African leaders ask UN to get tough on Laurent Gbagbo

West African leaders called on the UN Thursday to strengthen the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast and to impose tougher sanctions against Laurent Gbagbo and his associates in order to force him out of power.

By News Wires (text)

AP – A regional bloc of West African nations on Thursday called on the U.N. Security Council to take immediate steps to force out Ivory Coast’s entrenched leader.

The Economic Community of West African States described the situation in Ivory Coast as a “regional humanitarian emergency” caused by Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to leave office despite losing an election.

ECOWAS said it wants the Security Council to oversee the immediate transfer of power to internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara.

The statement follows earlier threats from ECOWAS that it would lead a military operation to oust Gbagbo.

Earlier Thursday, the group, which represents 15 West African nations, asked Gbagbo to cease incendiary rhetoric against West Africans living in the country.

ECOWAS condemned the inflammatory speech by Gbagbo and his entourage, calling it “vitriolic.”

Mounting violence in Ivory Coast has claimed the lives of at least 460 people since the Nov. 28 election.

Attacks on immigrants from neighboring African nations have increased since ECOWAS threatened military intervention. Dozens of people have been killed, and there have been numerous instances of “necklacing,” in which the victim is set on fire after a tire is wedged down around his body.

Gbagbo’s youth minister, Charles Ble Goude, recently called on Ivorians to take up arms against citizens of other ECOWAS states because the bloc refused to acknowledge Gbagbo as president. International observers say Gbagbo lost the vote to Ouattara.

“The ECOWAS commission strongly disapproves of such vitriolic hate speech and takes a serious view of calls to attack innocent citizens of other countries living in (Ivory Coast),” ECOWAS Commission President James Victor Gbeho said in the two-page letter.

The African Union has ordered Ivory Coast’s highest court to swear in Ouattara, who won the vote with 54 percent of the vote to Gbagbo’s 46 percent, according to the country’s election commission and the United Nations.

It is unclear what the AU can do to make the court implement its recommendations which repeated that Gbagbo must yield power.

Gbeho also said in the letter that ECOWAS and the AU “hope to take urgent steps very soon to commence the implementation of the decision of the African Union ... regarding the situation in (Ivory Coast).”

In a statement released to the press, Gbeho did not elaborate on what these steps might be. Country experts say they expect ECOWAS to ask for a U.N. Security Council resolution, similar to the one authorizing the use of force in Libya, before proceeding to a military intervention.

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Date created : 24/03/2011

Comments (2)

Diplomatic solution

by Jean (not verified) - 25/03/2011 - 03:15

AU had left everything to His Excellency Dr Ernest Koroma to resolve Cote d'Ivoire impasse.A fine diplomat like Dr Koroma should resolve the impasse between EU,UN and Gadaffi