Peace deal signed in Ivory Coast
U.N. official: 'A day of hope, a day of optimism' in war-torn nation
(CNN) -- Government and rebel forces in the western African nation of Ivory Coast on Saturday signed a wide-ranging agreement covering disarmament, political initiatives and military reforms, a U.N. representative said.
"Today is a day of hope, a day of optimism," said Alan Doss, the United Nations' principal deputy special representative in the country.
He said the national army chief, an official from the rebel Force Nouvelle, and the president of the national committee for disarmament signed the agreement.
"It's due to start immediately and has several phases," he told CNN.
The two sides agreed that fighters would start laying down their weapons on June 27, Reuters news agency reported.
"The operations of DD (disarmament and demobilisation) will run from June 27 to August 10, 2005," said a statement signed by both sides, according to Reuters, and read out by national disarmament committee head Alain Richard Donwahi.
'Current calm and stability'
The agreement is the result of a series of meetings held in Yamoussoukro, the capital, and "sets out a series of actions they will take in the next few weeks in a number of areas," Doss said.
Disarmament, he said, is part of a wider effort that "involves redeploying the administration to all parts of the county in the weeks and months ahead" and staging national elections.
There have been trouble spots, he said, such as human rights violations in the west and people recently being forced to leave their homes.
However, he said the atmosphere is generally stable in the Ivory Coast, called Cote d'Ivoire in the national language of French.
"We hope that the current calm and stability will gradually install itself throughout the country," Doss said.
The United Nations said that this agreement comes after an earlier pact "reached last month in Pretoria, South Africa, to end two years of civil strife" in which the "government and other parties in conflict officially declared an end to their war."
The United Nations summed up the country's civil warfare in a recent statement saying, "A failed coup attempt in 2002 against President Laurent Gbagbo led to a civil war that has left the country divided into the south, ruled by the government, and the north, controlled by rebels."
Reuters contributed to this report.
