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EU asks Ivorian army to side with Ouattara

17 December 2010 18:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The European Union called on Ivory Coast’s army to defect from incumbent Laurent Gbagbo to his rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara on Friday, a day after street clashes left at least 20 dead, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The West African state has been in turmoil since a November 28 election in which incumbent Gbagbo claimed victory, with backing from the nation’s top legal body, despite election commission results showing he lost to Ouattara by a near ten-point margin.
"The European Council called on all Ivorian leaders, both civilian and military who have not yet done so, to place themselves under the authority of the democratically elected President, Alassane Ouattara," EU leaders said in a statement after a summit in Brussels.
The military is seen as divided, but officially is loyal to Gbagbo. But his presidential guard, whose exact numbers are not known, are diehard loyalists.
Officials from Gbagbo’s office were not immediately available for comment.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy added pressure on Friday, saying Gbagbo has until the end of the week to quit the post he was "usurping" or face international sanctions, echoing a threat made late on Thursday by the United States.
Ouattara supporters seeking to seize the state broadcaster RTI on Thursday clashed with security forces while pro-Ouattara rebels exchanged fire with government soldiers in central Abidjan and in the town of Tiebissou to the north.
A Gbagbo government spokesman said 20 were killed in the Abidjan protests, including 10 security forces. A Ouattara spokesman said 14 protesters were killed when troops fired.
A call for renewed protests by Ouattara allies went unheeded on Friday for fear of another crackdown.
"It seems (...) that something is moving forward, that maybe it is better to wait it out than be killed on the streets," said Patrick Achi, a Ouattara spokesman. "It is too much bloodshed."
Top African Union official Jean Ping arrived for talks on the election dispute that has reopened the wounds of a 2002-03 civil war and prompted the United Nations to warn of a refugee crisis for the region if violence escalates.
FEAR OF CONFLICT
Gbagbo’s claim of victory in the election has been upheld by the country’s top legal body -- which threw out hundreds of thousands of votes from Ouattara strongholds claiming fraud. He shows little sign of buckling under the growing international pressure, including from African states, and has accused foreign powers of meddling in Ivorian politics.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga made a direct call for African nations to oust Gbagbo by force if necessary.
"Mr Gbagbo must be forced even if it means using military means to get rid of him because now he is just relying on military power, not the people’s power, to intimidate the people," Odinga told a news conference in Nairobi.
"The African Union should develop teeth."
Cocoa traders said most export business had shut down. All of it was shut in Abidjan, where trucks could not get access, but at the other main port of San Pedro, which loads about half of the country’s supply, some exports were still going ahead.
Fear of a disruption to supplies in the world’s top cocoa grower have pushed futures prices close to four-month highs in recent weeks. However the benchmark second-month cocoa futures were down more than 2 percent at $2,957 by 1600 GMT.
In Geneva, the United Nations refugee agency said it was making contingency plans for the potential flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees out of Ivory Coast if fighting escalates. Some 4,000 people have already fled into Liberia, it said.
Violence flared elsewhere in the country on Thursday as pro-Ouattara rebels and government forces exchanged fire for hours in Tiebissou, the central town marking the line between the rebel-held north and government-held south after the war.
"Both the pro-Gbagbo FDS (security forces), and the pro-Ouattara former rebel New Forces (FN), appear battle-ready, and it would take very little to spark all-out confrontation," said Rolake Akinola, Africa analyst for VoxFrontier Consulting.
A New Forces spokesman told Reuters on Friday that fighting had stopped and he expected Friday to be calm.
"The men have returned to their bases," said New Forces official Issa Fleppy. "The commanders have asked us not to pursue combat operations."