By Julio Godoy
PARIS, Jan 8 2003 (IPS)

French President Jacques Chirac has announced "a summit of reconciliation for the Côte d’Ivoire" in Paris later this month, with the participation of African leaders and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"Once reconciliation is on its way, France will lead an international coalition of donors to finance reconstruction of the country," Chirac told French diplomats at a meeting Tuesday.

The announcement comes after France finds itself drawn more and more into the civil war raging in the Côte d’Ivoire. France has sent more than 2,000 soldiers to the Côte d’Ivoire since a civil war began September 19. Its military presence has been raised from 600 to about 3,000 soldiers.

The soldiers are officially there to protect "French and other foreign nationals." But the French military in effect protects a line that divide the country in two, with government forces on one side and rebels on the other. The French army is protecting the government of Laurent Gbagbo.

French soldiers have been blocking rebel troops trying to cross this line from the north and the west to capital Yamoussoukro and the Atlantic ports Abidjan and San Pedro, the economic pillars of the country.

One analyst in Paris compares the French military intervention to U.S. intervention in the Vietnam war. "First, we send soldiers to protect our nationals," says Christophe Ayad, diplomatic correspondent for the daily newspaper Libération. "Then, we send more soldiers to protect the soldiers protecting our nationals. In the end, we send soldiers to decide a war."

French soldiers killed at least 30 rebels Monday, and wounded an undetermined number near Duékoué city in the northwest. Nine French soldiers were wounded in the fighting. At least one of them was flown to Paris for treatment.

French troops opened fire after rebels attacked French military posts controlling the main road from Duékoué to Yamoussoukro and to Abidjan, according to official reports in Paris.

The French government is playing down the clash. Defence minister Michelle Alliot-Marie said the rebels who attacked the French troops were "uncontrolled elements". Army spokesman Col. Christian Baptiste said Tuesday that French troops "replied robustly" to the attack, and killed "an important number" of rebels.

Guillaume Soro, leader of the Patriotic Movement of the Côte d’Ivoire (MPCI, after its French name), told IPS on telephone from Duékoué that the French army had killed at least 50 rebels. The MPCI is among several guerrilla groups fighting Gbagbo’s forces. Rebel leaders call French troops "an occupying army".

White mercenaries, mostly Russians, fighting alongside the official forces of President Gbagbo attacked the rebel-controlled Menakro village December 31, killing at least 12 civilians. French soldiers made no attempt to stop the attack which was led by helicopter gunships.

In early December, about 120 bodies were found in a mass grave in Monoko-Zohi, in the northeast. The victims seemed to be immigrants from neighbouring Burkina Faso, suggesting that government forces were behind the massacre.

Rebels claim they are fighting Gbagbo’s government because of discrimination against immigrants from Burkina Faso and Mali. Former prime minister Alassane Outtara, said to be of "foreign" origin, was barred from contesting the last elections.

The French are holding an uncertain line for the moment. "If the French army doesn’t change its behaviour, it would raise questions over MPCI participation at the Paris meeting," Soro said.

The message seems to have gone home. The foreign ministry announced in Paris that new French ambassador Gildas le Lidec would soon meet some of the opposition leaders.

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