HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/021001/1/33cd6.html [Add the unwarranted intrusion of NATO mainstays the US, France, Britain, Belgium, Portugal and Germany into the internal affairs of Zimbabwe, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Congo, Namibia, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia and elsewhere and the picture becomes clear: The New Order is the New Colonialism, pure and simple, from the African continent to the Balkans, from the Caucasus to the Middle East, from the Silk Route to Southeast Asia, from Latin America to Oceania. It's either back to the Nineteenth Century or forward to the Twenty First.] Agence France-Presse October 1, 2002 I.Coast rebels capture new territory, vow to overthrow government -Rebel soldiers joined the demonstrators and fired their rifles in the air to bolster the protesters, marching to the rhythm of whistles and banging pots and pans, who chanted slogans against Gbagbo and France, the former colonial power. -"We don't want France to interfere in strictly Ivorian problems and we ask our French brothers to maintain a strict neutrality." -Sources said an unspecified number of French Foreign Legion troops arrived overnight in Bouake, and French soldiers also took up positions in Duekoue, west of Yamoussoukro, which lies on a main road linking it to the rebel-held northwestern town of Odienne, near the border with Guinea. Rebels in Ivory Coast captured more territory and declared their aim was to topple the government -- while preparing to talk to mediators -- as French troops deployed to block their movement south. A member of a team of west African mediators meanwhile said Tuesday that President Laurent Gbagbo was open to a ceasefire to allow talks to go ahead. In rebel-held Korhogo, the main town in the predominantly Muslim north, several thousand civilians demonstrated to show their support for the insurgents. Rebel soldiers joined the demonstrators and fired their rifles in the air to bolster the protesters, marching to the rhythm of whistles and banging pots and pans, who chanted slogans against Gbagbo and France, the former colonial power. Residents told AFP the rebels had captured Sakassou, about 42 kilometres (26 miles) southwest of rebel-held Bouake, in the centre, and Seguela, in the centre-west, toward the border with Guinea. In Bouake, the cocoa-producing nation's second city, a rebel officer who said he was the insurgents' supreme commander and introduced himself under the nom de guerre of Lieutenant Elinder, told journalists: "It is obligatory for us that we overthrow the regime of President Gbagbo to restore justice, peace and equality ... " He said the next step would be to usher in a "short transitional period to ensure that everyone has equal rights" followed by open elections. He named the movement behind the rebellion for the first time as "the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast", which he said was a broad-based movement created in 2000. "We have a president whose identity we cannot reveal for the moment," he said. "We are just soldiers." Another rebel leader, Warrant Officer Tuo Fozie (his real name), declared that the rebels' demands were: - the release of soldiers and paramilitary gendarmes being held in prisons; - the reintegration into the armed forces of military in exile, and compensation for them; - the disbanding of a gendarmerie contingent now in the process of being established "because it is based on ethnic recruiting". Some soldiers and gendarmes loyal to military ruler General Robert Guei, who seized power on Christmas Day, 1999, fled the country or were imprisoned after he lost violence-wracked elections to Gbagbo 10 months later. Guei was killed in Abidjan on September 19, the first day of the uprising, as loyalist troops put down the mutiny in the big Atlantic coast city at a cost of 270 dead and 300 wounded, by government count. The rebels captured Bouake and Korhogo the same day, and have since gone on to capture a succession of smaller towns. Elinder said that at certain points the French troops "are hampering our progress, but we most definitely do not want to attack them. "We don't want France to interfere in strictly Ivorian problems and we ask our French brothers to maintain a strict neutrality." He added that the rebels had no problem with the French troops evacuating foreigners from rebel-held towns, which they have been doing since the middle of last week, noting that the rebels had even assisted with the evacuations from Bouake. Sources on the ground said the French troops took up positions Tuesday between Bouake and Ivory Coast's administrative capital Yamossoukro, 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the south. Sources said an unspecified number of French Foreign Legion troops arrived overnight in Bouake, and French soldiers also took up positions in Duekoue, west of Yamoussoukro, which lies on a main road linking it to the rebel-held northwestern town of Odienne, near the border with Guinea. In Abidjan, a member of a West African contact group set up by the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) told AFP thart Gbagbo was open to a ceasefire, adding that it was the first objective. "We will prepare the ground ... and wait," the member said on condition of anonymity. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
