The Link
Bouake - Thousands of people turned out for a rebel meeting on Sunday in the central Ivory Coast town of Bouake, where the leaders of the insurgency again demanded the president's resignation.
"Stop the negotiations, it's a trap!" protesters shouted. "We support you," they screamed to the rebel leaders, while waving placards that denounced President Laurent Ggagbo.
About 25 000 people attended the meeting to listen to rebel leaders speak about the negotiations with government under way in the Togolese capital Lome.
"Gbagbo must resign! We don't trust him at all in these negotiations," said Guillaume Soro, secretary general of the rebels' political wing, the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement.
Soro, who leads the rebel negotiating team along with Colonel Michel Gueu, returned to Bouake late Saturday. Two other rebel leaders, Sergeant Sherif Usman and Master Sergeant Tuo Fozie, returned to Bouake on Friday.
"We have the means to take up Gbagbo's challenge," Soro said.
If Gbagbo "abuses the ceasefire, we will go all the way to Abidjan," Soro said. "If it weren't for the French presence, we would already be there."
The government and the rebels agreed to a ceasefire on October 17. The deal cleared the way for peace talks, and France has deployed troops to monitor the truce.
Soro said the rebels would never agree to the government's demand that they disarm and confine themselves to barracks.
Usman told the crowd that he regretted the "false statements" government negotiators had made in Lome.
"While we negotiate, they say over in Abidjan that we have capitulated, that our troops on the ground will demobilize," he said angrily.
But the rebel leaders said they would go back to Lome on Monday, when the negotiations are scheduled to resume.
Rebels have gained control of the northern half of Ivory Coast since they began their uprising on September 19, disrupting one of the region's strongest economies, which produces 40% of the world's cocoa. - Sapa-AFP