Ivory Coast Forces Shoot at Protest, One Dead

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ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Security forces in Ivory Coast shot dead at least one demonstrator Thursday as marchers gathered for a banned opposition protest against President Laurent Gbagbo in the main city, Abidjan, witnesses said.

The body of a man with gunshot wounds to the chest was on the ground in the suburb of Yopougon. People standing by the body said anti-riot police had earlier fired into a small gathering of opposition protesters.

"The arrived. They said go away, go away and then they fired into the crowd. They are stopping us from marching," said a man standing by the dead body, which had a T-shirt with "National Reconciliation" written on the front.

The march organizers and witnesses said two had died in the shooting and another two had been injured. There was no independent confirmation of the second death or the injuries.

MI-24 helicopter gunships clattered overhead and groups of paramilitary and anti-riot police blasted tear gas into the nearly empty streets.

Tension has been building in the sprawling port city of Abidjan as march organizers pledged to press ahead with their protest, despite the risk of a showdown with the army.

Gbagbo's opponents are demanding the full implementation of a French-brokered peace deal signed last year to end civil war in the world's biggest cocoa grower.

They accuse the president of stalling on agreed reforms. Gbagbo's supporters say the rebels and their political allies are criminals bent on attaining power illegally.

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