With a ceremonial bulldozing of a wooden barricade, Ivory Coast's president and the man who tried to unseat him in a violent rebellion started to dismantle the UN-patrolled buffer zone that has split the country since an attempted 2002 coup sparked civil war.
The band of land running 600km east to west and about 20km wide has divided Ivory Coast between a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south for nearly five years -- keeping an uneasy peace amid stalled accords between the two sides.
Monday's ceremony at the so-called Zone of Confidence represented one of the first tangible steps taken toward reunification since the latest peace deal brought rebel leader Guillaume Soro into the government as prime minister, making him second only to President Laurent Gbagbo.
"Go where you like. Ivory Coast is no longer divided," Gbagbo said at the town of Tiebissou, on the southern edge of the zone.
A group of international troops carried their bags out the area and exited the barricade as part of the ceremony.
The division is not completely disappearing, but is being shrunk down to a thin line of checkpoints under the latest deal -- a move to make it easier to travel between the two sides. Previously, Ivorians needed papers approved by both the government and the rebel forces to cross the zone.
"Ivory Coast has started with resolution on the road to peace," Soro said.
The president also promised to hold elections by Dec. 31, saying: "As of today [Monday], there will be no more excuses" for holding back the vote.
Gbagbo has repeatedly delayed elections as the two sides argued about the timing of disarmament and who should qualify for citizenship cards that would allow them to vote.
Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, was once held up as West Africa's shining success story with its cosmopolitan port city of Abidjan and thriving commerce. But political and ethnic discontent erupted with the attempt to unseat Gbagbo in 2002, and the country has since languished in economic uncertainty as UN forces and French troops maintained peace amid seemingly intractable divisions.
Both the UN and France have said they would decrease their presence in the area as joint brigades made up of rebel and government soldiers move in to take over patrols. Still, neither of the two forces have said they would completely abandon the area.
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