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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 28 November 2006

COTE D IVOIRE: Gbagbo makes show of power

ABIDJAN, 28 Nov 2006 (IRIN) - Armed troops were out in force on the streets of Cote d’Ivoire’s largest city, Abidjan, on Tuesday as already tense relations between President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny deteriorated.

Since Sunday, Gbagbo has signed eight decrees and reinstated three senior civil servants suspended by Banny last month for their part in the dumping of toxic waste around Abidjan in September.

Banny said in a statement on Monday that he would fight the president’s decisions. “If they are applied, these decisions will without doubt constitute a major obstacle in the war against impunity,” Banny said.

But the statement appeared to have no effect on the president’s actions. On Tuesday, the president’s spokesperson announced a new decree sacking the director general of state-run Ivorian Radio Television (RTI).

“From now on, Laurent Gbagbo controls the army and the state-run media,” said a Western diplomat who asked not to be named. The diplomat said Gbagbo is behaving in a “dictatorial” way.

Cote d’Ivoire has been divided between a rebel-held north and government-run south since a brief civil war in 2002. Some 10,000 United Nations and French peacekeepers have monitored a buffer zone on the former front line to prevent further fighting between the army, rebels and heavily armed militia groups.

Peace-sealing presidential elections were supposed to have been held in October, but disarmament and voter registration problems prevented the polls from being held. The UN Security Council extended Gbagbo’s mandate on recommendations given by the African Union, while passing some of his powers to Prime Minister Banny.

Gbagbo had said after the UN decision that he would come up with his own peace plan for Cote d’Ivoire and held consultations in recent weeks with a broad spectrum of Ivorian groups.

At mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the situation remained calm in Abidjan and in the capital, Yamoussoukro, where Banny was visiting. Police, gendarmes and military were out in force in Abidjan, standing on street corners and massed in front of the state-run Fraternite Matin newspaper and government television and radio stations.

“Gbagbo has declared war. We are going to go there and we are going to defeat him,” a militia member with the Democratic Party of Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI), the former governing party, warned.

“We have got extra provisions. We never know what will happen,” said resident Maxime Taho in front of a local supermarket.

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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006