FRANCE: OAU PRESIDENT MEETS CHIRAC

(28 Oct 2000) French/Nat

Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema, the current president of the Organisation of African Unity, called on French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday at the Elysees Palace in Paris.

The main topic of their discussions was the current situation in Ivory Coast, a former French colony.

After the meeting, the Togo president declared that if the current government formed by Opposition figure Laurent Gbagbo suits Ivorians, the O.A.U. would not oppose the decision.

But the O.A.U. president said the way Ivory Coast was governed could affect the whole West Africa region.

He's expressed concern over a week of street violence in cities across the nation, ignited by Sunday's presidential elections.

Some estimates put the number of dead since violence began three days ago at more than 200.

But another 55 bodies were discovered on Saturday dumped in a field on the outskirts of Ivory Coast capital, Abidjan.

The bodies, which appeared to all be of young men who had been shot, were piled grotesquely on top of one another in an isolated field surrounded by forest on the edge of Abidjan's Yopougon neighborhood.

Eyadema has appealed for the bloodbath to stop.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"What we want is to avoid blood flooding, it has got to stop. The Ivorians must hold hands as brothers again and work on developing their country. Ivory Coast does not concern only the Ivorians but the whole under-region because in the present months the economy of the Ivory Coast weighs a lot. We have learnt today that Mr Gbagbo has formed a new government in which the other parties participate. If it is what the Ivorians want we have to go along with them."
SUPER CAPTION: Gnassingbe Eyadema, Togo President

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