Ivory Coast on edge as peace agreement delayed

YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast -- The signing of a cease-fire to stop Ivory Coast's deadliest uprising was delayed Saturday, forcing an uneasy wait for an end to fighting that has split this once-stable nation in two.

High-ranking mediators, who flew to the capital of Yamoussoukro for the signing, blamed Ivory Coast's government for the delay.

Although rebels were ready to approve the cease-fire, an army officer who was to sign for the government was still waiting for written authorization from Abidjan, the former French colony's commercial center, mediators said.

"We have not encountered any difficulties on the side of the rebels," said Malian Foreign Minister Lassana Traore. They "are ready to sign."

Late in the afternoon, French troops providing transportation and security for the mission warned it was too late to continue, prompting the mediators' return to Abidjan.

Originally set for Friday

The envoys, including foreign and defense ministers from six West African countries, said they would seek an explanation for the delay from Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo.

Despite the setback -- the second in as many days -- Traore said mediators haven't given up because there was "no room for disappointment or discouragement."

Regional leaders have pressed for a cease-fire to clear the way for peace negotiations. The signing was originally slated for Friday, but instead government ministers and mediators spent the day locked in a once-grand, mildewing Abidjan hotel discussing the document's wording.

Mediators had said late Friday that both sides were ready to sign an unconditional cease-fire. But after mediators flew Saturday to Yamoussoukro, arriving at a small airport bristling with heavily armed French paratroopers, delays crept in.

Traore said Ivorian ministers contacted during the day promised that an official mandate letting regional commander Col. Philippe Mangou to sign would be ferried to Yamoussoukro. But as daylight faded, there was no sign of the important piece of paper. Rebel leader Tuo Fozie was expected to sign for the insurgents.

Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

A negotiator, Cheick Diarra, said late Saturday that the delegates were told Mangou had since been given the authorization to sign. He said the envoys planned to meet Gbagbo on Sunday, and will travel to Yamoussoukro again.

Another envoy, speaking on condition of anonymity, said mediators were ready to try again, but added: "We are now becoming skeptical."

Gbagbo's administration appeared caught between regional heads of state pressing for a truce and popular pressure to rout out the rebels who have taken control of the north.

In Lakota, west of Abidjan, pro-government supporters rallied to mourn a Cabinet minister shot dead in the rebellion's first hours. Women with leaves in their hair and painted faces performed ritual funeral dances.

"We don't want to negotiate," said Willy Nadro, one of the marchers. Others shouted: "We are ready to die."

In Abidjan, government supporters, many draped in green-white-and-orange national flags, marched through the business district, past its skyscrapers and chic restaurants, to show support for the authorities.

The rebels, however, appear to have gathered support in the north, where people complain that the southern-based government treats them as second-class citizens. Northerners are predominantly Muslim and from different ethnic groups than the largely Christian southerners.

In rebel-held Korhogo, thousands of demonstrators called on French troops to leave and shouted their support for the insurgents.

On the ground, there were few signs of peace. Loyalist troops in pickup trucks, some with mounted guns, have been on the move since Friday at front lines dividing the rebel-controlled north from loyalist south. Rebel officials claimed government troops were readying an offensive to retake Ivory Coast's second-largest city, Bouake.

Mamadou Koulibaly, head of the Ivorian parliament, said the government had to prepare an attack because it could not be sure the rebels would abide by terms of a truce.

"If it was a regular army, we could say so-and-so is a general who has given his word of honor," he said. "But can we trust a corporal who has no code of honor?"

Koulibaly added, however, that he thought a cease-fire was possible.

The rebel uprising started Sept. 19 with a bloody failed coup attempt. The rebels have held Bouake and Korhogo since then and claim that only a formidable French military presence at Yamoussoukro stops them from marching on Abidjan.

The French say they are protecting foreign nationals and providing logistical support to the Ivorian army. French and U.S. troops evacuated around 2,500 foreign nationals from rebel-held areas.

The rebels include a core group of 750-800 ex-soldiers, widely believed to have been dismissed from the army for suspected loyalty to the country's former junta leader, Gen. Robert Guei. Guei, ousted in the 2000 popular revolt that brought Gbagbo to power, was shot dead in the first hours of the Sept. 19 coup attempt.

Ivory Coast is the world's leading producer of cocoa and a key West African port. Its first-ever coup in 1999, amid an economic downturn, shattered four decades of stability rare for the turbulent region.