[ 2011-04-23 ]

Alassane Ouattara orders troops to return to barracks
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has
ordered all soldiers to return to their barracks
as he tries to restore normality after months of
unrest.

He said that law and order would now be enforced
by the police and gendarmes.

He took power last week after his forces arrested
his rival, Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to
concede defeat in last year's elections.

But some pro-Gbagbo militias continue to operate
in parts of the main city, Abidjan.

Earlier this week, two rival group of pro-Ouattara
forces clashed in the city - the "Invisible
Commandos" which had taken control of parts of
Abidjan and the Republican Forces who had swept
across the country from their northern bases in
March.

"As commander-in-chief of the army, I order you to
pull all combat units to their barracks and bases
of origin, whether that is in the north or the
south," Mr Ouattara told senior generals from both
sides on Friday, reports the Reuters news agency.

The BBC's John James in Abidjan says the decision
to send troops back to the barracks is not without
it risks, but it shows many of the northern
ex-rebel soldiers that brought Mr Ouattara to
power are proving as much a weakness as a strength
in Abidjan.

Now most of the fighting is over, the often
ill-disciplined force is accused of looting and
perceived as a threat by some civilians, he says.

But he says an elite unit of the northern forces
is likely to remain in the city to work alongside
the UN peacekeepers guarding the new government.

The return of the police to the streets will
encourage people to go back to work and businesses
to reopen in the world's main cocoa producer, our
correspondent says.

Banks to reopen

Defence ministry spokesman Alla Kouakou Leon told
BBC Afrique that Prime Minister Guillaume Soro
would meet Ibrahim Coulibaly, leader of the
"Invisible Commandos", to try to resolve the
dispute.

He also said that 5,000 members of the Republican
Forces would be integrated into the army.

Mr Ouattara has been receiving pledges of
allegiance this week from senior military officers
and the heads of main institutions at Abidjan's
Golf Hotel where he has been based since the
post-election crisis began.

On Thursday, President Ouattara said banks should
open next week and that by the end of the month
the normalisation process should be a reality.

He is to be officially sworn in as president in
the second half of May, in the official capital,
Yamoussoukro.

Our correspondent says a national unity government
will then be announced, followed by parliamentary
elections before the end of the year.

Source - BBC

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