Rebels return to cabinet, Soro absent

Rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire attended their first cabinet meeting on Tuesday since they ended a three-month boycott of the country's government of national reconciliation at the end of December. However, the occasion was marred by the absence of rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who holds the post of Communications Minister in the 41-member coalition cabinet. No official reason was given for Soro's absence from the meeting, which was chaired by President Laurent Gbagbo. The rebels, who are officially known as "The New Forces,” withdrew from the government on 23 September, protesting that Gbagbo was dragging his feet over the full implementation of a French-brokered peace accord signed in January 2003. The rebels hold nine cabinet posts, but one rebel nominee, Roger Banchi, the Minister for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, ignored the order to quit government in September and stayed on. The other eight rebel ministers withdrew to the New Forces' capital, Bouake. Tuesday's four-hour cabinet meeting was held under tight security. Government spokesman Patrick Achi told IRIN afterwards that the ministers debated two key law reforms required by last year's peace agreement. These are designed to make it easier for immigrants from other West African countries to obtain Ivorian nationality and secure ownership rights to the land they farm. Immigrants and their descendants accounted for 30 percent of Cote d'Ivoire's 16 million population before the civil war erupted in September 2002. Achi said the cabinet also discussed the creation of a commission to issue new national identity cards. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the question of national identity has been a serious bone of contention in Ivorian politics. The question hit a peak in 2000 when Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister and senior executive of the International Monetary Fund, was banned from running for the presidency on grounds of “doubtful nationality.” The Constitutional Court ruled that Ouattara, who is now an exiled opposition leader, had failed to prove that both of his parents were Ivorians. Achi said the cabinet would continue its current session on Wednesday and Thursday since Gbagbo wanted to expedite discussions on land reform and a constitutional ammendment which would impose less stringent qualifying criteria on presidential candidates.