Ouattara ultimatum runs out as Gbagbo insists he is poll winner

ABIDJAN, Sunday

Cote d’Ivoire on Sunday faced the threat of open conflict after a deadline set by Alassane Ouattara for his rival Laurent Gbagbo to quit passed unheeded.

As pressure mounted on Mr Gbagbo, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said West African regional body ECOWAS will decide on the next steps to deal with the political standoff in Cote d’Ivoire by Tuesday.

“On Cote d’Ivoire, President Jonathan said ECOWAS will decide on further steps to address the situation in the country by Tuesday next week after receiving subsequent reports from its emissaries,” a statement said.

Self-proclaimed president Gbagbo vowed not to yield to growing pressure to cede power to Mr Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of a November 28 presidential election, with both Britain and the US saying it was time to go.

The midnight deadline issued by Ouattara’s camp came as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said reports had been received of “at least two mass graves” amid fears of crimes against humanity.

If Gbagbo quit before the start of the New Year, he would “have no worries”, said Mr Ouattara’s prime minister Guillaume Soro.

But Mr Gbagbo said in an address to the nation on Friday that he would not cede power to Mr Ouattara.
“We are not going to give up,” Mr Gbagbo said in a New Year’s address.

He said pressure from Ouattara’s camp and world leaders for him to quit amounted to “an attempted coup d’etat carried out under the banner of the international community”.

West African regional military chiefs have set in motion plans to oust the strongman if negotiations by regional mediators fail, a Nigerian defence spokesman, Colonel Mohamed Yerimah, told AFP in Lagos.

The chiefs of defence staff from ECOWAS met this week in the Nigerian capital “to put machinery in motion that if all political persuasions fail... ECOWAS will forcefully take over power from Laurent Gbagbo and hand over to Alassane Ouattara,” he said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said London would support military intervention in principle but said any such move should first be cleared by the United Nations.

Mr Hague said it was time for Mr Gbagbo “to recognise that he must go”.

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said Gbagbo should step down, adding “we hope he will choose a peaceful transition”.

UN human rights experts meanwhile said they feared gross human rights violations being committed in Ivory Coast could amount to “crimes against humanity”.

Evidence from credible sources suggested “enforced or involuntary disappearances, arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial or arbitrary executions and sexual violence had occurred and may still be occurring” in Cote d’Ivoire, they said in a statement.

Ms Pillay said the UN had received reports of at least two mass graves.

But she said “human rights teams have been denied access to the scenes of these atrocities in order to investigate them.”

She said she had also written to Gbagbo and other key figures in his regime warning they would be held personally responsible for human rights violations.

Mr Ouattara is being protected by UN peacekeepers who were staring down a threat to storm a hotel which he has made his temporary headquarters in Abidjan.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned UN troops would use “all necessary means” to resist any assault on the hotel.