ABIDJAN – Defiant Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo dug in his heels on Tuesday under a barrage of international criticism, as the United Nations defended its hard-pressed peacekeepers and threatened sanctions.
Both Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara claim to have won last month’s Ivory Coast presidential election, but UN monitors and almost all of the world community recognised the challenger and has demanded Gbagbo step down.
Furious, the 65-year-old strongman ordered the United Nations’ 10,000-strong UNOCI peacekeeping force out of the country, accusing it of arming former rebel fighters now loyal to Ouattara and of plotting against his rule.
But the United Nations was unimpressed, and the UN Security Council voted on Monday to renew the force’s mandate for six months, after hearing reports that Gbagbo’s forces have been involved in “massive” human rights abuses.
At the same time, the European Union slapped visa bans on Gbagbo, both of his wives and 16 senior presidential advisers and military officers, while the White House said it was preparing new action against him.
Gbagbo’s interior minister, Emile Guirieoulou, dismissed charges of rights abuses Monday, telling reporters: “We demand UNOCI leaves. The rest is just a diversion. It shouldn’t act against our will on our territory.
“If it chooses to talk to people other than the authorities, it puts itself in a position of revolt, and will be dealt with accordingly,” he warned, in an apparent reference to the allegations that the UN force backs Ouattara.
As to the European Union’s decision to impose a visa ban on Gbagbo and his senior allies, Guirieoulou said it made him smile: “It’s just a red rag they wave before African leaders, thinking it makes us scared.”
While Gbagbo’s government bats away the charges, his notorious lieutenant Charles Ble Goude has been touring run-down suburbs of Abidjan, firing up crowds of youth with demands that Ivorians fight for their sovereignty.
