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| East/Subsaharan Africa | ||
| French soldiers find corpses in Ivory Coast town | ||
| 2003-03-10 | ||
| The French army in Ivory Coast said Sunday that it had found corpses and signs of violence against civilians at a rebel-held town, and a rebel leader said 200 civilians had been butchered there. Rebel commander Ousmane Coulibaly said he believed more than 200 civilians were killed in Friday's attack on Bangolo. He blamed the deaths on Liberian mercenaries allied to President Laurent Gbagbo's army. A senior French military source in western Ivory Coast said Sunday that the 200 figure could be accurate. The rebels said they repulsed the assault on Bangolo, about 375 miles [600 kilometers] northwest of Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, but not before the attackers reached the center of town and started killing civilians suspected of backing the rebels. Coulibaly said the victims were mostly foreigners and Ivorians from the mainly Muslim north. "I asked the French to come and see the dead. There is an entire neighborhood that was decimated. All the houses are full of bodies, only the imam escaped alive," he said.
A French army spokesman declined to say how many bodies the French saw when their detachment landed by helicopter in Bangolo on Saturday. He described the violence as "very visible."
"It was clear the violence affected many people," Col. Philippe Perret said in Abidjan. Albert Tevoedjre, the U.N. special representative for Ivory Coast, told Reuters on Sunday that he believed fighting in the west was localized and that the clashes would not threaten political progress. But a powerful group of pro-Gbagbo youths who in January staged street protests and anti-French riots rejected the deal, which gives nine portfolios out of 41 to the three rebel factions and seven to the main opposition party, RDR. "There is no room for the rebels or the RDR in the government. You can't kill people and then become a minister," said Joel Tiehi of the so-called Young Patriots Alliance. "All Ivorians need to be vigilant and wait for our call. Very soon we may ask them to take to the streets." The five-month civil war has split the world's biggest cocoa producer along ethnic lines between the largely Muslim north and the mainly Christian south, which is loyal to Gbagbo. Thousands of people have died, and a million have been driven from their homes. Months of talks have failed to halt the fighting, despite cease-fires in October and January in the north and west. French army Capt. Steve Carlton said Sunday that his men detained about 100 armed people Friday night at a checkpoint on the road between Duekoue and rebel-held Man. They were coming from the direction of Bangolo, 25 miles [40 kilometers] north of Duekoue, where French troops are dug in, policing a shaky cease-fire. "They had their arms in the air. They wanted to surrender. There were French speakers and English speakers," Carlton, a Foreign Legionnaire, told Reuters. "They have been disarmed and interned. They are here in the camp. They presented themselves as Lima," he said, referring to the name of a new armed force that military sources say is pro-government and includes Liberian refugees in Ivory Coast. Red Cross officials were due to question the Lima detainees. Liberians, whose own country has been in a state of war for most of the past 13 years, are also fighting with Ivorian rebels. The Ivorian army denies any links with the Liberians. A Gbagbo spokesman accused the French army Sunday of keeping quiet about human rights abuses and brutalities committed by the rebels. Perret said the French army would only give information about what its men witnessed in Bangolo to an international committee meant to be helping Ivory Coast end the conflict. Tevoedjre, chairman of that committee, said he had not received the French army's report. Another simmering situation on the African continent. But don't worry the French military is on the scene. If they handle this former colony like they did Indo-China, America will have another mess to be cajoled into cleaning up. | ||
| Posted by:Domingo |
| #1 "He blamed the deaths on Liberian mercenaries allied to President Laurent Gbagbo's army." I believe it was Fred last week that noted wherever Charles Taylors' fighters are - there are civilian dead. If the French try to do this on the cheap they'll have plenty of dead to bury |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-03-10 10:00:08 |