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Ouattara ally calls for force in Ivory Coast
Source: Agencies |
January 2, 2011, Sunday
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A TOP ally of the man widely recognized as Ivory Coast's president said incumbent Laurent Gbagbo is using stalling tactics to stay in power and urged the international community yesterday to intervene with "legitimate force" to remove him.
Meanwhile, Gbagbo supporters who were called on to remove Alassane Ouattara from the Golf Hotel on New Year's morning failed to materialize as United Nations Bangladeshi riot police guarded the hotel's entryway in full crowd-control attire.
Ouattara's Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, told The Associated Press yesterday that Gbagbo would only leave power by force and that the international community will have to intervene to protect democracy in Africa. He dismissed Gbagbo's offer to invite an international investigation into the country as a delay tactic.
"It was this same type of distracting proposition that he used to hold on for five years without an election," Soro said. "Enough is enough. Mr Gbagbo must leave power."
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who also holds the rotating presidency of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, is due in Abidjan tomorrow to negotiate Gbagbo's departure. ECOWAS threatened to use military force to remove Gbagbo if he doesn't leave freely, but failed to persuade him to go into exile when its first delegation came to Ivory Coast tomorrow.
The UN has said the volatile West African nation once divided in two faces a real risk of return to civil war, but Soro said this war has already begun.
"In any country that records more than 200 dead in five days, as the UN has certified, it's war. When a country experiences a massive population flight of the population - more than 20,000 Ivorians who leave their country to seek refuge in a country like Liberia - it's war," he said.
In New York yesterday, the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke with Ouattara by telephone and assured him that the international community was working to try to end the stalemate in Ivory Coast.
Ban said he appreciated "the restraint and patience being shown even in the face of provocative acts" and reaffirmed the United Nations' "principled and unwavering position on upholding the election outcome" that should have put Ouattara in office.
The secretary-general also expressed concern about reports of human rights violations and pledge that UN security forces would do their best to document abuses and prevent further atrocities.
Meanwhile, Gbagbo supporters who were called on to remove Alassane Ouattara from the Golf Hotel on New Year's morning failed to materialize as United Nations Bangladeshi riot police guarded the hotel's entryway in full crowd-control attire.
Ouattara's Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, told The Associated Press yesterday that Gbagbo would only leave power by force and that the international community will have to intervene to protect democracy in Africa. He dismissed Gbagbo's offer to invite an international investigation into the country as a delay tactic.
"It was this same type of distracting proposition that he used to hold on for five years without an election," Soro said. "Enough is enough. Mr Gbagbo must leave power."
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who also holds the rotating presidency of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, is due in Abidjan tomorrow to negotiate Gbagbo's departure. ECOWAS threatened to use military force to remove Gbagbo if he doesn't leave freely, but failed to persuade him to go into exile when its first delegation came to Ivory Coast tomorrow.
The UN has said the volatile West African nation once divided in two faces a real risk of return to civil war, but Soro said this war has already begun.
"In any country that records more than 200 dead in five days, as the UN has certified, it's war. When a country experiences a massive population flight of the population - more than 20,000 Ivorians who leave their country to seek refuge in a country like Liberia - it's war," he said.
In New York yesterday, the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke with Ouattara by telephone and assured him that the international community was working to try to end the stalemate in Ivory Coast.
Ban said he appreciated "the restraint and patience being shown even in the face of provocative acts" and reaffirmed the United Nations' "principled and unwavering position on upholding the election outcome" that should have put Ouattara in office.
The secretary-general also expressed concern about reports of human rights violations and pledge that UN security forces would do their best to document abuses and prevent further atrocities.
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