[A-List] French imperialism: Ivory Coast

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Rebels promise war as French mobilise an 'occupying force' into former
colony

>From Alistair Thomson in Abijan
The Sunday Herald, 15 December 2002

France began flying hundreds more troops into war-torn Ivory Coast this
weekend, building up its biggest intervention force in a former colony in
Africa since the 1980s.

The main rebel group in the west African country has accused Paris of
sending an occupying force and said it would respond with war.

France has some 1500 soldiers monitoring a shaky ceasefire between the
government and rebels who seized the north of the country in an uprising in
September.

But after fighting by two new rebel groups in the west thrust the
once-stable Ivory Coast closer to the anarchy that has engulfed nearby
nations in West Africa, France said it would step up its efforts to restore
stability to its former colony.

French military spokesman Ange-Antoine Leccia said the first of several
hundred extra troops would fly in this weekend. 'Today it is just the first
company -- the others will arrive over the next 10 days,' he said, adding
that soldiers and arms would arrive by sea and air.

France, which initially deployed troops to protect thousands of its citizens
in Ivory Coast, invited the rebel Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI)
to peace talks in Paris, provided it proved its political credentials.

The French deployment is the biggest in Africa since 1983 when Paris sent
3000 troops to its former colony Chad to push out Libyan-backed forces.

But at talks in the Togolese capital Lome, the rebels' chief negotiator told
France to get out or face war.

'The French force in Ivory Coast is deviating from its mission and becoming
a true force of occupation. In light of this, the MPCI will fight and its
forces are ready to take up the challenge of war,' said its spokesman
Guillaume Soro.

Leccia declined to respond to Soro's threat. 'These are political
comments -- we have no response to make to them.'

West African leaders plan a summit in Togo to chart a way out of the
deepening war in which hundreds have died and hundreds of thousands have
been forced from their homes. The country was once haven to the troubled
region's refugees.

UN agencies said they were preparing for a possible refugee crisis in the
world's top cocoa grower, where attacks by the two new rebel factions in the
west, backed by Liberian fighters, have thrown peace efforts into confusion.

Assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees Kamel Morjane said he was
looking at ways to move thousands of refugees from a camp in the volatile
western region near the Liberian border.

'We have to be ready for any eventuality -- especially, unfortunately, the
tragic ones,' he said .