France arrested 11 people at the weekend who were planning to destabilise Cote d'Ivoire with the assistance of mercenaries, an Ivoirian police source said on Monday. He said they included Master Sargent Ibrahim Coulibaly, commonly known in Cote d'Ivoire as "IB", a key figure in the 1999 coup that brought to power the short-lived military government of Colonel Robert Guei. Coulibaly had lived in exile in Burkina Faso since Guei stepped down to make way for the present elected government of President Laurent Gbagbo in 2000. The source said all 11 were arrested on Saturday at a Paris airport under the terms of a new law to combat the activities of mercenaries on French territory, which came into effect on April 15.
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In Paris, a French government spokesman confirmed that several people had been arrested for attempting to destabilise Cote d'Ivoire under the terms of the anti-mercenary law, but he declined to give further details. A civil war broke out in Cote d'Ivoire on September 19 last year which led to rebel forces seizing control of the north of the country. Despite the signing of a peace agreement in January and the establishment of a government of national unity in March, the country remains divided. There is still a deep distrust between President Gbagbo and the rebels in the north who have not yet started to disarm or demobilise.
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Heightened security measures were in evidence in the capital Abidjan at the weekend, with more road blocks than usual in the city streets and military helicopters clattering overhead. |