Gbagbo In Stand-Off With UN, Others

Laurent Gbagbo

's regime was locked in a tense stand-off with the international community yesterday as the United Nations complained of 'massive' human rights abuses.

Gbagbo has rejected demands that he cedes power to his rival Alassane Ouattara and has instead ordered UN peacekeepers to leave the country, stirring fears that the fragile state may plunge back into chaos.

The UN has refused the order to stand down its 10,000-strong UNOCI force and its chief human rights official has accused Gbagbo's security forces of involvement in dozens of alleged kidnappings and murders.

Former colonial power France, the United States, the European Union and Canada have threatened sanctions, while the African Union and Cote d’Ivoire’s West African neighbours in the ECOWAS bloc have demanded that Gbagbo step down.

The UN peacekeepers continue to patrol in the restive port city of Abidjan, the sprawling commercial capital, supported by France's 900-strong Licorne, a holdover from Paris' formerly much larger military presence.

Both Gbagbo and Ouattara claim to have won last month's election and both have had themselves declared president, but the incumbent has so far retained control of the official Armed Forces and of Abidjan's ministry buildings.

Ouattara has been recognised as president by the international community and is supported by the former rebel movement that controls Cote d’Ivoire north of the 2003 ceasefire line that divides the country into two armed camps.

But in the south, home to the government and the cocoa ports that dominate Cote d’Ivoire’s economy, his movements are limited to the grounds of the Golf Hotel, a luxury waterfront resort in Abidjan protected by UN 'blue helmets'.

Meanwhile, in the poor suburbs of the city, there are reports of gangs in uniform raiding houses at night and 'disappearing' suspected Ouattara backers.

On Sunday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, expressed concern over 'the growing evidence of massive violation of human rights' in the country since Thursday.

'In the past three days there has been more than 50 people killed and over 200 injured,' she said in a statement issued in Geneva, vowing 'to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable for their actions'.

She said witnesses blamed 'armed individuals in military uniform accompanied by elements of the Defence and Security Forces or militia groups'. Cote d’Ivoire's official 'Defence and Security Forces' back Gbagbo's rule.

'Abducted persons are reportedly taken by force to illegal places of detention where they are held incommunicado and without charge. Some have been found dead in questionable circumstances,' Pillay added.

Paris also urged Gbagbo to restrain his forces and warned that Licorne would protect France's estimated 15,000 expatriate citizens in Cote d’Ivoire where they still have major economic interests, 50 years after independence.

'If he does not want to have deaths on his conscience, he needs to hold back his troops,' French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told the French media on Sunday.

'Is he going to be someone who will stay in history as a democrat or someone who has fired on Ivorians?'

But, rather than showing any signs of preparing to back down, Gbagbo has instead hardened his position and his most notorious lieutenant has embarked on a series of daily rallies around Abidjan to stir up hard-line supporters.

Youth Minister Charles Ble Goude — who is under UN sanctions for 'acts of violence by street militia, including beatings, rapes and extra-judicial killings' — has urged supporters to fight to restore sovereignty.

Cote d’Ivoire was once an economic hub because of its role as the world's top cocoa producer. The civil war split the country into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south.

While the country officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara still draws his support from the northern half of the country where he was born, while Gbagbo's power base is in the south.

Gbagbo claimed victory in the presidential election only after his allies threw out half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north, a move that infuriated residents there who have long felt they are treated as foreigners in their own country by southerners.

National identity remains at the heart of the divide.

The question of who would even be allowed to vote in the election took years to settle as officials tried to differentiate between Ivorians with roots in neighbouring countries and foreigners.

Ouattara had himself been prevented from running in previous elections after accusations that he was not Ivorian and that he was of Burkinabe origin.

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