Ivory Coast talks collapse as Gbagbo plays for time
Laurent Gbagbo accuses France of assassination attempt amid fresh fighting and desperation on the streets of Abidjan
A pro-Gbagbo protester wears a shirt declaring 'Emergency Sarkozy kills in Ivory Coast'. Photograph: Francois Mori/AP
Ivory Coast's incumbent leader caught France and the rest of the world by surprise when he refused to surrender, accused Nicolas Sarkozy of an assassination plot, and defiantly held out as rebels attempted to storm his underground bunker.
French ministers had confidently predicted that Laurent Gbagbo could cede power within hours, ending the west African country's four-month crisis. A TV station run by his rival, Alassane Ouattara, played clips from Downfall, a German film about the final days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker in Berlin.
But France, the former colonial power, was forced to admit that negotiations for Gbagbo's surrender had collapsed on Wednesday. Troops loyal to Ouattara launched a ferocious assault on his presidential residence but met with unexpectedly stiff resistance.
Gbagbo told French TV channel LCI that his army had only called for a ceasefire, not surrender. "I'm not a kamikaze," he said by phone. "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.
"For peace to return to Ivory Coast, I and Ouattara, the two of us have to talk."
Later he told a French radio station: "I am in the residence, the residence of president of the republic. When it rains, can't one take shelter inside one's house? We are not at the negotiating stage. And my departure from where? To go where?"
Late last night reports from Abidjan saidOuattra's men had pulled back in the face of resistance from Gbagbo's fighters.
Gbagbo's characteristic play for time dashed hopes that the conflict, which is causing a humanitarian crisis, would be over on Tuesday. Instead there was still a frantic search for food and water in Abidjan and a stench of corpses in the streets.
"The fighting is terrible here, the explosions are so heavy my building is shaking," Alfred Kouassi, who lives near Gbagbo's residence in the commercial capital, told Reuters. "We can hear automatic gunfire and the thud of heavy weapons. There's shooting all over the place. Cars are speeding in all directions and so are the fighters."
The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said fighting resumed after talks led by the UN and France to secure Gbagbo's departure failed.
"The negotiations which were carried out for hours yesterday between the entourage of Laurent Gbagbo and Ivorian authorities have failed because of Gbagbo's intransigence," Juppé told parliament in Paris, adding that "words have given way to weapons".
Gbagbo, who has ruled Ivory Coast since 2000, resisted pressure to sign a document renouncing his claim to power.
His spokesman, Ahoua Don Mello, said: "If Gbagbo has refused to sign the documents they [the UN and France] presented to him yesterday, it is because they proposed something that had no legal and judicial basis."
France's intervention in support of extraordinary UN air strikes on Gbagbo's arsenal on Monday night infuriated the incumbent leader, who blames Paris for supporting the north of the country in a 2002-03 civil war.
Gbagbo's spokesman in Paris, Toussaint Alain, told Reuters: "We accuse France of seeking to assassinate President Gbagbo. President Sarkozy is organising the assassination of President Gbagbo.
"France will be held responsible for the death of President Gbagbo, his wife and family members and all those who are inside the residence, which is being bombarded by the French army."
Witnesses reported seeing French tanks in the streets of Abidjan, but while the French military confirmed that fighting was under way around Gbagbo's residence, it denied its troops were involved.
A spokesman for Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of last November's election, said his fighters were storming Gbagbo's residence. They had reached the gates of the presidential compound only to see heavy weapons ranged against them, he added, so the operation would take time. Ouattara's forces have been ordered not to kill Gbagbo, said another spokesman, Patrick Achi.
But residents said militias close to Gbagbo and his presidential guard were putting up a stiff resistance, even as most soldiers from the regular army had heeded a call to lay down their arms.
Despite the fighting, desperate civilians in the north of the city ventured outside to hunt for water and food. The streets were generally deserted save for these lone scavengers, many of whom walked with their hands in the air to show they were noncombatants.
"We haven't slept, we haven't eaten, we've had nothing to drink," said Mariam, 17, balancing a plastic container of water on her head and wearing a white T-shirt with the words "Obama Girl" emblazoned in black. "We are all going to die. Even the water we do get is dirty."
Other residents told Reuters they had already walked 10 miles in their quest for drinking water. No one wanted to be out on the streets after a midday curfew imposed by Ouattara for fear of being taken for a pro-Gbagbo fighter.
Even in the outskirts of Yopougon, one of Gbagbo's strongest inner-city bastions, there were demands for him to step down – perhaps not surprising given the nearby presence of patrolling Ouattara troops who seized this neighbourhood on Monday.
Ibrahim Cisse, 29, said: "We are just waiting for him to go. It's Alassane who we are banking on now."
Several other people said pro-Ouattara soldiers had behaved well towards the local population. But they complained that water and electricity supplies went down at the same time as their main assault on Monday and have not been restored.
Rubbish was piling up in mounds by the roadside and decaying corpses identified by locals as pro-Gbagbo militiamen remain uncollected. "Tell the people the smell is going everywhere," 21-year-old Lassane Kone told Reuters.
Cash machines are empty, shops are shut and supplies are running out. Public services are paralysed, with ambulances unable to travel in case they are fired on. Those in need of medical attention have nowhere to turn. A war economy has sprung up rapidly. Mariam said the price ofatieke – the ground manioc which is one of the staples of the Abidjan diet – has tripled in the space of a few days.
At a Ouattara base camp nearby, groups of women circulated between soldiers selling packets of atieke and little sachets of frozen fruit juices. "We are selling a bit so we can eat," said one vendor.
Many of Ivory Coast's children have been stripped of their innocence. "We heard gunfire, Kalashnikovs, cannons, all that," said one 11-year-old, interviewed by Save the Children. "It makes me afraid. It makes me feel sad to see all people flee, people displaced by the war, all that, it makes me sad … they were shooting all the time, morning, midday, evening … we will live with this. It hurts me."
The child, who was not named by the charity, added: "I would like Abidjan to calm down so that we can return home. I want to go back to school. We need peace. We need a good president too."
Last year's long-delayed election in the world's top cocoa producing nation was meant to draw a line under the civil war, but Gbagbo's refusal to cede power has plunged the country into violence that has killed more than 1,500 people.
The international criminal court prosecutor said on Tuesday he was in talks with west African states about referring alleged atrocities in the Ivory Coast to the court after a reported massacre in the west of the country.
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