YAMOUSSOUKRO (AFP) - A long-awaited program to disarm 30,000 combatants in Ivory Coast was threatened by warnings from rebel leaders that they would hold fast to their weapons until political reforms were implemented.
The political leadership of the rebel New Forces boycotted a day of talks that was to hammer out the final details of the long-awaited disarmament campaign, due to launch Friday with the regrouping of forces in the east of the divided west African state.
"This is a meeting trying to make political capital from the disarmament program," rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate told AFP by telephone from Bouake. "Political reform must proceed before disarmament. That is what we said before, what we are saying now and what we will continue to say."
Underscoring rebel displeasure with the Friday start date was a group of young supporters of the New Forces, who ransacked a UN office in their central stronghold Bouake, the gateway to the mostly-Muslim north that has been in rebel hands since a failed September 2002 coup.
The coup plunged Ivory Coast into war, unsettling the country of 17 million that had been a symbol of prosperity and stability for troubled west Africa since independence in 1960, and plundering the economy of the world's top cocoa producer.
Disarmament is seen as pivotal to efforts to reconcile Ivory Coast and steer it towards transparent presidential elections set for October 2005.
A March start date had been foreseen, but political infighting and violence in the main city Abidjan following a savage crackdown on a pro-peace rally by security forces postponed the campaign indefinitely.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and 12 African heads of state tried in July to breathe new life into a moribund peace pact signed in January 2003 to end the civil war, establishing a disarmament timetable and laying out an agenda of political reform but being careful not to link the two.
A special session of the fractious national assembly failed to yield any concrete results, and shelved all but one of the bills foreseen under the peace pacts that addressed key catalysts of the rebellion such as land ownership, national identity and the creation of an independent electoral commission.
There is little optimism that a new legislative session, begun last week, will unblock the political impasse.
Monday's meeting, which was to gather all parties to the conflict for the first time since July, had not begun by late afternoon. President Laurent Gbagbo held consultations with military chiefs from both the rebel and national armed forces, as leaders from across the political spectrum, barring the rebels, waited for the meeting to begin.
Military leaders from both sides have met regularly with UN and French peacekeeping troops since March, and officials from all sides say the military leadership has shown a greater willingness than political actors to end the conflict.
National disarmament chairman Alain Donwahi told AFP last week that the disarmament process will be a staggered, multi-phase effort that could last several months.
No firm timetable has been set but the campaign is forecast to start in the east and then move to the west, center and contentious north of Ivory Coast, enrolling some 30,000 combatants -- 25,000 of them rebel troops.
Rebel opposition is not the only obstacle that could hinder the process, a diplomat in Abidjan told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Even if there exists a measure of willingness to disarm, it does not mean that the process will go smoothly, under any conditions," he said. "Each party is trying to gauge the sincerity of the other before they will commit, which means that last-minute difficulties may arise at any point."