Mass killing accusations as Ivory Coast falls into civil war

Ivory Coast appeared to be plunging into outright civil war yesterday, after new rebel groups sprang up in the west of the country and both sides accused one another of massacring civilians.

The French government, which has 1,000 peacekeeping troops in its former colony, fears being dragged into a conflict which has no clear boundaries, allegiances or motivations.

The Ivory Coast defence minister, Bertin Kadet, denied yesterday that the government was responsible for the massacre of 120 civilians. The civilians, mostly believed to be guest workers from neighbouring countries, were found in a mass grave at Monoko-Zohi by French soldiers last Thursday.

He appealed to patriotic young men to volunteer to join the hard-pressed government forces and white mercenaries who are fighting on several fronts. Unidentified new rebel groups have captured much territory in the western farmlands near the Liberian border which generate much of Ivory Coast's wealth as the world's largest cocoa producer.

Mr Kadet said Abidjan would welcome an international investigation of the alleged massacres and urged France, the United States and the European Union to intervene to halt the fighting, which began with a failed coup in September.

"One shouldn't wait until there is another Rwanda to intervene," Mr Kadet said. "In order to finish with these aggressors and free our country, I want to appeal solemnly for a general mobilisation of Ivorians beneath the flag," he said on state-controlled television. All Ivorians, aged between 20 and 26, "who have decided to go to the front to defend the republic" should sign up with the army.

French commentators said this may be an attempt to control the activities of a number of unofficial, pro-government groups which have sprung up in recent weeks, one of which may have been responsible for the massacre in Monoko-Zohi.

Local people told western journalists at the weekend that the people found half-buried in a mass grave were mostly merchants and guest workers from Mali, Burkina Faso and other neighbouring countries. The Ivorian government has blamed its neighbours for fomenting the conflict. There is much local ill-feeling against foreign guest workers, who were brought in when cocoa prices were booming but remained after the market faltered in the 1990s. A French army spokesman, Major Frederic Thomazo, said the town of Blolekin, about 70km (43 miles) east of previously rebel-held territory, fell at the weekend.

French troops, including Foreign Legionnaires and paratroopers, set up checkpoints yesterday 40 miles west of their previous positions. French forces intervened initially to rescue French and other western civilians caught up in the fighting. They remained to monitor a ceasefire which was agreed on 22 October but has scarcely been respected.

At Monoko-Zohi, French soldiers and French journalists found limbs protruding from a mass grave 30m long and 10m wide. Village elders said that the massacre occurred on 27 and 28 November. They accused forces loyal to the government of rounding up foreigners, mostly young men, and shooting them or slitting their throats. The village is just within rebel territory on the ceasefire map.

Witnesses said there was no doubt government forces were responsible. "We know their uniforms," said Adiriara Ouedraogo, a female worker from Burkina Faso who had fled after the killings.

Local government commanders said the grave contained the bodies of rebels killed in the fighting. Officials in the capital blamed rebel forces and said they had evidence of civilian massacres by rebels in other parts of the country.