ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Security forces loyal
to incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo opened
fire Tuesday as they drove through a
neighborhood where supporters of the election's
internationally recognized winner said they had
killed two police officers.
The U.N. peacekeeping force sent nine vehicles to
the scene, where dozens of young men
screaming and shouting had erected a roadblock
out of a table and sticks. The peacekeepers turned
around and started leaving the area.
The military trucks arrived in the neighborhood
hours after residents described attacking two
officers who had been conducting raids in the
area known as PK 18. The district
overwhelmingly voted for Alassane Ouattara,
who the U.N. said won the Nov. 28 election.
Gbagbo, who refuses to cede power despite
mounting international pressure and a possible
regional military ouster, maintains control of the
country's military. Human rights groups accuse
his security forces of abducting and killing
hundreds of political opponents since the vote.
Marco Boubacar, head of the New Forces rebels
who are allied to Ouattara, said people attacked
the police officers with their bare hands.
"We were able to take down two men in
uniform," he said.
The two deaths could not be independently
confirmed, but other witnesses said they also had
seen the police officers' bodies.
The area is not far from the site where Charles
Ble Goude, the leader of a pro-Gbagbo youth
group, is expected to hold a rally Tuesday
afternoon. Some describe the hardline Young
Patriots as an armed militia.
Goude, who was placed on a United Nations
sanctions list in 2006 for his role in inciting
violence, has been leading daily rallies, gathering
thousands of pro-Gbagbo youth to warn that
there will be no peace if Gbagbo is forced out.
"They shouldn't kid themselves and imagine that
they can come and remove (Gbagbo) like some
sort of orphan ... Because in every Ivorian there
is a Gbagbo," Goude told The Associated Press in
a sit-down interview Monday. "Do they want to
govern an Ivory Coast cemetery?"
Meanwhile Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency said
25,000 Ivorian civilians have now fled to
neighboring Liberia since the disputed election. A
spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees said 600 more refugees are
arriving in Liberia daily.
Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva on
Tuesday that the United Nations is setting up a
refugee camp for 18,000 people in the eastern
Liberian town of Bahn.
Source: Http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7375773.html
to incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo opened
fire Tuesday as they drove through a
neighborhood where supporters of the election's
internationally recognized winner said they had
killed two police officers.
The U.N. peacekeeping force sent nine vehicles to
the scene, where dozens of young men
screaming and shouting had erected a roadblock
out of a table and sticks. The peacekeepers turned
around and started leaving the area.
The military trucks arrived in the neighborhood
hours after residents described attacking two
officers who had been conducting raids in the
area known as PK 18. The district
overwhelmingly voted for Alassane Ouattara,
who the U.N. said won the Nov. 28 election.
Gbagbo, who refuses to cede power despite
mounting international pressure and a possible
regional military ouster, maintains control of the
country's military. Human rights groups accuse
his security forces of abducting and killing
hundreds of political opponents since the vote.
Marco Boubacar, head of the New Forces rebels
who are allied to Ouattara, said people attacked
the police officers with their bare hands.
"We were able to take down two men in
uniform," he said.
The two deaths could not be independently
confirmed, but other witnesses said they also had
seen the police officers' bodies.
The area is not far from the site where Charles
Ble Goude, the leader of a pro-Gbagbo youth
group, is expected to hold a rally Tuesday
afternoon. Some describe the hardline Young
Patriots as an armed militia.
Goude, who was placed on a United Nations
sanctions list in 2006 for his role in inciting
violence, has been leading daily rallies, gathering
thousands of pro-Gbagbo youth to warn that
there will be no peace if Gbagbo is forced out.
"They shouldn't kid themselves and imagine that
they can come and remove (Gbagbo) like some
sort of orphan ... Because in every Ivorian there
is a Gbagbo," Goude told The Associated Press in
a sit-down interview Monday. "Do they want to
govern an Ivory Coast cemetery?"
Meanwhile Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency said
25,000 Ivorian civilians have now fled to
neighboring Liberia since the disputed election. A
spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees said 600 more refugees are
arriving in Liberia daily.
Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva on
Tuesday that the United Nations is setting up a
refugee camp for 18,000 people in the eastern
Liberian town of Bahn.
Source: Http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7375773.html
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