Cote d'Ivoire Youth Protest Peace Deal in Paris

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, January 27, 2003

Cote d'Ivoire Youth Protest Peace Deal in Paris

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The protest in Cote d'Ivoire against the deal signed in Paris between the west African country's government and rebels went into the second day on Sunday as a portion of French embassy was set on fire by protesters.

Hearing that the rebels will hold the positions of defense and interior ministers under the peace deal, people supporting President Laurent Gbagbo began to go to the streets on Saturday.

Shouting anti-France slogans, tens of thousands of young protesters on Sunday gathered at the Square of Republic near the State House to express their anger. Some protesters smashed cars and burned tyres on the streets.

According to some witnesses, besides the fire on a portion of the French embassy, part of the Consulate of Burkina Faso was alsoburnt.

Sources said they heard explosions and saw clouds of smoke rosefrom the direction of the French embassy, outside which several thousand protesters reportedly gathered.

French troops were sent out to disperse the protesters, by firing tear gas and shooting into the sky.

President Laurent Gbagbo, leaders of rebels and some African countries' heads of state are in Paris for a summit on the current situation of Cote d'Ivoire.

Under the peace plan, the major rebel group -- the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI), will hold key posts of defense andinterior ministers. The Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) offormer president Henri Konan Bedie will get the position of foreign minister.

As part of the deal, Seydou Diarra, former prime minister of the country, was selected as the temporary prime minister until the holding of new elections.

Gbagbo, who is expected to go back late Sunday, has called for calm in his country.

The war triggered out by the failed Sept. 19 coup in the largest cocoa producer in Africa which was once seen as a "beacon of stability" has already killed hundreds of people and displaced about one million others.

France has so far deployed 2,500-strong troops to police a fragile truce between the three rebel groups and Gbagbo's soldiers.

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