Laurent Gbagbo, under pressure to quit presidency, accuses UN peacekeepers of failing to remain neutral over disputed election

The president of Ivory Coast, who is under growing international pressure to concede defeat in last month’s run-off election, has ordered thousands of UN peacekeepers to leave Ivory Coast immediately.

The move was the latest act of political defiance by Laurent Gbagbo, who has been in power since 2000 and maintains he is the rightful winner of last month’s run-off vote in the west African nation.

The statement read on state television came just two days after as many as 30 people were killed in street violence. Yesterday masked gunmen opened fire on the UN base; no one from the UN was harmed in the attack.

Gbagbo’s spokeswoman said that the UN mission, known as UNOCI, had not remained neutral in the election dispute and accused it of arming the New Forces rebels allied with the opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara.

The UN certified election results showing Ouattara had won by “an irrefutable margin”. The UN had been invited by the country to supervise the vote and certify the outcome following a peace accord after Ivory Coast’s 2002-03 civil war.

“The state of Ivory Coast considers that the UNOCI has shown itself to be guilty of serious misconduct, which indubitably proves that it is an agent of destabilisation and contributes to the further division of the Ivorian people,” she said.

In New York the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said he was concerned about attacks on UN troops and that “those responsible for these actions will be held accountable” by the international community, according to UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Ban noted that the UN security council had endorsed the statements of a number of African regional groups that Ouattara should be recognised as president-elect of Ivory Coast, Haq said. Ban said the council would meet on Monday to discuss the situation in the Ivory Coast and the renewal of the UNOCI’s mandate, which is due to expire on 31 December.

Earlier, UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy chaired an emergency meeting of his department’s crisis team to discuss a response to Gbagbo’s request. Nick Birnback, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping department, stressed that “the mission will continue to do everything possible to execute its security council-given mandate”. That mandate includes protecting civilians under imminent threat, UN staff and facilities.

It remains unclear what weight Gbagbo’s demand would have since the UN does not consider him to be president. There are about 9,000 UN peacekeepers in the country, and about 800 of them have been protecting the compound from which Ouattara is trying to govern the country.

Gbagbo also called for the departure of about 900 French forces who have been supporting the UN peacekeepers. While the US, France and the African Union have endorsed Ouattara as the rightful winner of the election, Gbagbo maintains control of both the military and state media.

UN officials are concerned about the deteriorating situation in Ivory Coast, especially in Abidjan. In the attack on the UN base yesterday six armed men in a civilian vehicle opened fire after following guards back from a patrol as it entered the mission compound and continued firing along the wall of the compound, the UN mission said. The UN guards returned fire.

One of the assailants was reportedly killed in the exchange of fire.

Ouattara called on his supporters on Thursday to seize key state institutions that Gbagbo has refused to let go of. Police and troops loyal to Gbagbo prevented Ouattara’s supporters from marching on government buildings on Friday.

International pressure is growing on Gbagbo to give up his claim to power in this nation that was once an economic hub because of its role as the world’s top cocoa producer. The civil war split Ivory Coast into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south, and many had hoped that the election would help reunite the country.

While the country officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara still draws his support from the northern half of the country where he was born, while Gbagbo’s power base is in the south.

Gbagbo claimed victory in the presidential election only after his allies threw out half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north, a move that infuriated residents there who have long felt they are treated as foreigners in their own country.

National identity remains at the heart of the divide. The question of who would even be allowed to vote in this long-awaited election took years to settle as officials tried to differentiate between Ivorians with roots in neighbouring countries and foreigners.

Ouattara had himself been prevented from running in previous elections after accusations that he was of Burkinabe origin.

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