Experts from the United Nations came under fire in Côte d’Ivoire as they probed claims that President Laurent Gbagbo broke an arms embargo by importing attack helicopters from Belarus, a spokesperson said.
The latest attack on the UN came amid warnings of a humanitarian disaster as the West African nation seems to be on a downward spiral towards civil war. The charge that Gbagbo is receiving military aid from Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko came from United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon. Gbagbo’s government dismissed it as a “lie” while Belarus said it was “groundless”.
Ban later qualified the allegation in comments to reporters in Washington, saying the UN-appointed group of experts in Côte d’Ivoire had “credible information that the government of Belarus may be providing attack helicopters to forces loyal to Gbagbo”.
He said: “If it is confirmed, this will be a direct violation of [the] arms embargo by the security council.” When the experts tried to search an airport in the capital, Yamoussoukro, where they believed the helicopters to be, they were shot at by Ivorian forces, UN mission spokesperson Hamadoun Toure told Reuters. But he said the investigation was continuing.
In New York the UN Côte d’Ivoire sanctions committee discussed the charge that Belarus had violated the embargo. “It looks as if the sanctions committee has not yet been able to confirm the reported arms shipment,” a spokesperson for the German mission said. “They asked UNoci (the UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire) and the panel of experts to continue monitoring the situation.”
Embargo violated
Côte d’Ivoire has been under an arms embargo since the last outbreak of serious violence in 2004, when pro-Gbagbo forces bombed French peacekeepers in the rebel-held north, but analysts say the embargo has repeatedly been violated.
Gun battles between forces loyal to Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara, almost universally recognised as the winner of last November’s election, have intensified fears of a return to full-blown civil war. Cocoa prices rose to a 32-year peak as anxiety grew.
Relations between Gbagbo and the UN mission are deteriorating, with state TV regularly broadcasting allegations about the missions collaboration with the rebels. Gbagbo’s often violent young supporters responded to a call from their leader, Charles Ble Goude, at the weekend to block UN traffic. Two UN staff members were kidnapped by a mob on Monday, then released. Toure said a third had been robbed of his wallet.
Abidjan, the commercial capital, increasingly resembles a city on the brink of war as AK-47 assault rifles and heavy weapons boom daily through the district of Abobo, the economy grinds to a standstill and thousands of people abandon their homes. Nearly 70 000 people have joined an exodus to Liberia. But getting out is not easy. Armed men stopped about 60 families without food or water from leaving a church yesterday, the UN said. There were queues of government workers trying to cash pay cheques.
The UN’s refugee agency also expressed alarm about the conditions facing people trying to escape days of violence in Abobo. “There are reports of many dead bodies, buses burned and shops looted and of young militiamen attacking people inside their homes,” the agency said. A military source told Reuters that increasing numbers of soldiers in the Ivorian military were deserting.
Several delegations of African leaders have come to Abidjan in an attempt to persuade Gbagbo to leave office. — Guardian News & Media