The Hindu : War-weary Ivorians welcome new guns in town

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 29, 2003

International

International

War-weary Ivorians welcome new guns in town

DANANE (Ivory Coast) MAY 28. To people of this west Ivory Coast town, the rebels manning the checkpoint known as ``The Gates of Hell'' are brash young gunslingers who saved the town from violent Liberian gunmen.

The rebels are sharp-tongued and fond of racing around in doorless pickup trucks at top speed, AK-47s and shoulder-held grenade launchers at the ready.

In the eyes of grateful residents, the rebels freed Danane from the lawless Liberian gunmen pillaging across the border here in far west Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast's rebels ``saved us, and peace is coming back,'' said Patrick Bessoueu, a resident of Danane. ``People call them rebels, but we call them liberators.''

Since April, Ivory Coast's insurgents have struck out in search of gunmen who have taken advantage of the chaos of Ivory Coast's civil war to flood across the frontier with Liberia.

Well-armed renegades from Liberia's own conflicts, the Liberian gunmen have looked for jobs as mercenaries in Ivory Coast's war if they could get them, and for loot if they couldn't.

Residents fleeing the 70,000-resident Danane in the weeks under the Liberian gunmen's rule had spoken of killing, raping and robbery in the streets.

In Government-held parts of the west, where no such campaign against the Liberians had been mounted, journalists saw corpses rotting in the roads over the weekend. Houses had recently been burned. — AP

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