IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast President Gbagbo vows to stay in office as soldiers fire shots to halt demonstrations

Record ID: 182631

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast President Gbagbo vows to stay in office as soldiers fire shots to halt demonstrations
  • Date: 31st October 2005
  • Summary: SUPPORTERS CHANTING (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 15th November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADDLH0JZ6NO58SV995115AEQY4
  • Story Text: President Laurent Gbagbo said he would stay in office after his five-year term ends at midnight on Sunday (October 30), defying calls from opponents demanding he step down as head of the divided West African nation.
    Earlier, soldiers and riot police in Abidjan fired warning shots and tear gas to turn back a protest by opposition supporters advancing towards the presidential palace to demand he leave office.
    Several people were reported injured but it was not clear how seriously, U.N. sources said.
    President Gbagbo said in a televised address broadcast on Saturday that he was acting in accordance with the constitution.
    "I am in favour of respect for the rule of law applicable to all, which is for me the essence of a life of peace, democracy and freedom. That is why I will always oppose any attempt to take power by any means outside the constitution, and that is why I will never accept the decapitation of the state," he said after soldiers blocked a protest march in Abidjan by opponents demanding he leave office when his mandate expires.
    "The President of the Republic will continue to guarantee the continuity of the state and will remain at its head until elections take place. That is the will of the Ivorian people expressed in our constitution which was backed by a vote of 80 percent," he added
    Gbagbo blamed anti-government rebels holding the north of the country, split since a 2002 civil war in the world's biggest cocoa producer, for the fact the elections originally scheduled to be held on Sunday were not taking place.
    Gbagbo said the rebels, who have warned they will not recognise him as president after midnight on Sunday, had failed to disarm and unify the country in line with internationally-brokered peace efforts.
    He said he would seek to implement a recent United Nations resolution which foresees him staying in office for up to 12 months more until elections are held, and also calls for the appointment of a strong prime minister acceptable to all sides.
    The standoff between Gbagbo and the rebels has raised fears of renewed violence in the former French colony, which has suffered riots, massacres and looting in the last few years.
    Ivory Coast soldiers and police fired warning shots and tear gas on Sunday (October 30) to halt a protest by opponents of President Laurent Gbagbo. The protesters were advancing towards the presidential palace to demand he step down at midnight.
    The demonstrators scattered and ran as the officers fired their automatic rifles into the air to stop them moving onto a strategic bridge that leads to the centre of Abidjan, the nation's main commercial city.
    Several people were reported injured but it was not clear how seriously, U.N. sources said
    Chanting "Goodbye Gbagbo", the protesters had streamed out of a sports stadium in Abidjan's Treichville suburb where they had earlier held a noisy rally to demand that Gbagbo quit the presidency when his current term ends at midnight on Sunday.
    Opposition youth leaders had repeated threats to force Gbagbo out with street protests if he did not give up the leadership of the world's top cocoa producer, which was split in two by a 2002 civil war that created separate rebel and government zones.
    But Gbagbo, bolstered by a U.N peace plan that gives him up to 12 more months in office, says he will stay put until elections and had ordered his army to stifle any unrest.
    Gbagbo was due to address the nation later on Sunday (2000gmt).
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