| NEWS ARTICLE |
| Ivorians agree to break deadlock |
| BY: BBC NEWS, July 9, 2006 |
| Several thousand militiamen are active in the south of the country Ivory Coast's president and rebel leader have agreed a new disarmament deadline aimed at breaking the deadlocked peace process. Pro-government militias, who have recently missed two deadlines, must hand in their arms by the end of July. The leaders' announcement came after talks with UN head Kofi Annan and other African heads of state. But Mr Annan did not say whether he thought the elections would take place as scheduled in October. The West African state has been split in two by civil war for nearly four years. Some 10,000 French and United Nations peacekeepers monitor a buffer zone between the rebels in the north and the government-held south. Discrimination During the talks, President Laurent Gbagbo also agreed that Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny should take over responsibility for the disarmament process. Mr Konan Banny was appointed last year by African mediators to run an interim government and organise presidential elections by October in a bid to resolve the political crisis. The BBC's James Copnall in Abidjan says both the militias and the New Forces rebels have missed disarmament deadlines in the past, a key requirement of the peace deal. Several of the other decisions concerned identification - who should or should not be considered Ivorian - another key dimension to this crisis, he says. The New Forces rebels, under the leadership of Guillaume Soro, say they are fighting discrimination against northerners. Our correspondent says it is significant that the UN secretary general refused to say whether he thought the polls could take place on time. Mr Annan said that a new meeting would be held in mid-September to evaluate the progress made and decide whether the elections can take place on time. |
| THE NEWS DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF WIMAM |