At last Gbagbo surrenders to UN

AT last, defiant leader of Cote d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, has surrendered, the United Nations (UN) said last night.
In a document, the world body said Gbagbo has requested the protection of the United Nations Mission in Ivory Coast (UNOCI).
“...President Gbagbo has also surrendered and has asked UNOCI’s protection,” the document to U.N officials said.
But Gbagbo yesterday insisted that he won the election, after coming under intense bombardment from (UN and French forces yesterday.

The French government confirmed yesterday that its forces, those loyal to presidential mandate claimant, Alassane Ouattara, and UN troops launched the major assault on the presidential palace, leaving it in flames.
Agency reports also said that two Army Generals were close to sealing a step-down deal with Gbagbo.
The UN, in its defence of the strikes on Cote d’Ivoire’s seat of power, said it would amount to double standard after the international community had acted against Libya by using military force to prevent further attacks on civilians, to look the other way in the West African country.

UN diplomats explained yesterday that with the ongoing international force action against Libya that started weeks ago after the global body passed a resolution that authorised the use of force against Tripoli, it was becoming a contradiction that the UN and international community were not acting in the same way against Cote d’Ivoire where civilians are also being attacked by the government.
In a statement late on Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said: “Pursuant to paragraph 6 of the Security Council Resolution 1975 (2011) of 30th March, 2011, I have instructed the Mission to take the necessary measures to prevent the use of heavy weapons against the civilian population, with the support of the French forces pursuant to paragraph 17 of Security Council Resolution 1962 (2010).”
The Federal Government yesterday said it supports the UN use of all necessary means to protect civilians from violence in Cote d’Ivoire.
“I do not know the precise circumstances of their engagement, but I will say this UNSC resolution 1975 is broad enough to permit their engagement if the circumstances dictate that they should in order to protect innocent civilians,” Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia, told Agence Frence Presse (AFP).
He continued: “I do not believe that either UNOCI (the UN mission in Cote d’Ivoire) or the French force stationed in Abidjan would presume to act outside their UN-sanctioned mandate.”
President Goodluck Jonathan is the current chairman of ECOWAS, which at a summit last month, called on the UN to toughen the mandate of its peacekeeping force in the country to protect civilians.
And declaring that he is “deeply concerned with the security situation in Cote d’Ivoire, “United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama has endorsed the actions of the UN forces to force Gbagbo out of power.

Similarly, Ambassador Néstor Osorio, Permanent Representative of Colombia, the president of the UN Security Council in April, said the Council’s policy in authorising the use of force “was to follow the lead of regional organisations and competencies.” This was the case when the Arab League and the AU had asked the Council to act regarding the situation in Libya and when ECOWAS and AU asked the body to act on the Ivorien crisis.
In a statement released by White House yesterday, Obama said: “I strongly support the role that United Nations peacekeepers are playing as they enforce their mandate to protect civilians, and I welcome the efforts of French forces who are supporting that mission.”

Obama stated that the U.S., a permanent member of the UN Security Council would “continue to support a future in which Gbagbo stands down, and Outarra and the government of Cote d’Ivoire can move beyond this current crisis and serve all of the Ivorian people.
“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 that the fighting persists will bring more suffering, and further delay the future of peace and prosperity that the people of Cote d’Ivoire deserve.”
But Russia and the African Union (AU) have condemned the military campaign and urged an end to the fighting for talks to start.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in a statement yesterday condemned last week’s massacre in western Cote d’Ivoire, which has been blamed on Ouattara’s followers. The bloc however reiterated its calls on Gbagbo to immediately step down.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Gbagbo was yesterday negotiating his departure as rival forces cornered him in Abidjan. The UN mission in Cote d’Ivoire said Gbagbo was hunkered down in a bunker at his residence in Abidjan, after calling for a ceasefire as rival forces cornered him.
The ECOWAS said it would actively support any action to bring the perpetrators to justice at the appropriate time and welcomed a pledge by Ouattara, the internationally recognised president, to investigate the incident, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.

“The sub-regional body also urged Gbagbo to consider the greater interest of the Ivoriens as well as the unacceptably high levels of human suffering, death and destruction, and cede power immediately,” the statement said.
Russia questioned the use of force by the UN peacekeepers and called for an end to fighting and the start of talks.
Also, Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the current head of AU, condemned foreign military intervention in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya, saying Africa must be allowed to manage its own affairs.
“We are studying the legal side of the situation, because the peacekeepers had a mandate, which obliges them to be neutral and impartial,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference with his Gabonese counterpart Paul Toungui.

Lavrov said Russia had requested an urgent briefing at the UN Security Council on the issue.
“So far, we have not heard very clear answers to our questions,” he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to Ouattara yesterday after the UN and French helicopters struck bases of troops loyal to Gbagbo.
Sarkozy said in a statement that he had authorised the 1,600-strong French Licorne force in the country to help in the operation following an appeal from Ban, who said the use of force was necessary to prevent further attacks on civilians.

Cote d’Ivoire gained independence from France in 1960, and some 20,000 French citizens still lived there when a brief civil war broke out in 2002.
Sarkozy’s office said he spoke to Ouattara twice yesterday morning to discuss the situation in Cote d’Ivoire.
Gbagbo, 65, has turned down every peace move extended to him since last November, when he lost the presidential election to International Monetary Fund economist, Ouattara. Gbagbo insisted he had won, even though his country’s election commission declared him defeated and the UN certified his opponent’s victory.
A diplomat said Gbagbo is negotiating his surrender.

At Gbagbo’s residence, the troops created a perimeter around the building, waiting to see if he would come out or respond. Ouattara’s adviser said that he had been told Gbagbo had created a bunker inside his residence, locked from within.
UN peace-keeping chief, Alain Le Roy, who briefed the Security Council about the action in Cote d’ Ivoire on Monday, said the international forces had targeted areas around the presidential palace where Gbagbo’s forces were using heavy weaponry.
“There is no point firing at the presidential palace if there are no heavy weapons,” he said. “But we are seeing the heavy weapons very close and that is what we are firing on.”

Ban, in his statement, declared that “all those who commit serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws, will be held accountable.”
The resolution that the Secretary-General referenced was introduced by Nigeria and France, and passed last week at the Security Council although it did not directly authorise the use of force against Gbagbo.
However, the resolution sanctioned the use of all necessary means by the UN to prevent attack on civilians. In fact, some UN Security Council members like India and China had openly opposed that the global body use force to remove Gbagbo, preventing, during the negotiation of the resolution, any wording that would mandate that the UN to effect regime change or directly act to remove the embattled leader.

But the UN went ahead on Monday evening to open fire against Gbagbo’s compound and forces loyal to him in Abidjan, and Ban justified the action as being in line with the resolution calling for the prevention of the use of heavy weapons by Gbagbo forces.
Ban said the security situation in Cot d’Ivoire “has deteriorated dramatically over the past days with fighting having escalated between forces loyal to President Ouattara and forces remaining loyal to Mr. Gbagbo. This is a direct consequence of Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to relinquish power and allow a peaceful transition to President Ouattara.”

The UN chief said it was in that regard that the United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast (UNOCI) “undertook a military operation to prevent the use of heavy weapons which threaten the civilian population of Abidjan.”

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