Top Ivorian rebel takes up post

Top Ivorian rebel takes up post

The leader of Ivory Coast's biggest rebel group has finally arrived in the main city of Abidjan to take up his ministerial position in the new power-sharing administration.

Guillaume Soro arrived after three of his colleagues from the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI) took up their posts earlier on Wednesday.

Soro has been ther rebel's main negotiator

This brings the rebels up to their full representation in the new administration, in which they hold a total of nine portfolios.

The first five rebel ministers arrived on Monday to assume office but Mr Soro had stayed away citing security concerns.

The MPCI started the rebellion against the government of President Laurent Gbagbo in September, breaking up the country into a rebel-held north and west and a government-controlled south.

But correspondents say the new government has got off to an uncertain start, with rebel leaders accusing Mr Gbagbo's forces of attacking their positions in the west of the country with helicopter gunships.

Warning to media

Mr Soro takes over the communications portfolio.

"One needs political courage and perseverance to make reconciliation possible in Ivory Coast," AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

NEW GOVERNMENT

Gbagbo's FPI: 10 seats

Former ruling PDCI: 10 seats

RDR: 7 seats

Main MPCI rebels: 7 seats

Western rebels: 2 seats

Others: 5 seats

Q&A: Why the fighting?

The new communications minister warned the press against "perpetuating lies and radical ideas", adding:

"It is the press which has injected the poison of division into Ivory Coast."

A BBC correspondent in Ivory Coast has reported that at least two rebel ministers still face prison sentences for deserting government forces during the rebellion.

It is not clear what will become of them

During the rebellion, a number of people from the Muslim minority and opposition sympathisers were killed in government-controlled areas.

The government of national unity consists of Mr Gbagbo's party, the political opposition and the rebels.

Compromise

Millions have been displaced and foreigners targeted by government supporters have fled back home to neighbouring countries.

France, the former colonial power, has some 3,000 peacekeepers monitoring a cease-fire together with hundreds more from African sub-regional body Ecowas.

A peace agreement in France in January had given the sensitive security posts of defence and the interior to the rebels.

But that news was met with sometimes violent and widespread demonstrations by pro-government supporters in Ivory Coast.

The rebels finally agreed to give up those two posts following numerous interventions by Ecowas and the United Nations.