Isolated Gbagbo fights back as EU moves to slap sanctions

Abidjan, Monday

Cote d’Voire leader Laurent Gbagbo has launched a nationalist counterattack, rallying supporters with a warning to French and UN troops not to “make war” on his people.

The conflict with the international community was to sharpen, as the European Union prepared to slap “restrictive measures” on “those refusing to submit to election results”, a source in Brussels said.

Gbagbo and long-time enemy Alassane Ouattara are locked in a dangerous stand-off after both claimed victory in last month’s presidential election.

Ouattara has the backing of the international community, including the UN Security Council, but Gbagbo still enjoys the support of the Cote d’Voire army and the ports that are key to the country’s massive cocoa trade.

The 65-year-old incumbent occupies the presidential palace and his ministers appear to exercise control over their departments, while Ouattara is trying to control the levers of state from a hotel protected by UN peacekeepers.

In a country that has seen several bouts of violence during a decade-long political crisis, the deadlock is a volatile cocktail, and Gbagbo’s generals added to the mix Sunday with a stark warning to international troops.

“We simply advise our brothers in the ‘impartial forces’ to never again get the blood of Ivorians on their hands,” army chief of staff General Philippe Mangou told soldiers on a tour of loyalist barracks around Abidjan.

“They are not here to make war on Ivorians. They are here to help Ivorians move towards peace,” he added, in remarks carried repeatedly on Cote d’Voire’s RTI state television, which remains a loyal Gbagbo mouthpiece.

The ‘Impartial Forces’ are the United Nations’ 10,000-strong peacekeeping force and former colonial power France’s 900-strong Licorne detachment, which works under the same mandate in support of the UN mission.

Pledging to defend what he sees as Gbagbo’s constitutional mandate, Mangou warned international forces to beware a repeat of the bloody clashes of 2004, when French troops clashed with Ivorian forces and protesters.

“In 2004 we went through painful events. Ivorians have not forgotten — they have forgiven. We decided to turn the page, but we want everyone to read what is on that page before it is closed,” he warned.

In 2002 a failed putsch against Gbagbo plunged Cote d’Voire into a conflict that split the country between the rebel mainly-Muslim north and Gbagbo’s richer Christian south.

Gbagbo has accused France of supporting the rebellion, and in November 2004 tensions between government supporters and French troops helping patrol the shaky ceasefire line boiled over. (AFP)