Posted on 11/06/2004 12:46:18 PM PST by BurbankKarl
ABIDJAN, Nov 6 (AFP) - The Ivory Coast government carried out a devastating air raid on a French army camp Saturday killing eight soldiers, prompting French President Jacques Chirac to order the destruction of all government planes involved in ceasefire violations.
French forces blew up two Ivorian warplanes on the runway in immediate retaliation for the attack, in which a US citizen was also reported killed and 23 injured.
France ordered two more companies of soldiers to buttress its 4,000-member peacekeeping force in the west African country as fighting broke out between French and Ivorian troops at Abidjan international airport, and scrambled three Mirage fighter jets from Chad to Libreville in Gabon.
Skirmishing also was reported Satruday between Ivorian government and rebel troops near Bouake, where a UN spokesman said artillery exchanges could be heard.
France has had troops stationed in Ivory Coast since last year after helping to mediate a peace agreement following the breakout of a civil war in 2002, but the implementation of the pact has been fitful and the west African country has remained divided in two.
Chirac called Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo after the attack "to warn him against any act liable to break the ceasefire" between the government and rebel New Forces holding the north of the country, officials at the presidency said.
Resentment against France boiled up both in Abidjan, where demonstrators torched a French school in an up-market district, and in the rebel-held town of Man, where demonstrators attacked French troops, accusing them of supporting the government.
The slide toward renewed civil war in the former French colony after government forces bombarded rebel positions in the northern part of the country earlier in the week drew a sharp rebuke from the African Union, which accused the government of going back on solemn agreements to work for national reconciliation.
France said two Russian-built Sukhoi 25 Frogfoot fighter-bombers of the Ivorian air force hit a French encampment in the central rebel stronghold of Bouake on Saturday, killing and injuring the soldiers of its 4,000-member Unicorn peacekeeping force. A US citizen was also reported killed in the strike.
Paris said it retaliated by destroying the Ivorian jets responsible for the strike based at Yamoussoukro, the nation's administrative capital. Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said France had destroyed the Ivorian aircraft as an act of legitimate self-defense.
Colonel Philipe Mangou of the Ivorian military command confirmed that the fighter bombers had been destroyed on the ground.
African Union officials warned that the government air raids against the rebel-held northern part of the country could push the country back towards civil war.
President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the AU chairman, said he was deeply concerned about the violence, which he said "clearly contradicts the process of national reconciliation" as expressed in two peace agreements signed at Marcoussis in France and in Accra, Ghana.
The UN Security Council summoned an emergency meeting Saturday after Chirac called UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Barnier said it was up to President Laurent Gbagbo to "assume his responsibilities" and restore calm, particularly in the economic capital Abidjan, where fighting was reported between Ivorian government and French forces at the international airport.
France's position was buttressed by the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who accused Gbagbo's forces of violating peace accords. Solana said the attack on the French peace-keepers was "inadmissable," and warned Gbagbo he was responsible for the safety of all foreigners in the country, including the 14,000 French nationals. The future of the Ivory Coast's relationship with the EU depended on it, he said.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said there were no immediate plans to evacuate French residents.
In attacks apparently ordered by Gbagbo, government jets Thursday began pounding cities in the north of the country, which has been under the control of the New Forces since September 2002 when an insurrection erupted in the wake of a failed military coup.
The attacks were the most serious ceasefire violation since the French-brokered Marcoussis agreement in January last year that was intended to bring the rebel leaders into a unity government.
The French Unicorn force along with 6,000 United Nations peacekeepers polices a "confidence zone" set up to separate the warring parties while political dialogue takes place.
The New Forces warned they would launch an assault if government forces cross into the UN-controlled zone. The head of the New Forces, Guillaume Soro, described the air raids as a "coup d'etat" and accused Gbagbo of pushing the country back towards war to serve his own political interests.
New Forces spokesman Sidiki Konate told AFP it would be considered an act of war if the government forces crossed the buffer zone, warning the rebels "will give our forces the green light to head to Abidjan."
"We will not wait for them to attack us in our towns."
Alliot-Marie earlier said that UN forces had halted a northbound column of government troops. But the Ivorian army has denied having deployed ground forces towards the north.
Konate said the government air raids earlier this week had left 11 people dead and around 100 seriously wounded.
According to Konate, angry demonstrators on Saturday attacked French troops based in the rebel-held western town of Man, accusing them of supporting the government air raids and calling for them to leave Ivory Coast.
The French military confirmed the force had been targeted by "very aggressive" demonstrators.
"Well I don't want to put down their soliders, just because I hate Chirac"
Well said!
What is Frances interest in the Ivory Coast?
Oh Yeah, Imperial Cocoa Plantations!
Ivorian leader calls for end to anti-French riots
06 Nov 2004 20:31:08 GMT
Source: Reuters
ABIDJAN, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo is urging Ivorians to stop attacking French citizens and businesses after French troops destroyed two Ivorian warplanes on Saturday, a presidential spokesman said.
Rampaging youths in the main city Abidjan set fire to French schools and businesses and roughed up French nationals. A French school was also set ablaze in the capital Yamoussoukro, witnesses said.
The French troops destroyed two Ivorian warplanes after an air strike on a French barracks in the rebel stronghold of Bouake killed eight French soldiers and one American citizen.
"Pending an investigation into these incidents ... the President of the Republic has asked that all Ivorian men and women, even if they are angry about what happened, do not attack foreign goods and businesses, and in particular that nobody attack French interests," Gbagbo's spokesman Desire Tagro said on national television
I am not a supporter of France, but I feel it should be pointed out that it was the French who came to our rescue after the Cole was hit. They were there providing medical aid to our sailors.
Attack la france
And France is acting unilaterally.
Yeah, and we all know who eventually gets involved in French messes.
French, Ivory Coast Forces Battle
Saturday November 6, 2004 8:46 PM
AP Photo CIV103
By PARFAIT KOUASSI
Associated Press Writer
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - French troops clashed with soldiers and angry mobs Saturday after government warplanes killed eight French peacekeepers and an American civilian in an airstrike - mayhem that threatened to draw foreign troops deeper into Ivory Coast's escalating civil war.
After France retaliated for the airstrike, thousands of pro-government youths, some armed with machetes, axes or chunks of wood, took to the streets of the country's commercial capital, Abidjan. Crowds went door to door looking for French citizens and set fire to a French school, sending a pall of smoke over the city.
``Everybody get your Frenchman!'' young men in the mob shouted to each others.
Later, massive explosions and heavy gunfire rocked Yamoussoukro, the capital of the West African nation, but the cause was not immediately known.
No Blood for Chocolate~!
YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast (CP) - Massive explosions and heavy gunfire have rocked Ivory Coast's capital, but the cause was not immediately known.
i had to re-read this twice. i thought it said "french defiance minister..."
This is intolerable. The Frogs can't respond to a sneak attack without asking permission from the United States first.
The crack French Army can't even win a battle with the Ivory Coast!
Why does anyone listen to the Frogs for one moment???
HELP ME!!!!!
They may be able to unleash the new French aircraft carrier against these kaffirs. Just slap some bondo on the holes and get some ocean going tugs to tow it and, viola!, the French can bomb and strafe until Annan and Chirac get paid to stop. (What is the French term for "kaffirs?")
perhaps we can get the activits in san francisco and berkeley to organize an anti-frace anti-war demonstration.
latest odds at tradesports--ivory coast 4/5 france 3/1
:)
HELP ME GEORGE
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