COTE D IVOIRE: 'Sergeant Doctor' gives up his big guns

DJEBONOUA, 21 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - As children played by the roadside and women sold bananas to lorry drivers at this rebel checkpoint on the main north-south highway in Cote d'Ivoire, two military jeeps emerged from the surrounding bush dragging behind them field guns painted with the name of the local rebel commander, "Sergeant Doctor."

Slowly - one of the 120 mm canons had a puncture - the big guns were towed 16 km north to the rebel capital Bouake.

The scene was repeated on Thursday up and down the frontline that divides the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire from the government-controlled south as both sides took a first tentative step towards a long-delayed process of disarmament.

UN military observers looked on as both sides pulled back their heavy weaponry to agreed cantonment sites before the planned start of a six-week disarmament campaign on 14 May.

"We have withdrawn our heavy artillery from their frontline position to reassure you that the peace process has begun," Sergeant Doctor told IRIN. "The only thing left here now are soldiers with kalashnikovs."

The rebel commander's real name is Dramane Soro. But you wouldn't know that to look at the 20 or so men under his command at the check point in Djebonoua, the last rebel checkpoint on the main road south to the government-held capital Abidjan.

All wore black T-shirts emblazoned with their commander's portrait in white and his nom de guerre "Sergeant Doctor" in white letters underneath.

Even the big guns dragged from secret locations in the bush, were daubed with Sergeant Doctor's name in green and black paint. Asked by IRIN why he chose “doctor” he said he took the name because Cote d’Ivoire needed care and fixing.

UN officials said that 44 km further south, on the other side of a demilitarised buffer zone patrolled by UN and French peacekeeping troops, a similar withdrawal of heavy artillery was taking place on the government side of the frontline at the town of Tiebessou.

The pullback is designed to defuse tension before rebel forces start handing over their weapons to UN peacekeepers so that the country can reunite before presidential elections scheduled for October.

Distrust still runs deep

But distrust between the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south still runs deep.

Sergeant Doctor reminded the small group of journalists who came to observe the removal of his two canons at Djebonoua that similar withdrawals of heavy weaponry in the past had failed to result in disarmament going ahead.

"We have withdrawn our heavy guns from the front, but we also did this in July last year," he recalled.

Disarmament was supposed to follow in September.

But it never happened. The rebels accused President Laurent Gbagbo of failing to implement promised political reforms and they stayed put with their guns.

Two months later, Gbagbo's air force launched a bombing campaign against rebel positions that threatened to plunge Cote d'Ivoire back into full-scale conflict.

The November crisis triggered the intervention of South African President Thabo Mbeki as a new mediator in the three-year-old civil war. The latest decision to withdraw all guns with a calibre of more than 20 mm from the frontline follows a deal which Mbeki struck with Gbagbo, the rebel New Forces movement and Cote d'Ivoire's two main opposition parties in Pretoria on 6 April to put the peace process back on track.

A new window of opportunity

Colonel Omar El Khadir, a Moroccan army officer serving with the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI), watched as Sergeant Doctor's big guns trundled up the main road towards Bouake under a blazing sun to be put in safe storage.

"The process (of withdrawing heavy artillery) is due to end on 24 April, but this is a provisional date for a process, it is not a deadline," he told IRIN

"From April 25 to 28, ONUCI with Licorne (the 4,000-strong French peacekeeping force) and representatives from the two opposing sides will carry out checks to make sure the process has been carried out to everyone's satisfaction," the military intelligence officer added.

Back in Abidjan, the recently arrived UN special envoy to Cote d'Ivoire, Pierre Schori, was upbeat.

"The Pretoria accords open a new window of opportunity for Ivorians. No lasting peace or democracy can be imposed from abroad … This withdrawal (of heavy weapons) is the first concrete act. It is very positive," the veteran Swedish diplomat told reporters.

Hopes that the Pretoria agreement may finally put the French-brokered Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement of January 2003 back on the rails, rose with an announcement from Gbagbo's office on Wednesday that he would end a round of consultations with his political supporters on 27 April, a week earlier than planned.

One key question left hanging in the air at Pretoria was the implementation of a constitutional amendment that would clear the way for Alassane Ouattara, an opposition leader backed by the rebels, to contest this year's presidential election.

At the end of three days of talks in the South African capital, the Ivorian factions remained deadlocked and left Mbeki to rule on this issue.

The South African president subsequently urged Gbagbo to use special powers granted him by the constitution to approve the amendment, which requires that just one parent of a presidential candidate, not both, be of Ivorian origin. Gbagbo has until now insisted on holding a referendum to rubber-stamp the change, which has already been approved by parliament.

The Ivorian leader did not accept or reject Mbeki's proposal immediately but began a round of consultations with a series of civic groups - nearly all of which support him - to sound out their opinion.

If this round of meetings does indeed come to an end next Wednesday, Gbagbo will have four days to agree or disagree with Mbeki's proposal before the next round of talks May 2-May 6 between government and rebel military chiefs to firm up the proposed timetable for disarmament.

Diplomats say a decision to allow Ouattara, a former prime minister, to contest the October presidential election, would help smooth the way for disarmament to really go ahead this time.

[ENDS]