Ivory Coast Northern-based Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI) soldiers patrol the streets of Vavoua.

ABIDJAN, January 19 (News Agencies) - Rebels controlling the northern half of Ivory Coast called Sunday, January 19, for a “gigantic” anti-government demonstration in Abidjan, the economic capital in the south of the west African country.

But Junior Defense Minister Kadet Bertin said the authorities would not allow the march, called for Wednesday, January 21.

“The MPCI (Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast) is not an authorized movement in Ivory Coast, it’s a rebel movement. We cannot allow them to march here.

“If the MPCI people start to march in Abidjan, I will set soldiers on them and I will gas them,” Bertin told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The MPCI earlier Sunday called “all Ivorian democrats to a gigantic march of support for the combatants for freedom,” in a communiqué from an Abidjan-based section of the northern rebel group.

The demonstration would be the first against the government to be held in Abidjan since the war began in September in the world’s top cocoa producer, and may place rebel sympathizers on a collision course with supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo.

The armed forces chief of staff, for its part, said it was unaware of any request for the demonstration, set to begin in the middle of Abidjan and head towards the airport.

Thousands of people held a pro-Gbagbo rally in Abidjan on Saturday, while a protest calling for his resignation took place in the central city of Bouake, at the southern end of the territory controlled by the MPCI since September.

The protests coincided with the fourth day of peace talks in France between the government, the MPCI, two western rebel groups and the main opposition parties in the former French colony.

A ceasefire has been in effect on the ground as the various delegations to the talks in Marcoussis, France, wrestle with the two central issues fuelling the conflict: criteria used to determine Ivorian nationality and the rebels' call for early elections.

Sunday’s communiqué called for a protest against alleged intimidation by the Ivorian government of civil servants and aid workers in the north and west of the country where fighting in the four-month-old war has been focused. The communiqué, which also named the two western rebel groups, was authenticated by MCPI headquarters in Bouake.

The western rebel groups - the Movement of Justice and Peace (MJP) and the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Far West (MPIGO) emerged in the region late in November.

“All the participants in this demonstration must be dressed in the national colors in order to demonstrate our love for our country,” the MPCI statement said.

It also said the rebels would organize a series of protests “to demand the resignation of the regime of Laurent Gbagbo” starting Saturday. 

The Abidjan MPCI “collective” was not contactable early Sunday.

An official at a joint armed forces police unit in charge of urban security said he had “serious doubts” about such a protest, stressing that the “MPCI is not a legal movement.”