EU imposes sanctions on Ivory Coast

14 Dec, 2010

The European Union imposed sanctions on Ivory Coast incumbent Laurent Gbagbo on Monday and his army surrounded his rival's headquarters in a tense stand-off. Gbagbo is in a power struggle with Alassane Ouattara, with both claiming victory in a November 28 election meant to reunite the world's top cocoa grower after a 2002-3 civil war, but which has instead deepened divisions.
-- Troop stand-off outside hotel HQ of challenger
-- UN peacekeepers to protect Ouattara 'at all costs'
Supporters of Ouattara, who enjoys broad international support after election commission results showed he won the vote, threatened to march into government buildings and state TV offices at the end of the week if Gbagbo stays put. Gbagbo and his supporters say the vote was tainted by massive fraud and intimidation, a claim supported by the country's top legal body which threw out hundreds of thousands of votes to give Gbagbo a win.
Around 20 government troops armed with machine guns and grenade launchers deployed close to the UN-guarded hotel in Abidjan being used as a base by Ouattara. There was no comment on the deployment from the military, which backs Gbagbo. A Ouattara spokesman said the stand-off followed an attempt by troops to set up a position near the hotel, before they were chased away by rebels backing Ouattara.
Gbagbo soldiers also blocked access to two roads leading to the hotel. "I guess it is like a siege. They won't let anyone in at all," said Ouattara spokesman Patrick Ache. A spokesman for the UN mission said its chief Y.J. Choi visited the scene and managed to calm tensions. "He went to where there were incidents and spoke to the parties," Hamadoun Toure said, adding that the rebels had agreed to withdraw back to inside the hotel.
Ivorian Colonel Rene Sako said Choi had met with both army and rebel forces. They agreed the two checkpoints there would be accompanied by UN peacekeepers from this evening, he said.
In Brussels, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on Gbagbo and his backers to deepen his diplomatic isolation. The 27-member bloc agreed to draft a list of officials deemed to be "obstructing the process of peace and national reconciliation ... and who are jeopardising the proper outcome of the electoral process," ministers said in a statement.
Sanctions including visa bans and asset freezes "will particularly target those leading figures who have refused to place themselves under the authority of the democratically elected president", the ministers' statement said. The proposed sanctions echo measures that have been mooted by the United States. A US State Department official warned Gbagbo last week that "the era of stealing elections is over".
Gbagbo, who has held on to power five years after the end of his term in office as elections have been repeatedly delayed, has dismissed the pressure as foreign meddling and retains control of state TV, government buildings and security forces. Ouattara's prime minister Guillaume Soro, a former rebel leader and prime minister under a power-sharing government with Gbagbo, said his administration would march into the state broadcaster on Thursday and into government buildings on Friday to seize them.
"In these circumstances the legal and legitimate government cannot remain indifferent," he said in a statement. His spokesman Ache said this would be a "peaceful march", but it is certain to be blocked by Ivorian security forces. A Ouattara spokesman said government troops had attempted earlier to set up a checkpoint in a street near the hotel but that pro-Ouattara rebel troops had forced them to move away.
The incident will add to tensions which since the poll have propelled cocoa futures prices to four-month highs, with the March contract up $8 to $2,895 on Monday. Ivory Coast supplies around a third of the world's cocoa. Ivorians are increasingly nervous about the possibility of another war in the country whose once prosperous economy was blighted by years of political stalemate after the last one.
At least 28 people have been killed in election-related violence since two days before the poll, including some killed by death squads targeting Ouattara activists. Security sources and Ouattara's camp say these include Liberian militiamen hired by Gbagbo's camp, who sowed chaos during the war against him. The African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS have suspended Ivory Coast until Ouattara takes power.

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