COTE D IVOIRE: Preparations for war reported despite UN sanctions threat

Subject: COTE D IVOIRE: Preparations for war reported despite UN
sanctions threat
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:44:27 -0700

COTE D IVOIRE: Preparations for war reported despite UN sanctions threat

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]


ABIDJAN, 15 November (IRIN) - The threat of sanctions loomed over Cote dí
Ivoire on Monday as the United Nations prepared to vote on an arms embargo
and other penalties on the West African nation. On the ground, however,
Ivorian rebel and government forces were reported to be preparing for war.

"What we are getting is that all sides are trying to get new offensive
weapons," Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told reporters on Sunday in
Abuja, Nigeria, after four hours of talks on the Ivorian crisis with his
counterparts from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Senegal and Togo.

France has been pushing fellow Security Council members to slap a ban on
the sale of arms to Cote díIvoire and impose travel restrictions on
Ivorian officials from 10 December. The French move came after the Ivorian
army shattered an 18-month ceasefire and killed nine French peacekeepers
in the process.

A diplomatic source told IRIN the vote, delayed from last week so African
leaders could hold crisis talks, might take place on Monday afternoon.

South African President Thabo Mbeki and other government officials held
talks with Ivorian opposition leaders in Pretoria late last week, while
Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo was to have attended Sundayís meeting in
Abuja, but did not. Instead, he sent the speaker of parliament, and did
little to allay the regional leadersí fears.

"Do you think I am going to leave my country with no air defence?" he said
in an interview on French radio broadcast on Sunday.

The African leaders threw their weight behind the draft resolution at the
weekend and even went one step further, calling for sanctions to take
effect immediately instead of giving Cote d'Ivoire a month's grace period.

"We support the proposed UN resolution, particularly the arms embargo in
Cote d'Ivoire. This should be immediate," said Obasanjo, who is the
current chairman of the African Union.

Since rebels attempted to topple Gbagbo in September 2002, Cote díIvoire
has been split into a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.

In a move widely seen as favouring a military solution, Gbagbo replaced
the head of the army, Mathias Doue, with Philippe Mangou, the man who
oversaw this month's ceasefire-breaking assault on rebel territory.

"We are just trying to reunify our country," Mangou ñ considered a
hardliner by many - told IRIN when the assault kicked off on 4 November.
He repeated that line on state television on Sunday after his appointment.

Reuters news agency quoted a military source at the weekend as saying
Gbagbo had already ordered new fighter jets and helicopter gunships and
some had arrived in nearby states. Virtually all of Cote d'Ivoire's
airforce was destroyed on 6 November by French forces in retaliation for a
bombing on one of their bases, in which the nine French peacekeepers were
killed.

On Monday there were fears of fresh attacks, given that electricity and
water to supplies to the north have been cut, as they were before the
first government offensive.

Military and diplomatic sources, humanitarian workers and residents all
said the supplies ñ which had been restored earlier in the week - were cut
again on Sunday afternoon, as African leaders were meeting in Abuja.

"The alarm is that that used to be the prelude to an imminent attack,"
Obasanjo said. "Both parties should not start anything that will amount to
a retaliatory attack. We call on everybody to observe the ceasefire."

Civilians in the north are preparing to march on Wednesday from the main
rebel-held city of Bouake, across the buffer zone, to Abidjan, some 400 km
away, to demand Gbagboís resignation. "Given that the civilian population
has been targeted and hurt, we have to take our destiny in our own hands,"
Abel Dgohore Gbakayoro, one of the organisers, told IRIN.

"We think we can get 24,000 people out on the street. The buffer zone is
for belligerents and we are not armed so it should be fine," he said.

The streets in Abidjan were quiet on Monday, a public holiday, and the
flood of foreigners fleeing the country had slowed to a trickle.

A spokesman for the French forces in Cote d'Ivoire said just one
evacuation flight was scheduled for Monday, and that there were now only
around 50 people taking refuge at the French military base, which at one
point had sheltered almost 2,000. An official at the French embassy said
the last evacuation flight would probably be on Wednesday.

More than 6,000 foreigners, around 85 percent of them French, have fled in
the past five days after Ivorians, irate at Paris for wiping out their
airforce, went on a rampage, stripping expatriate homes bare and torching
businesses and schools. Foreigners were attacked, some with machetes, and
women were raped, according to various sources

No expatriate deaths were reported, but Gbagbo's spokesman has said 62
Ivorians died and more than 1,300 were injured during demonstrations
against and clashes with French troops.



[ENDS]

IRIN-WA
Tel:+221 867.27.30
Fax: +221 867.25.85
Email: IRINWA@IRINnews.org
[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by
commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:
http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions/subslogin.asp

U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)