Posted on 05/26/2003 2:48:45 PM PDT by Shermy
FENGOLO, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - The first shoots of peace are sprouting in western Ivory Coast.
Just three days ago, Fengolo village swarmed with young, menacing rebel fighters. Many were drugged up, with magic charms hanging round their necks, knives and axes in hand and assault rifles slung across bare shoulders.
But that was before French and West African troops got the green light to enter the western war zone of Ivory Coast on Friday, rumbling through rebel and government territory in an impressive show of force to secure a cease-fire line.
Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Seydou Diarra visited Fengolo on Monday in a symbolic step to ending an eight-month war that has split the country, killed thousands dead and driven more than one million from their homes.
Rebels, army officers and the foreign troops met in the shade of a mango tree at a village further up the road to thrash out how to establish weapons-free zones on either side of the frontline, to build confidence and let civilians return.
"That's why I like making these trips," said Diarra after a briefing from an army officer on the points of agreement. "It's contact on the ground that resolves these problems."
Just 4 miles from the government-held town of Duekoue, the village of Fengolo has become synonymous with ethnic bloodletting and civilian terror.
Here, the war has been longer and more vicious than elsewhere, complicated by the presence of undisciplined Liberians fighting for both sides.
FIGHTERS CLEARED
But French Foreign Legionnaires have been quick to embark on their task of clearing fighters from either side of the cease-fire line, agreed in May by all sides in the conflict.
A young boy, machete strung over his back, describes with a glazed look how he has been camped in Fengolo for months. But suddenly he perks up, a French truck is about to leave.
"Boarding!" he yells with a grin and dashes through the long grass to climb on the back.
By Sunday night, Fengolo's young rebels were aboard French trucks with their mattresses, buckets and guns, being ferried to Bangolo, 22 miles further north on the cease-fire line.
And as they go, some people are returning after months of terror. In one village, a small group of women squatted outside mud huts, unpacking their sacks of belongings.
Further north on the road which leads to the rebel stronghold of Man, young fighters are not so happy about the idea of pulling back and giving up their arms.
"We are here to kill. It's going to finish, but as long as (the French) have not left Duekoue, we can't leave," said one of them, an assault rifle in one hand, a skull in the other.
His speech is slurred, the arguments incoherent. When the French soldiers pitch up in their tanks and armored personnel carriers, he will probably lose his bravado and leave quietly.
The Foreign Legionnaires seem unfazed at the prospect of a few remaining rebels digging in their heels.
"It will change nothing," said one officer, before marching off to send the last few rebels from Fengolo on their way.
Probably the result of body odor.
Nope.
Who gave the green light?
Whoa! That is vicious. Couldn't they have killed them alive? How cruel they are.
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