COTE D IVOIRE: Pro-Gbagbo militia pulls out of Abidjan suburb after extortion charges

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ABIDJAN, 9 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - A pro-government militia group, accused of bullying and extortion by local residents, has pulled out of the Abidjan neighbourhood of Adjame but the withdrawal was not without incident.

The Patriotic Grouping for Peace (GPP) has provided military training to several hundred hard-line supporters of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo since it requisitioned a school in Adjame last August and turned it into a military training camp.

Many residents in the suburb, which houses one of the city's biggest markets, applauded the militia's departure late Tuesday.

"They were harassing us, they were racketeering, they took our merchandise without paying," local trader Habib Traore told IRIN. "We're really happy to see them leaving."

It remains unclear why the GPP suddenly decided to pack their bags, just over a month after the group's leader Zeguen Toure vowed his men would stay put.

Diplomats say the militia group's leaders take their orders from the presidential palace and last month the UN peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire called on the government to disarm militia groups and other armed gangs operating there immediately, expressing its concern about the security situation in the country.

The head of the Ivorian armed forces, Philippe Mangou, attended Tuesday's leaving ceremony, telling reporters that he welcomed the GPP's "voluntary" departure.

He said that the girls' school would now be used as a military camp by an army battalion that was dislodged from the central city of Bouake when the New Forces rebel movement invaded the north of Cote d'Ivoire in September 2002.

The GPP's front man, Toure, said his men were pulling out in a bid to help persuade the rebels to return to the government of national reconciliation after a hiatus of several months.

"Those who have attacked Cote d'Ivoire are scared to come to Abidjan because of us and they pretend that insecurity is rampant in Abidjan because of us," Toure told reporters. "We are pulling out to help advance the peace process."

The national reconciliation government was set up as part of a January 2003 peace deal between the rebels and Gbagbo, which aims to reunify the divided country so elections can be held this October.

But the process has been deadlocked for months and rebel leaders are demanding improved security guarantees before sending their ministers back to the loyalist south to attend cabinet meetings.

Some GPP members disputed their leader's version of events and said the decision to withdraw from the Adjame school had been imposed on the militia group.

As Toure drove off, an IRIN correspondent on the scene saw dozens of youths block his car and try to attack him, calling him a traitor. Security forces fired several rounds of warning shots in the air to scare the youths off and clear the road.

"It is unfair," Gregoire Djedje, a militia member dressed in army fatigues and trainers, told IRIN. "We are not supposed to leave like this. We should have a minimum of money to take home with us. We're left abandoned."

The chairman of the National Disarmament Committee Alain Donwahi said he had registered 1,400 youths eligible for reinsertion into society.

Adjame residents, who had complained about bullying and extortion for several months, said they were happy to see the GPP go and they hoped recent clashes would be a thing of the past.

Early last month, the GPP picked a fight with cadets from a nearby police training school and two people were killed in the exchange of automatic weapons fire that followed.

In January, taxi and minibus drivers clashed with GPP youths, saying they were fed up with the militia extorting money from them at impromptu roadblocks. The two sides threw stones at each other.

Most of the residents of Adjame are second-generation immigrants from other West African countries or people from the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire. The GPP accused them repeatedly of sympathizing with the rebels and stashing arms.

[ENDS]