COTE D'IVOIRE: Violence flares up as protest goes on

Photo: Abidjan Post

President Gbagbo with army chief of staff, General Mathias

ABIDJAN, 25 March 2004 (IRIN) - Suburbs across Cote d'Ivoire's main city were plagued by violence on Thursday after security forces shot at crowds in an attempt to disperse a banned opposition protest, residents said. According to the leaders of the main opposition parties, security forces have shot dead up to 31 protestors, who gathered in densely populated neighbourhoods like Abobo and Yopougon for a march against President Laurent Gbagbo. “We count up to 13 in Abobo, five in Yopougon,” said Pascal Tano of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI), who was injured by tear gas fired by government forces into his party headquarters. An Abobo resident, known simply as ‘Ouattara’, said groups of paramilitary and anti-riot police were firing tear gas there too. “I saw myself four bodies, shot by people dressed in military fatigues,” said Ouattara, a militant of the former ruling party PDCI and protest organiser. Most suburbs of the city have been under fire since the early hours of the morning. “They’re firing with real bullets on people gathered for the march,” said Ouattara. “They’re trying to prevent us protest, stopping those who want to go out of their compounds.” PDCI spokesperson, Alphonse Djedje Mady, told IRIN that the political leaders of the so-called Group of Seven (G7) had called on all demonstrators to return home. “We ask for protesters to return home and avoid confrontations with security forces,” Mady said, adding, “It’s a march for peace, we don’t want to seize power!” By midday local time, the authorities had confirmed five deaths. State broadcaster RTI said the five included two police officers, two ‘bandits’ and one civilian. State television confirmed there had been confrontations in Abobo, but reported that most of Abidjan was like a ‘dead city’ with schools, shops and businesses all closed. The airport, in the Port-Bouet district of Abidjan, has remained open. Tension have been building in the near empty streets of the port city of Abidjan as march organisers pledged to press ahead with their protest, despite the risk of a showdown with the army. The demonstrators had planned to march on the presidential palace in the Plateau business district. But the army said anyone coming near the area would be considered an “enemy” and treated as such. The G7, which gathers together Gbagbo’s opponents, is demanding the full implementation of a French-brokered peace deal, signed last year to end civil war in the West African nation. The opposition parties accuse the president of stalling on reforms. Gbagbo’s supporters have accused the rebels, now known as the ‘New forces’, who control the north of the country, and their political allies, of being criminals, intent on attaining power illegally. MI-24 helicopter gunships have been seen circling over Abidjan’s suburbs, coordinating their flights with the movement of security forces on the ground. Residents noticed that many protesters had been arrested by security forces. “It’s becoming very difficult to move because security forces are patrolling everywhere,” one protestor in Yopougon suburb told IRIN by phone. “They seal off most of the places and then they cart us off,” he said. Opposition leader, Cisse Bakongo of the Rally of Republicans (RDR), told IRIN that two people had been killed by shots fired from helicopters in the suburb of Port-Bouet, near the international airport. “We’ve ordered our people to resist,” he said. “The march could last two or three days.” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said late on Wednesday he was deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Cote d’Ivoire and called on all parties to “exercise utmost restraint.” The UN are preparing to deploy 6,240 peacekeepers to Cote d’Ivoire in early April. They will work with around 4,000 French and 1,400 West African troops already in the country, split in two since the civil war broke out in September 2002. Kofi Annan’s appeals were reinforced by Ghanaian President John Kufour, who warned on Wednesday: “This demonstration must not bring into question the arrival of UN peacekeeper”. Kufuor, who is also chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) flew to Abidjan on Wednesday in a last-minute bid to defuse the rising tensions. “The entire world is watching the situation in Cote d’Ivoire at this moment. We must make every effort to bring peace and to avoid any violence,” Kufuor said.