Ivorian ruling FPI MPs reject peace agreement

Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) - Legislators from President Laurent Gbagbo's ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) Tuesday rejected in Abidjan the peace agreements reached in Linas-Marcoussis to end the five-month crisis.
According to FPI's spokesman Zozorro Daleba, the application of these agreement would constitute "a blatant violation of the Ivorian Constitution."

Unveiling the position of the IFP parliamentary group headed by the Ivorian First Lady Simone Gbagbo, Daleba described certain clauses in the agreements as "a constitutional coups d'etat" allegedly orchestrated by France.

IFP legislators called on all MPs to participate in an envisaged protest demonstration, accept one-month salary deductions to back the "peace effort" (financing the armed forces) and to renegotiate the Marcoussis agreement, on the basis of President Laurent Gbagbo's proposed plan.

On whether they also rejected these agreements, MPs from the opposition Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), Union for Peace and Democracy in Côte d'Ivoire (UDPCI) and the Solidarity Group refrained from taking a stand, saying they would decide after President Gbagbo's long-awaited national address.

A spokesman of the former ruling PDCI remarked that the application of the agreement had started after Gbagbo appointed a new Prime Minister and the distribution of ministerial posts, which was endorsed by all the parties, including the ruling FPI.

The Ivorian MPs met in the wake of violent street demonstrations by Gbagbo's party supporters opposed to the Linas-Marcoussis accords.

All the main Ivorian political parties and the rebel movements had signed the peace agreements, which were later ratified by a heads of state summit, in a bid to end the political and military crisis that erupted on 19 September 2002.

Following an agreement on the power-sharing arrangement, Seydou Diarra was appointed as the new consensus Prime Minister to head a government of national reconciliation.

However, the agreement's implementation is in a stalemate due to fresh disagreements by IFP members and the army against the allocation of the strategic defence and security ministry to rebel movements.