Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo denies offer to surrender
Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara surround presidential palace in Abidjan but incumbent says he will only agree to peace talks
- guardian.co.uk,
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Ivory Coast's voted-out president, Laurent Gbagbo, has denied he is surrendering to forces loyal to the president-elect, Alassane Ouattara, who have surrounded the presidential palace where Gbagbo is in a bunker with his family.
The UN has said it received calls from Gbagbo's three top generals – the head of the armed forces, head of the police and head of the elite republican guard – offering to negotiate terms for surrender in return for guarantees of safety.
But in a defiant television interview late on Tuesday Gbagbo said his forces were merely negotiating a ceasefire and insisted he was the winner of the November 2010 election.
The former history professor turned politician told the French news channel TF1: "I won the election and I'm not negotiating my departure. I find it absolutely incredible that the entire world is playing this ... game of poker."
Gbagbo insisted that he was not preparing to be a martyr. "I'm not a kamikaze," he said. "I love life. My voice is not the voice of a martyr, no, no, no, I'm not looking for death. It's not my aim to die."
He said talks with Ouattara were the only way peace could return to Ivory Coast.
The pro-Ouattara television station TCI responded to Gbagbo's interview by playing extracts from the film Downfall, which is about Adolf Hitler's final days in his bunker.
The call for a ceasefire by Gbagbo generals on Tuesday added to the expectation that his departure was only a matter of time.
The head of France's armed forces said Gbagbo could surrender within hours.
"The negotiations continued through the night but unfortunately I see no breakthrough for now," armed forces chief Edouard Guillaud told Europe 1 radio. "Despite that, I believe it is a matter of hours, possibly during the day."
Gbagbo's army is rapidly dispanding, with soldiers stripping off their uniforms and abandoning their weapons withing a few hundred metres of the presidential palace. There have been continued reports of sporadic fighting and on Wednesday morning gunfire could still be heard in the streets of Abidjan, where pro-Gbagbo fighters remain on the streets.
"I think he's playing for time," a senior diplomat said. "His aim is always to buy himself just one more day."
The reports of negotiations came after a dramatic 24 hours in Ivory Coast. On Monday night UN and French forces opened fire with attack helicopters on Gbagbo's arms stockpiles and bases after columns of foot soldiers allied to Ouattara finally pierced the city limits of Abidjan.
Although the four-month stalemate between the rival presidents seemed to be all but over, there are fears of revenge attacks and looting. Ouattara will face a massive challenge to unite the country and rebuild its shattered economy.
"One might think that we are getting to the end of the crisis," Hamadoun Touré, spokesman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast, told the Associated Press. "We spoke to his close aides. Some had already defected, some are ready to stop fighting. He is alone now, he is in his bunker with a handful of supporters and family members. So is he going to last or not? I don't know."
The UN and French offensive on Monday night, an unprecedented escalation in the international community's efforts to oust Gbagbo, was carried out in the name of civilian protection but also proved useful to the rebels backing Ouattara.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, spoke twice on Tuesday to Ouattara, whose election victory has been endorsed by the UN, US, African Union and EU.
Barack Obama said he welcomed the role of UN and French forces in Ivory Coast. "To end this violence and prevent more bloodshed, former president Gbagbo must stand down immediately and direct those who are fighting on his behalf to lay down their arms."
"Every day the fighting persists will bring more suffering, and further delay the future of peace and prosperity that the people of Côte d'Ivoire deserve."
The president of Equatorial Guinea and current head of the AU, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, condemned foreign military intervention in Ivory Coast and Libya, saying Africa must be allowed to manage its own affairs.
France said its military would intervene only if asked by the UN. Gbagbo's camp already blames Paris for supporting his opponents in the 2002-03 civil war.
Even before the latest offensive, post-election violence had killed at least 1,500 people – most of them Ouattara supporters – and forced up to 1 million to flee their homes. Many civilians in Abidjan, a city of about 4 million people, remain trapped in their homes and in urgent need of food and water.
The prosecutor of the international criminal court, José Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said he wants to open a formal investigation of last week's massacre in the western town of Duékoué, where at least 800 people were reportedly killed.
Moreno-Ocampo said on Tuesday that it was not yet clear who was responsible for the killings.
The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders, called on Ouattara to unite the nation through reconciliation. Its chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said: "I urge President Ouattara to commit publicly to a process of accountability. His actions and words in the coming days are critical to the future of Côte d'Ivoire. The people need reconciliation, not retaliation."
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