Ivory Coast foes bury hatchet on football pitch

YAMOUSSOUKRO, Sept 27 (Reuters) -- Two years ago Ivory Coast's rival forces traded only gunshots and grenades as they fought a civil war for control of the West African state.

But a football tournament organised by French peacekeepers brought the two sides together again this month and this time they have preferred to exchange handshakes and phone numbers.

It would be a bold leap to declare that the friendship on the football field could lead to an end to the enmity that has split the former French colony in two. But both sides saw the competition as an encouraging sign.

"No one would have imagined this a year ago," said Kolo Soro, who holds the unusual rank of 'Vieux Pere' or 'Old Father' in the rebellion that tried to oust President Laurent Gbagbo, as rebels and army soldiers met in the final of the competition.

"It's a big step forward. Whatever the score, it will be the whole of Ivory Coast that wins. We just want the war to be over," said Soro, as the first half got under way at the stadium in Ivory Coast's capital, the central city of Yamoussoukro.

In green tops, white shorts and orange socks, reflecting Ivory Coast's national colours, the national army known as the FANCI chalked up a 5-0 victory over the rebel New Forces' team, clad in white and blue.

For many of the players, the game was not a grudge match against old enemies. It was a reunion with old friends as many of the rebel soldiers used to belong to the FANCI.

The rebellion failed to oust Gbagbo but grew into a civil war which killed thousands and forced more than a million from their homes.

Although the conflict was formally declared over by military commanders on both sides last year, political leaders have failed to implement a peace plan and the country remains split between the government-controlled south and rebel-held north.

OLD FRIENDS ON OPPOSITE SIDES

His comrades hammering joyfully on the corrugated steel walls of the stand as the FANCI scored again and again, Chief Sergeant Diadie Michel said both sides were glad to meet former colleagues again after two years apart.

"I'm very happy to see the rebels here and I hope they'll come back to where they once were (in the army)," said Michel, who comes from the country's biggest city Abidjan.

"This was one of my young ones," he said, pointing at a soldier who sided with the rebels, barely out of his teens and wearing a military uniform nearly indistinguishable from that of his former comrade. He gave a shy smile then walked away.

Football is one of the few things to provide hope in a country whose economic decline was hastened by the war despite being the world's largest cocoa producer.

The Ivory Coast national team is regarded as the coming force in African soccer, its young stars such as Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and Arsenal defender Kolo Toure playing for top European clubs.

"Didier Drogba is great, so is Toure and we want to see him progress," said 21-year-old Hamidoo Dao, who plays football in a second-division team in the capital. He was among a group of fans who turned up to watch the match through the perimeter fence.

"Everyone wants to be like them and it gives us a lot of motivation," said Dao, who said he played against Toure three years ago while the future star was still training at the famed football academy of top club side ASEC Abidjan.

"Even then we knew he was a great player," he said.

SOLDIERS STRONGER THAN PEACEKEEPERS

To meet in the final of the three-week long tournament, the FANCI and New Forces had to eliminate teams made up of forces whose normal job is also to keep them apart.

They defeated sides drawn from the ranks of United Nations peacekeepers and the French force which supports them as well as a team composed of U.N. police trainers.

French army Colonel Alexandre Monat said the tournament had started the delicate process of rebuilding trust and friendship between the two Ivorian forces.

He also said it was helping to reconcile French troops with the FANCI, one of whose members shot dead a French soldier while they were on a joint patrol in Yamoussoukro in June.

Many pro-government Ivorians believe France could have done more to help them when the rebellion broke out.

"The atmosphere has been getting better as the tournament has gone along," Monat said.

"At the start, the FANCI and New Forces wouldn't sit together in the stands but now after 10 matches, they are bringing each other gifts and exchanging numbers," he said.

Leaving the pitch five goals down but smiling, 22-year-old Corporal Drissa Dayo, a New Forces player, said he liked the idea of playing football while helping to bring about peace.

"I'd do it again 10 times over. For a while it has seemed like the war is finished, so I hope this is a big sign to politicians, to show them that between the New Forces and FANCI, there is no more war," he said. "The ball's in their court."

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