Côte d’Ivoire incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo on Saturday ordered United Nations and French troops to leave the country, but UN chief Ban Ki-moon rejected the demand, saying his blue helmets would not budge.
Both the UN and the former colonial power, France, have urged Gbagbo to concede defeat in a November 28 poll, which was meant to heal the wounds of the West African state’s 2002-03 civil war but has instead reopened them.
Spokesperson Jacqueline Oble read a statement on state television saying the government wanted the UNOCI and LICORNE missions forces to leave Côte d’Ivoire, “and is opposed to any renewal of their mandate.”
“UNOCI has interfered seriously in the internal affairs of Côte d’Ivoire,” she said.
Ban responded with his own statement issued by UN spokesperson Farhan Haq, who made clear that the UNOCI peacekeeping force had no intention of pulling out of Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s top cocoa producer.
“The Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] is aware of statements by Mr. Gbagbo’s spokesperson calling for the withdrawal of the UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI),” Haq said.
“UNOCI will fulfil its mandate and will continue to monitor and document any human rights violations, incitement to hatred and violence, or attacks on UN peacekeepers,” Haq said in a statement.
Ban has said that Gbagbo must step down and hand power to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, who the UN says won the run-off election.
The country has been in turmoil since Gbagbo claimed victory in the election with backing from the pro-Gbagbo Constitutional Council, the nation’s highest legal body, rejecting as fraudulent results showing that he had lost by nearly 8% to Ouattara.
International pressure
Almost all world leaders have also recognised Ouattara’s victory and demanded that Gbagbo step down.
The UN mission includes some 10 000 soldiers and police, and is supported by the French LICORNE force. Hundreds of peacekeepers have been deployed to defend Ouattara’s makeshift headquarters in Abidjan’s lagoon-side Golf Hotel.
At least 20 people were killed on Thursday in clashes between pro-Ouattara marchers and security forces. Former rebels supporting Ouattara also briefly exchanged fire with government soldiers.
Several Western diplomats in New York told Reuters that Gbago had no legal authority to order UN and French peacekeepers out of the country since he lost the election. They said only Ouattara had that authority now.
Ban has warned of the potential for a resumption of civil war and called on all sides to avoid triggering further violence. Haq said Ban was “deeply concerned” about attacks on UN troops by forces who appeared to be loyal to Gbagbo.
The leader of Gbagbo’s feared Young Patriots militia group, Ble Goude, told Reuters they may march on the hotel where Ouattara is staying to force him out.
And at a rally of several thousand in the poor neighbourhood of Yopougon, he called on his militia to “liberate” Côte d’Ivoire.
“We will defend the sovereignty of our country,” Goude, also Gbagbo’s youth minister, said. “We ask them [the UN] to leave our country. Get ready, because from next Friday I will need you for the total liberation of Côte d’Ivoire.”
The United States, France and the European Union have heaped pressure on Gbagbo to step down, threatening sanctions if he does not do so within days.
A top US State Department official told Reuters on Friday that Gbagbo had also been offered a “soft landing” in exile in an African country if he steps down. But a Gbagbo spokesperson said Gbagbo had no intention of leaving.
Gbagbo came to power in 2000 after a disputed election against coup leader Robert Guei, and two years later survived a rebellion that split the country into a rebel-held north and his government-controlled south.
The turmoil in the world’s top grower of cocoa raised cocoa futures to four-month highs in recent weeks, though futures prices have since eased, with second-month cocoa in New York settling down nearly 2% on Friday. — Reuters