Supporters of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo run for cover while being shot at by U.N. soldiers from the headquarters of the United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast (ONUCI) at the Sebroko district of Abidjan yesterday. Four pro-government protesters were killed in western Ivory Coast yesterday when U.N. peacekeepers opened fire to repel an attack on their base in a third day of anti-U.N. riots, Ivorian and U.N. officials said. - REUTERS
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP):
UNITED NATIONS peacekeepers fought off armed attackers besieging a military compound in Ivory Coast yesterday, then evacuated all staff from the area as the situation in the civil war-divided nation worsened.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a key regional mediator, flew to Ivory Coast yesterday for unscheduled talks with President Laurent Gbagbo, whom rebels accuse of orchestrating three days of unrest to undermine a new transitional government.
The new unrest erupted Monday after a U.N.-backed international mediation group recommended that parliament's expired mandate not be renewed. Gbagbo is leading a one-year government of national unity that has diminished his executive powers.
YOUTH ACTIVISTS IRATE
The parliament, filled with his supporters, is viewed as Gbagbo's last bastion of power and the decision angered youth activists and the president's backers who sent their followers into streets. The U.N. has so far bore the brunt of the protesters' ire.
At U.N. headquarters in New York, the current Security Council president called on Gbagbo to rein in the protesters while holding out sanctions as an option and saying the world body was following events closely.
CALLS FOR SANCTIONS
In Paris, the French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Henri Bentegeat - who has peacekeepers in the former colony - called for U.N. sanctions against Ivory Coast, saying both sides appear unwilling to resolve the more than three-year-old conflict.
In yesterday's violence, Bangladeshi troops in the government-held town of Guiglo exchanged fire with attackers trying to enter their compound before evacuating all U.N. employees from the town, U.N. military observer Capt. Gilles Combarieu said.
"They had to defend themselves," he said, adding that 200 to 300 U.N. peacekeepers and staff were headed north toward a more heavily guarded buffer zone separating government and rebel fighters. U.N. force spokeswoman Margherita Amodeo said four people were killed in the gun fight, adding they were not U.N. staff.
A doctor at Guiglo's main hospital said two dead bodies with bullet wounds lay at the morgue and there were reports of three more corpses in Guiglo's streets.
Ten others had been treated for gunshot wounds, the doctor said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak to reporters. Residents reached by telephone in Guiglo, near the Liberian border, reported rioters looting humanitarian organisations' offices.
Combarieu said about 70 U.N. peacekeepers stationed at the nearby town of Douekue were also evacuating that town with all U.N. staff after threats of violence.
Peacekeepers inside the main U.N. headquarters in Abidjan fired into the air and launched tear gas grenades at demonstrators for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, keeping about 1,000 protesters at bay, he said.
Elsewhere in the government-held south, Gbagbo supporters blocked streets with burning tires and stopped vehicles on the road to the international airport.
A pro-Gbagbo student leader, Serge Koffi, appeared on state television, reading a statement saying that the broadcaster had been "liberated."
Demonstrators have during past crises seized the television broadcaster which is state funded but run by a neutral party under peace accords.
Businesses shut down across Abidjan amid fears of a return to all-out violence in a country divided between government and rebel control after a 2002-2003 civil war.
There were no reports of strife from the rebel-held north, where insurgent leaders accused Gbagbo of orchestrating the protests to undermine a new transitional government.
"It's an insurrection against the transitional government organised by Gbagbo and (his political party) to bring power back into their hands," said Sidiki Konate, a rebel spokesman. Officials at the presidency couldn't be reached for comment.
Gbagbo cancelled planned October elections, blaming the rebels. Afterward, the U.N. and the African Union endorsed a one-year extension of Gbagbo's five-year mandate, despite fierce objections from rebels and the opposition.
A new prime minister, Charles Konan Banny, was chosen by the warring sides to shepherd the country toward elections within a year. He named a new 32-member national-unity government last month composed of rebel, opposition party and ruling party ministers.
On Tuesday, Gbagbo's ruling Ivorian Popular Front said it was withdrawing from the peace process and would no longer cooperate with Banny's government. It also demanded U.N. forces leave.
Tanzania's U.N. Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, the current Security Council president, said the council will start by adopting a presidential statement on Thursday. Mahiga said sanctions have "always been one of the options lurking on the horizon."
