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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Huang who wrote (6819)	2/9/2003 2:15:55 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Respond to of 25898

Problems are developing in places other than the Middle East. US outfit arrives in Ivory Coast By Glenn McKenzie, Associated Press, 2/6/2003 BIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- The United States sent a small military team to conflict-torn Ivory Coast yesterday, and France announced it was increasing its force to more than 3,000 troops, amid often violent protests against a Paris-brokered peace accord. In the latest of more than two weeks of protests, 10,000 government supporters massed in front of the French Embassy to vent their outrage at a French-brokered peace plan they say gives too much to rebels who hold more than half the country. Meanwhile, the UN human rights agency said yesterday it had evidence connecting death squads in Ivory Coast to the government. Bodies of executed people have been found in a forest in Abidjan, and death squads have lists of people to be targeted, according to a report compiled after a top envoy visited Ivory Coast in December. The 28-page report said ''the death squads are made up of elements close to the government, the presidential guard and a tribal militia of the president's ethnic group.'' Rebels have charged the government with operating death squads to carry out politically motivated slayings. Ivory Coast authorities refused immediate comment on the UN report. But the government previously denied any connection to death squads, and accuses rebels of atrocities including summary executions, rapes, and looting in the areas they control. The US team of about 20 men, wearing bulletproof vests and a mix of uniforms and civilian clothes, arrived at Abidjan's international airport in an Air Force transport plane. A US Embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the men were a ''military advisory team . . . in Abidjan to monitor the situation with us.'' The official refused further comment. Almost all Western nations have urged their citizens to leave Ivory Coast, where attacks on foreigners have mounted in the West African nation's 4-month-old civil war. US authorities last week urged remaining Americans to prepare for a possible evacuation. Yesterday's rally at the embassy was peaceful, with protesters mixing lyrics from reggae songs with anti-French slogans. ''Chirac, assassin!'' some cried, denouncing French President Jacques Chirac. Stores and banks in the central business district barred their doors yesterday for fear the rally would turn violent. Other demonstrations have escalated into riots, with protesters burning tires, setting up roadblocks, and attacking foreigners -- especially the French. The deal, reached Jan. 24 in Paris after two weeks of talks, is meant to end the civil war in the world's largest cocoa-producing nation. Loyalists are most angered by rebel claims that the peace deal gives them control of the Interior and Defense ministries -- meaning control of the military and paramilitary police. Rebel groups have sought to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo, accusing him of fanning ethnic hatred. The civil war has killed hundreds and uprooted more than 1 million. Recent weeks of protests in Abidjan, the commercial capital, have sent hundreds of Westerners fleeing. Gbagbo, caught between supporters who demand he renounce the peace deal and rebels who refuse to renegotiate it, flew to neighboring Ghana for talks with President John Kufuor. Ivory Coast's rebels were expected to hold their own meeting with Kufuor in Ghana today, an official in Kufuor's office said on condition of anonymity. Gbagbo has postponed a speech clarifying his position on the peace plan, though he has wavered in his support by calling contentious portions of the deal mere ''propositions.'' This story ran on page A15 of the Boston Globe on 2/6/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company. boston.com