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Mbeki: CÃ´te d'Ivoire peace delayed, but not denied

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Jul 13 2007 12:52

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While peace in CÃ´te d'Ivoire might be delayed because of the attempt on Prime Minister Guillaume Soro's life, it will not be denied, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

July 2007 should register itself as an important month in CÃ´te d'Ivoire's history, as the flame of peace is lit in Bouake, Mbeki said in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress website, ANC Today.

The event would mark the country's return to peace, reunification, national reconciliation and democracy.

"Burning under that flame will be some of the guns that broke the peace of this sister African country in 2002, and set its people one against the other, with guns in their hands.

"The weapons of war will be consumed by the flame of peace to mark and symbolise the irreversible advance of CÃ´te d'Ivoire towards a stable peace," Mbeki said.

CONTINUES BELOW

Standing together in Bouake would be President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Soro -- the two leaders who, for five years, stood at the head of the two opposing forces as enemies.

The Ivorian flame of peace should have been lit soon after the conclusion of the recent African Union summit in Accra, Ghana.

However, it was delayed because of the attack on Soro's plane at Bouake just before the AU summit

"When at last the flame of peace is lit, the date having been shifted because of the attempt on the prime minister's life, the people of CÃ´te d'Ivoire will make the firm statement that while peace might be delayed, it will not be denied," he said.

"They will make the unequivocal statement that they understood the call that was issued from Accra -- that we must advance step by step towards unity in all our countries, and towards the unity of Africa,"

Mbeki said.

"As that flame of peace illuminates the Ivorian landscape, it will make the statement that the Ivorian people have made the determination that they are not tribal beings, or colonial ones.

"It will make the statement that they are resolved to bond together as Africans."

From this fire of peace, Africa should seize the burning butt of the now silent gun to ignite the flame of peace in Niger and in Chad, in Darfur and in Somalia, and in all of Africa, to enable it to light the way to peace and national unity.

These were the building blocks to the unity of the African masses that would enable them all to be Africans, to think as Africans, and to live as Africans, Mbeki said. -- Sapa

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Mbeki: CÃ´te d'Ivoire peace delayed, but not denied

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