Killings keep west Ivorian cocoa farmers in hiding

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Brutal violence in western Ivory Coast is preventing frightened cocoa farmers from returning to their plantations, despite moves by presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara to revive the sector.

The United Nations said on Friday its staff had found 115 corpses since Thursday in towns in western Ivory Coast, in the heart of the country's cocoa industry, a week after other aid groups said 800 bodies had been discovered.

"We are afraid to travel in the countryside. We are afraid we will be killed. That is the mentality here after the violence and deaths," said Mamadou Kone, a farmer from Duekoue, who has sought refuge since the killings.

"Many farmers have fled," he said.

Another farmer in the nearby town of Gagnoa said planters there were also remaining in hiding due to fears of ethnically-driven violence.

"We need the tensions to ease," said Ali Traore. "In the meantime, the quality of the beans will fall."

Vincent Taillandier, an aid worker for Action against Hunger who visited Duekoue earlier this week, said some 30,000 people had been displaced by the violence, with some hiding in the bush. He said people were too scared to go back to their homes.

Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa grower, accounting for about a third of global supply, but output has been halted since late January by the effects of a violent power struggle that rekindled the country's 2002-3 civil war.

Ouattara, who won a November election according to U.N.-certified results, announced on Thursday his forces had blockaded incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo in his residence in Abidjan and would take measures to revive the cocoa sector -- Ivory Coast's main economic engine.

EXPORT RESUMPTION

The announcement followed more than a week of fierce fighting in the main city Abidjan between his forces and Gbagbo's defenders, raising the prospect of a resumption of exports frozen since January.

Farmers elsewhere in the country said they were encouraged by the speech, and hopeful merchants would once again start visiting cocoa farms to purchase beans.

"Before the end of this weekend, lots of farmers will probably return to their plantations to harvest," said Marcel Aa, who farms near Daloa, which has been relatively quiet since Ouattara's forces pushed through in late March.

Farmers in Soubre also said they would be able to restart harvesting once they were convinced buyers would arrive.

"If the buyers are ready. If the cocoa export ban is lifted and the banks reopen we will be able to get lots of money very quickly to improve our living conditions, given the stockpiles we have in the countryside," said Koffi Kouame.

Ouattara had declared an export ban in late January in an attempt to squeeze Gbagbo's pocketbook, and the European Union imposed shipping restrictions shortly after.

The European Union on Friday said it had lifted the shipping restrictions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro.

Cocoa exporters have said restarting shipments of cocoa to the world market could still take weeks, and depended heavily on shoring up security at ports and along the key transport routes to the farming regions.

"It is still too early to talk about restarting shipments," said one official for an export company, who asked not to be named. "The most important thing is security. Without it, we can't go back to work."

Exporters said it also remained unclear what the process was for registering and paying taxes on exports with Ouattara asserting control of the industry regulator BCC and customs.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; editing by Keiron Henderson)