Ivory Coast president: strongman will face charges

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast's president said Wednesday that the country's arrested strongman will face charges "on a national level and an international level," as the president attempts to restore order after a bloody four-month standoff.

Alassane Ouattara said strongman Laurent Gbagbo has been moved out of the Golf Hotel, where he was taken after his capture on Monday. He said Gbagbo will be kept in a villa and that his rights as a former head of state will be respected.

President Alassane Ouattara meets with commanding officers from the republican forces, at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Ouattara called on all fighters to put down their arms now that the longtime strongman has been captured after his refusal to cede power sparked violence leaving bodies piled at morgues.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

"Gbagbo is in a residence under surveillance somewhere in Ivory Coast," Ouattara told reporters at the Golf Hotel.

The justice minister is preparing for possible prosecution of Gbagbo, he said, but gave no details.

"There will be charges (against Gbagbo) on a national level and an international level," he said. "Reconciliation cannot happen without justice."

Ouattara repeated his call against violence, and said that all minors being held should be released immediately.

"We need to secure the country, notably Abidjan," he said. "It is important for the country to emerge from this crisis on top."

Ouattara said he will settle into the presidential palace in the coming days, but that a swearing-in ceremony is not a priority and will take place at a later date. He said his priority is to provide security for Ivorians, to establish law and order and to get the country working. Many Ivorians went without food and water as fighting roiled the nation last week.

Gbagbo refused to cede power after losing a November election, leading to the standoff that plunged the West African nation into chaos and killed untold numbers of people. More than 1 million civilians fled their homes amid the fighting, which also disrupted the economy of the cocoa-producing powerhouse.

New footage obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday shows pro-Ouattara fighters storming Gbagbo's residence.

The footage, shot by a pro-Ouattara fighter Monday during Gbagbo's arrest, showed forces backing Ouattara walking through the front gate carrying firearms. Many are dressed in camouflage and wearing helmets, and some are crouched in shooting position. After orders from a commander, fighters entered the residence, shot at the lock on an orange door and forced themselves inside.

The footage shows fighters putting a camouflage flak jacket on Gbagbo. He and his wife are then escorted to a car with a tank sitting nearby. Gbagbo was then handed off to U.N. peacekeepers and taken to Ouattara's Abidjan headquarters.

Ouattara on Wednesday also said that an investigation would be opened into mass killings that have occurred throughout the country.

Rights groups have accused pro-Gbagbo and pro-Ouattara fighters of killings hundreds since March. Reprisal killings erupted as Ouattara's fighters made a lightning assault to force Gbagbo from power. And despite Gbagbo's detention, suspected Gbagbo supporters are still being rounded up in cities and villages, especially in western Ivory Coast.

No one knows how many people have been killed. A week ago when the United Nations was reporting more than 400 deaths throughout the country, the International Federation of the Red Cross Society said thousands had been killed and wounded.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet also said Wednesday that France will reduce its military force in the Ivory Coast from 1,700 to 980 troops as soon as possible. Longuet said French forces took a secondary role to Ouattara's forces and the U.N. in capturing Gbagbo.

The French will not make any decision on an eventual pullout until at least June, he said, because the future of the French force will depend on the U.N. decision in June on whether to renew the mandate for its force.

"Patrols of Ivorian and French gendarmes will circulate in Abidjan to show that there is a state of law that is being put in place," Longuet told a parliamentary hearing on Ivory Coast on Wednesday.

He said the head of the Ivorian gendarme service, the director of police, the chief of staff of the armed forces and the chief of staff of the army have all offered their services to Ouattara.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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France rescues Japanese ambassador in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — French forces wearing night vision goggles rappelled from a helicopter to rescue the Japanese ambassador and seven others, France's foreign minister said Thursday, as Ivory Coast's strongman leader remained in an underground bunker amid the fighting.

This image taken from a video provided by the French military Thursday April 7, 2011 shows Yoshifumi Okamura, right, the Japanese ambassador to Ivory Coast thanking an unidentified French officer of the Licorne operation, left, following a rescue mission to airlift the ambassador to safety in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. French forces wearing night vision goggles rappelled from a helicopter to rescue the Japanese ambassador and seven others, France's foreign minister said Thursday, as Ivory Coast's strongman leader remained in an underground bunker amid the fighting. (AP Photo/French military via APTN) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Forces allied with Ivory Coast's internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara have stormed the gates of Laurent Gbagbo's home but are fearful of killing the entrenched leader and stoking the rage of his supporters. Some 46 percent of Ivorians voted for Gbagbo in the November election that unleashed political chaos.

Gbagbo has made an art of staying in power years past the end of his legal mandate, and is now pushing the envelope, fighting for each day, even each hour.

"He will not surrender," said Meite Sindou, a defense spokesman for Ouattara, the man recognized worldwide as the democratically elected president of Ivory Coast. "We will have to take him."

Wednesday began with the boldest attempt yet to penetrate Gbagbo's inner sanctum as fighters loyal to Ouattara made it as far as the gate of the presidential mansion he has occupied for the last decade. They attacked it with a barrage of fire, and residents reported hearing concussive blasts.

They breached the property's perimeter only to be forced to retreat in the face of the heavy artillery unleashed by the ruler's inner circle of guards.

Amid the fighting late Wednesday, French troops rescued the Japanese ambassador and seven others after fighters attacked them. In a video provided by the French military, the forces are seen rappelling from a helicopter at night with night vision goggles, before the aircraft lands in a field to pick up a man, who appears to be the Japanese ambassador to Ivory Coast.

"Mercenaries took over my residence, but in the end I was saved by French troops," said Yoshifumi Okamura, Japan's ambassador to the Ivory Coast.

Heavy arms fire was heard across Abidjan overnight, but on Thursday hundreds of people ventured out despite the dangers in search of water as U.N. helicopters circled in the air.

Ouattara has pleaded with the international community for months to intervene and remove Gbagbo by force, arguing he wouldn't leave any other way.

Despite losing the election, Gbagbo still controls the Ivorian army and has repeatedly used its arsenal of heavy artillery to attack areas of Abidjan where people voted for his opponent. Security forces are accused of opening fire with a mounted machine gun on a group of unarmed women and lobbing mortars into a market.

Finally on Monday, United Nations attack helicopters acting on a U.N. Security Council resolution bombarded six arms depots in Abidjan — including a cache inside the presidential compound.

"Obviously they didn't get all of it," said a senior diplomat who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "When they came after him, he pulled out more stuff. Remember, he had a long time to prepare for this."

Among the preparations was the choice of where Gbagbo would make his last stand. He is believed to be holed up in a tunnel originally built to connect the president's home and the adjacent residence of the French ambassador, Sindou said.

Ivory Coast's first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, built the tunnel so he could take refuge inside the ambassador's residence in the event of a coup, said Ivory Coast expert Christian Bouquet, a professor of political geography at the University of Bordeaux III.

In an irony of history, Gbagbo is said to have severed the link between the residences shortly after coming to power in 2000. He had accused France of backing a rebel group that attempted to overthrow him in 2002, and fighters from this same group are now backing Ouattara and carried out Wednesday's attack on the residence.

The pro-Ouattara forces began their lighting advance just over a week ago attacking from the east, west and center of the country. At least 80 percent of the countryside was under their control by the time they entered Abidjan.

On Tuesday, Gbagbo's soldiers were seen abandoning their posts, some rushing inside a church to tear off their uniforms before re-emerging in civilian clothes. His generals issued orders to stop fighting.

Yet Gbagbo — a former history professor — appears to have calculated his rival's weakness: Ouattara knows that he needs to take Gbagbo alive to maintain international support, and to avoid further alienating voters who supported Gbagbo in last year's election.

From inside his bunker, Gbagbo blasted the world in back-to-back interviews on French TV station LCI and French radio RFI. He said he would never step down, that there was nothing to negotiate and called the operation to oust him an international "game of poker."

Ouattara's spokeswoman Affoussy Bamba said that she was nonetheless optimistic that the end was near.

"He has nothing left. His arsenal is gone. His army has evaporated," she said by telephone from Abidjan. "How much longer can he last?"

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Ouattara forces attack Gbagbo bunker in Ivory Coast

(Reuters) - Forces loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara launched a heavy attack on Wednesday on the bunker where Laurent Gbagbo was defying efforts to force him to cede power, residents said.

"The fighting is terrible here, the explosions are so heavy my building is shaking," Alfred Kouassi, who lives near Gbagbo's residence in the commercial capital Abidjan, told Reuters.

"We can hear automatic gunfire and also the thud of heavy weapons. There's shooting all over the place. Cars are speeding in all directions and so are the fighters," he said.

A plume of smoke rises over Abidjan, April 6, 2011.

He could see French tanks in the street but did not know whether they were taking part in the offensive. The French ambassador's residence is close to Gbagbo's.

The French military confirmed that fighting was under way around Gbagbo's residence, but said that French troops in the city were not involved.

The fighting resumed for a third day after negotiations led by the United Nations and France to secure Gbagbo's departure failed, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

"The negotiations which were carried out for hours yesterday between the entourage of Laurent Gbagbo and Ivorian authorities have failed because of Gbagbo's intransigence," Juppe told parliament in Paris.

He had earlier said Gbagbo had "no future" and that it was "absurd" for him to hang on.

The former colonial power in Ivory Coast, France has taken a leading role in talks to persuade Gbagbo to hand over to rival Ouattara and end a four-month standoff over a contested election in November which U.N.-certified results say Ouattara won.

A spokeswoman for Ouattara's forces said Ouattara's fighters were storming Gbagbo's residence, where Gbagbo has been holed up since Ouattara's forces swept into Abidjan backed by helicopter strikes by the United Nations and France.

"They are in the process of entering the residence to seize Gbagbo," Affousy Bamba told Reuters. "They have not taken him yet, but they are in the process."

CIVILIANS HUNT FOR FOOD, WATER

Residents however said militias close to Gbagbo and his presidential guard were putting up a stiff resistance, even as most soldiers from the regular army had heeded a call to lay down their arms.

Despite the fighting, desperate civilians in the north of the city ventured outside to hunt for water and food.

"We haven't slept, we haven't eaten, we've had nothing to drink. We are all going to die," said 17-year-old Mariam.

Gbagbo has ruled Ivory Coast since 2000. Negotiations to persuade him to quit stalled after he resisted international pressure to sign a document renouncing his claim to power.

"If Gbagbo has refused to sign the documents they (UN and France) presented to him yesterday, it is because they proposed something that had no legal and judicial basis," Gbagbo's spokesman Ahoua Don Mello told Reuters on Wednesday.

A defiant Gbagbo had earlier denied reports he was ready to surrender after a fierce assault by forces loyal to Ouattara, whose victory in November's presidential election Gbagbo has refused to accept.

"We are not at the negotiating stage. And my departure from where? To go where?" Gbagbo told French radio RFI on Wednesday.

Gbagbo had told French television channel LCI his army had only called for a ceasefire after its weaponry was destroyed by French and U.N. air strikes on Monday. He had suggested direct talks with Ouattara, an offer that was not accepted.

"I'm not a kamikaze. I love life. My voice is not the voice of a martyr, no, no, no, I'm not looking for death. It's not my aim to die," Gbagbo, told the channel by telephone.

"For peace to return to Ivory Coast, I and Ouattara, the two of us have to talk," he added.

Ouattara's forces were ordered not to kill Gbagbo.

"Alassane Ouattara has given formal instructions that Gbagbo is to be kept alive because we want to bring him to justice," Ouattara spokesman Patrick Achi told Reuters.

SURRENDER?

The French armed forces chief said Gbagbo could surrender within hours.

"Despite that (the failure of negotiations), I believe it is a matter of hours, possibly during the day," armed forces chief Edouard Guillaud told Europe 1 radio.

France's intervention in its former colony has infuriated Gbagbo, who blames Paris for supporting the north of the country in the civil war of 2002-03, and it comes at a tense time for French diplomacy after President Nicolas Sarkozy's spearheading of the West's military response to the crisis in Libya.

"We accuse France of seeking to assassinate president Gbagbo. President Sarkozy is organizing the assassination of President Gbagbo," Gbagbo's spokesman in Paris, Toussaint Alain, told Reuters.

Last year's long-delayed election in the world's top cocoa producing nation was meant to draw a line under the civil war, but Gbagbo's refusal to cede power has plunged the country into violence that has killed more than 1,500 people.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Tuesday he was in talks with West African states about referring alleged atrocities in the Ivory Coast to the court after a reported massacre in the west of the country.

Cocoa prices were little changed on Wednesday as traders were confident that Gbagbo's expected exit would allow a swift resumption of exports. The country's defaulted $2.3 billion Eurobond rose to a four-month high on Wednesday on raised expectations of repayment.

The European Union on Wednesday imposed additional sanctions on the Gbagbo government, coverging bonds, securities and loans.

Source: Reuters

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Fighters surround Ivory Coast strongman in bunker

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Surrounded by troops backing Ivory Coast's democratically elected leader, strongman Laurent Gbagbo huddled in a bunker at his home with his family Tuesday and tried to negotiate terms of surrender, officials said.

France's foreign minister said officials were demanding that Gbagbo renounce power in writing and formally recognize his rival Alassane Ouattara, the internationally backed winner of the November election that plunged the West African nation into chaos.

Soldiers loyal to Alassane Ouattara man a checkpoint at one of the principal entrances to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Ivory Coast's entrenched strongman Laurent Gbagbo huddled in a bunker at his home and was exploring different options for his surrender, officials said Tuesday, as forces backing the country's democratically elected leader seized the residence.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Forces loyal to Ouattara on Tuesday seized the presidential residence where Gbagbo tried to wrest last-ditch concessions, said a senior diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Ouattara has urged his supporters to take Gbagbo alive.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told a parliamentary commission that military chiefs in the former French colony have given orders for a cease-fire.

United Nations and French forces opened fire with attack helicopters on Gbagbo's arms stockpiles and bases on Monday after four months of political deadlock in the former French colony in West Africa. Columns of foot soldiers allied with Ouattara also finally pierced the city limits of Abidjan.

"One might think that we are getting to the end of the crisis," Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission to Ivory Coast said by phone. "We spoke to his close aides, some had already defected, some are ready to stop fighting. He is alone now, he is in his bunker with a handful of supporters and family members. So is he going to last or not? I don't know."

Toure said that the U.N. had received phone calls Tuesday from the three main Gbagbo-allied generals, saying they were planning to order their troops to stop fighting.

"They asked us to accept arms and ammunition from the troops and to provide them protection," he said.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet also told a Paris news conference Tuesday that he hoped the situation would be resolved within hours.

The offensive that began Monday included air attacks on the presidential residence and three strategic military garrisons, marking an unprecedented escalation in the international community's efforts to oust Gbagbo, as pro-Ouattara fighters pushed their way to the heart of the city to reach Gbagbo's home.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he welcomed the role of the U.N. and French forces in Ivory Coast, also known by its French name Cote d'Ivoire.

"To end this violence and prevent more bloodshed, former President Gbagbo must stand down immediately, and direct those who are fighting on his behalf to lay down their arms," Obama said in a statement. "Every day that the fighting persists will bring more suffering, and further delay the future of peace and prosperity that the people of Cote d'Ivoire deserve."

Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara even as the world's largest cocoa producer teetered on the brink of all-out civil war as the political crisis drew out, with both men claiming the presidency. Ouattara has tried to rule from a lagoonside hotel.

On Tuesday, the African Union's Peace and Security Council again urged Gbagbo to cede power immediately to Ouattara "in order to curtail the suffering of the Ivorian people."

The French foreign minister said negotiations with Gbagbo and his family were ongoing.

"His adviser, Alcide Djedje, who is presented as his foreign minister, has arrived at the French Embassy and he's in the process of discussions on conditions of Gbagbo's departure," Juppe said from France.

Even before the offensive, postelection violence had left hundreds dead — most of them Ouattara supporters — and forced up to 1 million people to flee their homes.

Ivory Coast gained independence from France in 1960, and some 20,000 French citizens still lived there when a brief civil war broke out in 2002. French troops were then tasked by the U.N. with monitoring a cease-fire and protecting foreign nationals in Ivory Coast, which was once an economic star and is still one of the only countries in the region with four-lane highways, skyscrapers, escalators and wine bars.

Following four months of attempts to negotiate Gbagbo's departure, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed an especially strong resolution giving the 12,000-strong peacekeeping operation the right "to use all necessary means to carry out its mandate to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence ... including to prevent the use of heavy weapons against the civilian population."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Ivory Coast fighters prepare to oust leader

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast began moving some 200 employees out of the main city Sunday after repeated attacks on its headquarters, as fighters loyal to the internationally recognized president prepared for a battle to oust the incumbent leader.

Sporadic gunfire rang out in central Abidjan on Sunday, and residents for the most part kept in their homes. Residents of the commercial capital have been restricted to their homes since forces supporting internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara began their assault of Abidjan on Thursday. Electricity has been cut intermittently and the water was shut off citywide Sunday morning, though a few women could be seen on the street filling basins with water from the lagoon.

"There is an in-country relocation of some 200 of our staff in order to ensure their safety in the currently challenging security environment. There are no plans to evacuate them from the country," said Nicholas Birnback, a spokesman for the U.N. Peacekeeping Department.

A U.N. employee said they were taken by helicopter from the U.N. base in downtown Abidjan to the airport. Another helicopter will take them from there to the northern city of Bouake.

The person asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

On Saturday, incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo called on his supporters to descend into the streets to form a human shield around the presidential palace. Boatloads of youth were ferried into the center of town and have been coursing the streets carrying rudimentary weapons such as two-by-fours and metal bars.

Ouattara's camp reports that the vast majority of the military has defected to his side, leaving only a small contingent of fighters to defend Gbagbo.

Thousands of pro-Ouattara troops amassed on the city's northern edge Sunday.

The U.N. reported that elite Republican Guard forces have repeatedly attacked its convoys and patrols. On Saturday, four peacekeepers were seriously injured after they were fired upon in the center of the city. The U.N. previously reported having returned fire on the Republican Guard and injured five of it soldiers. Pro-Gbagbo forces first attacked its headquarters on Thursday.

One U.N. employee was killed by a stray bullet last week.

The U.N. evacuation order is for all "essential employees." Nonessential employees were already evacuated several months ago. Some 10,000 U.N. military personnel remain in Ivory Coast.

Meanwhile, the Abidjan airport was taken over Saturday by French and U.N. soldiers, a French military spokesman said.

Several French cargo planes arrived Sunday morning with 300 soldiers to reinforce the mission, said Commander Frederic Daguillon of the French Force Licorne, which is now 1,500 strong.

French soldiers are in Ivory Coast under the same U.N. mandate as the U.N. peacekeeping force and its primary mission is the protection of civilians. More than 1,650 foreigners have sought refuge at the French base, half of whom are French, Daguillon said.

Ouattara was declared the winner of last November's presidential election by the country's election commission and numerous international observers. Gbagbo refused to recognized the results and has clung to power for four months, despite international financial sanctions. Forces allied with Ouattara launched a military offensive last week and advanced rapidly across the country, meeting almost no resistance.

They reached the edges of Abidjan last Thursday, but haven't been able to take key targets like the main army base, the state television station, the presidential residence or the presidential palace.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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