Apr. 6th, 2005

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Ivory Coast peace accord signed

Cape Town, South Africa — Ivory Coast's warring factions agreed Wednesday to end hostilities, start immediate disarmament and make plans for new elections in a bid to prevent a renewed explosion of violence in the world's leading cocoa producer.

The agreement followed four days of talks in Pretoria mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who summoned all sides to his country's capital to try to rescue the peace process. The negotiations were the factions' first face-to-face meeting since civil war flared up again last fall in the West African country.

“The parties ... hereby solemnly declare the immediate and final cessation of all hostilities and the end of the war through the national territory,” said the agreement signed in Pretoria.

“In this regard, they unequivocally repudiate the use of force as a means to resolve differences among themselves,” the accord said, acknowledging the “untold misery and suffering” inflicted on the Ivorian people and the disastrous economic repercussions of the fighting.

Ivory Coast has been split between the rebel-held north and loyalist south since a failed coup attempt in 2002. A peace accord was reached in France in January 2003, but to little avail. A ceasefire reached in May of the same year was violated twice by Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, raising doubts about elections.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the accord and urged both sides to follow through with their commitments “promptly and in good faith,” his spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement.

The agreement commits the warring factions to “immediately proceed with the disarmament and dismantling of the militia throughout the entire national territory,” and scheduled an April 14 meeting between leaders of the armed forces and rebels to hammer out the details.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050406.wivoryz0406/BNStory/International/

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