"Burkina Faso has accused Ivory Coast of killing immigrants who make up a quarter of its 16 million people and has warned of a potential genocide."
Burkina president urges Gbagbo to step down
PARIS (Reuters) - Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore said the president of war-ridden Ivory Coast should step down or risk being brought before a war crimes tribunal.
In remarks published Tuesday, Compaore told the French daily Le Parisien that the four-month-old Ivory Coast civil war could only end if elections were scheduled to replace President Laurent Gbagbo.
Compaore is due to take part in a summit of African leaders this weekend in Paris.
Compaore -- who came to power in a 1987 coup in which his former friend President Thomas Sankara was killed -- said Gbagbo risked ending up "like Milosevic," before an international tribunal to explain violence by his supporters, mass graves and death squads.
Gbagbo's adviser in Paris, Toussaint Alain, said however that Compaore's comments to Le Parisien amounted to "the pot calling the kettle black."
"In making grotesque accusations against President Laurent Gbagbo, Mr Compaore is simply trying to use diversion tactics. Associating (Gbagbo's) image with that of Milosevic is like falsifying history," Alain said in a statement.
Ivory Coast has accused its northern neighbor Burkina Faso of having harbored the army deserters who led a failed coup attempt against Gbagbo on Sept. 19, which sparked fighting that has left hundreds dead and split the country in two.
Compaore's Burkina Faso has also been fingered by the United Nations for involvement in a trade in diamonds for guns that helped fuel a decade of brutal war in Sierra Leone. Burkina was also a key rebel backer during Liberia's civil war in the 1990s.
Denying that Burkina Faso helped rebels prepare their coup, Compaore accused Gbagbo of "destroying national cohesion."
Burkina Faso has accused Ivory Coast of killing immigrants who make up a quarter of its 16 million people and has warned of a potential genocide.
Closed-door peace talks between rival Ivorian factions continued into their sixth day Tuesday at a venue near Paris and issues like early elections, a transitional government, civil security and human rights were discussed.
The possibility of an international peacekeeping force was also to have been broached, sources said.
France, the former colonial power in Ivory Coast, insists it is staying out of the talks, but is pushing for a peace accord before the Jan. 25-26 Paris summit of African leaders.
01/21/03 14:09 ET
