IVORY COAST/ LIBYA: Rebels knock on Ggagbo’s door as Gaddafi’s key men defect

In just a matter of days or even hours Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo could be ousted from power following heavy fighting in the country’s main city, Abidjan, while his Libyan counterpart, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, continued to stare as a blank future as more senior officials defected.

In Ivory Coast, the fight is between forces loyal to the UN-recognised President, Alassane Ouattara and supporters of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo who has refused to relinquish office since losing presidential elections three months ago.

Early Friday, eye witness reports said intense gunfire raged near Mr Gbagbo’s residence, while Mr Ouattara’s supporters said they had taken control of state television.
A military source in Gbagbo’s camp confirmed to journalists yesterday the attack on the incumbent president’s residence but said that pro-Gbagbo forces were still putting up resistance at state broadcaster, RTI.

Mr Ouattara’s forces entered the city on Thursday after a swift offensive south aimed at ousting Mr Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power since a November 28 election that UN-certified results showed he lost.

Palace attacked
Fighting between the rival factions raged for hours on Thursday and heavy weapons fire rang out in the centre of the commercial capital of the world’s top cocoa producer.
“His house is under attack. That’s for sure. There is a resistance, but it’s under attack,” Ouattara spokesman Patrick Achi told news agencies yesterday.

“(Gbagbo) hasn’t shown any signs of giving up. I don’t think he will see the game is up, because he really believes God will save him ... Gbagbo is in his house. I’m certain. He hasn’t gone anywhere,” he added.

In power since 2000, Gbagbo’s mandate ran out in 2005 but the presidential election was delayed until 2010 because of instability in the country. Ivory Coast was once a bastion of stability in a troubled region, its skyscraper-studded commercial capital, Abidjan, a favoured expatriate posting. Then a civil war in 2002 left country divided between a south loyal to Mr Gbagbo and a rebel-controlled north.

Ivorians went to the polls in November to heal those wounds, but Mr Gbagbo refused to step down after losing to his rival, Ouattara, prompting a long standoff with the international community and, now, a rebel advance to try to expel Mr. Gbagbo by force.

Libyan defections
Meanwhile, Aljazeera news network reported yesterday that more people have left the inner circle of Mr Gaddafi following the high level desertion of Moussa Koussa, Libya’s foreign affairs minister, who arrived in the UK on Wednesday.

It is understood a group of top officials who had headed to Tunisia for talks have also decided to stay there. Some Arabic newspapers said Mohammad Abu Al Qassim Al Zawi, the head of Libya’s Popular Committee, the country’s equivalent of a parliament, is among the defectors, and reports of other defections, such as that of top oil official Shokri Ghanem, remain unconfirmed.

The defections and ensuing speculation underscores the increasing tension in Libya as allied air strikes crippled the military machine that Col. Gaddafi deployed almost exclusively as a bulwark against his own population. Even though the rebels were retreating in the east, allied airstrikes showed no sign of relenting, fuel shortages were worsening, and Gaddafi loyalists were talking increasingly openly about the possibility of the leader’s own exit.

Musa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman who huddled behind closed doors until well after midnight on Wednesday struggling to confirm Mr Koussa’s departure, said in a news conference later this week: “This is not like a happy piece of news, is it? But people are saying, ‘so what, if someone wants to step down? That is their decision. The fight continues.”

Asked if Col. Gaddafi and his sons were still in Libya, Mr Ibrahim smiled.
“Rest assured, we are all still here,” he said. “We will remain here until the end.”
In a speech in London on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Mr Koussa, who is believed to have helped orchestrate the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, had fled to London “of his own free will” with no offer of immunity from British or international justice.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said on March 3 that he would investigate “alleged crimes against humanity committed in Libya since February 15, as peaceful demonstrators were attacked by security forces.”
He placed Mr Koussa second after Col. Gaddafi on a list of “some individuals with formal or de facto authority, who commanded and had control over the forces that allegedly committed the crimes.”

Author: Gerald Bareebe & Agencies  (email the author)

Source: Daily Monitor, Posted  Saturday, April 2 2011 at 00:00