustn't be impatient. We have made progress and we will continue to make progress until peace arrives."

Good Sign

The former French colony has been split in two since 2002 when rebels tried to oust Gbagbo and seized the northern half of the world's top cocoa grower. A buffer zone between the two sides is patrolled by a 7,000-strong U.N. force backed up by 4,000 French troops. Efforts to reunite the country, once a bastion of stability and economic success in West Africa, have been characterised by delays, political squabbling and on-off violence. Despite international pressure, presidential polls due in October failed to take place as the rebels pulled out, saying Gbagbo would cheat.

On the divisive issue of who should sit on the country's independent electoral commission, which has yet to begin work, the leaders in Yamoussoukro agreed to create an extra vice-presidential post to balance out representation. They also agreed that efforts should be made to calm incendiary reporting by local media, which have in the past broadcast hate messages during times of crisis.

The last time Gbagbo and Soro met was in June in Pretoria, during South African President Thabo Mbeki's ill-fated attempt to lead foreign mediation efforts. "It is definitely a good sign. We definitely hope this is the breakthrough we have been looking for," said Margherita Amodeo, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast. The country's two main opposition leaders, former President Henri Konan Bedie and ex-Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, also attended the meeting. The talks were held in Yamoussoukro, 250 km (155 miles) north of the main city Abidjan, at a complex which is home to a peace foundation endowed by the country's founding president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

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