 Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
In Paris, Hervé Ladsous, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said France would "absolutely not" bow to militant demands in its former colony. Surging war sentiment threatens to hurtle Ivory Coast back into a recently ended civil war, completing the destruction of what was once West Africa's most prosperous nation, and destabilizing a region that is desperately trying to pull out of multiple civil wars. Elsewhere in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial capital, government-allied militants mounted a second day of attacks on the main French military base. French forces fired stun grenades and used tear gas against hundreds of protesters besieging the barrack gates, which were engulfed in billowing black smoke from barricades set afire by the mob. After looking on for two days, Ivory Coast security forces intervened Tuesday afternoon to break up the riot at the base. France has 4,000 troops in the former French colony to enforce a peace-and power-sharing deal in effect since January. The civil war has left the country split between the rebel-held north and the government-held south. About 1,000 West African peacekeepers also are deployed to support the peace deal. Loyalist militias are demanding that French and West African peacekeepers pull back from the 650-kilometer, or 400-mile, cease-fire line, allowing government troops to reopen attacks on the northern-based rebels. Some pro-government militias warned that if the peacekeepers do not recede, they will open attacks on French citizens here. The angry mob and the threats from threats raised fears that violent scenes from early this year, when anti-French riots rocked Abidjan, would be repeated. The French base is far from the center of town, however, and most of Abidjan was calm Tuesday. Some mothers hurried to bring children home early from a school for French expatriates. 
Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune
|