Posted on 12/22/2002 6:51:07 AM PST by Sparta
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Rebel fighters in Ivory Coast drew back on Sunday from the scene of a bruising clash with French troops that halted their advance and took the former colonial power a big step deeper into the messy war.
All three rebel factions in the West African country condemned the French for blasting rebel vehicles on Saturday to stop insurgents capturing a key junction in the cocoa-growing region of the world's top producer.
The French effectively held the line for President Laurent Gbagbo's mercenary-backed forces as they retreated from earlier defeats to Duekoue, still 300 miles from the main city of Abidjan.
Ivory Coast's war sprang from a failed September 19 coup and has increasingly fractured the country of 16 million along ethnic lines. Hundreds of people have been killed in fighting and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes.
French army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia said the rebels had pulled back from around Duekoue on Sunday.
"It is not our job to follow them. We will only respond if we are attacked," he said.
Faced by the possible collapse of French-speaking West Africa's economic hub and a cornerstone of French influence in the region, France has gradually stepped up a role that initially went little further than protecting foreigners.
The clash at the western town of Duekoue on Saturday was the first time the French opened fire to stop the rebels since France began beefing up its operation into its biggest African intervention force since the 1980s -- of up to 2,500 troops.
Foreign Legion paratroopers blasted three rebel pickup trucks with heavy weapons after coming under fire on a dirt road outside Duekoue, a vital junction for the rebels to seize if they are to get beyond the west.
REBEL THREAT
Felix Doh, of the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Far West (MPIGO) rebel group, said it had suffered no dead in the clash and though its fighters had pulled back they remained nearby.
"We are trying to understand why the French are stopping us from advancing when Gbagbo's men are killing our relatives in Abidjan. If the French bar our way we will be obliged to force it open," he told Reuters by satellite phone.
MPIGO and another faction in the west want to avenge the death of their Yacouba kinsman Robert Guei, a former junta leader, at the hands of loyalist forces.
They are separate from the main Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI) rebel group, which has held the largely Muslim, Dioula-speaking northern half of the country since the failed putsch in mid-September.
The three rebel groups said they planned to meet on Monday in the MPCI stronghold of Bouake to discuss an alliance as well as the French involvement. They said the French had begun to act as "true forces of conquest and occupation."
All the rebel groups want to see the back of Gbagbo and accuse him of fanning ethnic tension after winning disputed elections in 2000. The government says the rebels are simply hungry for power and helped by neighboring states.
The main rebel group signed a cease-fire in October and began talks in Togo with government negotiators, but the negotiations have brought little sign of a deal to restore order to what was for decades a haven of peace.
My brother was in an F-111 on that raid. He thinks he might have seen his friends hit the water that night (one F-111 didn't make it). A bright fiery plume on the sea surface - which would happen as water is injested into a jet engine. Who knows. But the fatigue from an incredibly long journey around self-serving France might have played a part.
Thanks for reminding me. I need to take this over to the other thread on this subject where one particular frenchman is arguing that France kicks the US in the teeth out of some high-level mutual strategery to influence non-aligned countries. He'll probably show up on this thread as well.
Yep. Bingo.
They also might want to apologize for all those Spanish jokes that the French find so hilarious, especially, "Africa begins at the Pyrenees." They may need to call on Ferdinand and Isabella before it's all over, and unless they play their cards right, they might just find that Africa--AND the Middle East and the Islamic world--extend to the Belgian border.
Thanks, sparta. I've read several accounts of this in the national press, and not a one has mentioned the inconvenient fact that the Religion of Peace is rearing its ugly head again.
Go France!
Also, these French troopies are not yr garden variety brie sucking surrender monkeys. These lads are 2nd Para, Legion Etrangere. A battle hardened group of professionals soldiers. Viv la Mort! Viv la Guerre! Viv la Legion Etragere!
Is there any way to find out how much arabic money is invested in Reuters?
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