Beleaguered would-be Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara yesterday urged the Ivorian people to rise up in a campaign of civil disobedience against defiant strongman Laurent Gbagbo.
In a statement issued from the hotel where it survives behind a wall of UN peacekeepers, Mr Ouattara’s camp accused Mr Gbagbo’s loyalist security forces of murdering scores of civilians in overnight death squad raids.
Mr Gbagbo, meanwhile, appeared determined to resist a barrage of international criticism, as the United Nations defended its hard-pressed peacekeepers and threatened to impose new sanctions on the 65-year-old’s regime.
Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara both claim to have won last month’s Ivorian presidential election, but UN poll monitors and most world powers have now recognised the challenger as president and have demanded the incumbent step down.
On Saturday, a furious Mr Gbagbo ordered the United Nations’ 10,000-strong UNOCI peacekeeping force out of the country, accusing it of arming former rebel fighters now loyal to Mr Ouattara and of rigging the election.
But the United Nations was unimpressed, and the Security Council voted on Monday to renew the force’s mandate, after hearing reports that Mr Gbagbo’s forces have been involved in “massive” human rights abuses.
At the same time, the European Union slapped visa bans on Mr 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.
And yesterday, Washington banned dozens of Mr Gbagbo associates and Mr Gbagho himself from travelling to the United States, reinforcing its demand that he step down.
Mr Gbagbo’s interior minister, Emile Guirieoulou, dismissed charges of rights abuses on 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. Mr Ouattara’s choice for Prime Minister, the leader of the “New Forces” rebel movement Guillaume Soro, accused Mr Gbagbo’s security forces – which he said are backed by Liberian mercenaries – of deploying death squads.
“To date, we’ve counted almost 200 dead and 1,000 wounded by gunfire, 40 disappearances and 732 arrests. Worse, women have been beaten, stripped, assaulted and raped,” he alleged.