IVORY COAST: GENERAL ROBERT GUEI FLEES ABIDJAN BY HELICOPTER AS PROTESTS CONTINUE OVER DISPUTED ELECTION VICTORY OF LAURENT GBAGDO
Record ID:
183578
IVORY COAST: GENERAL ROBERT GUEI FLEES ABIDJAN BY HELICOPTER AS PROTESTS CONTINUE OVER DISPUTED ELECTION VICTORY OF LAURENT GBAGDO
- Title: IVORY COAST: GENERAL ROBERT GUEI FLEES ABIDJAN BY HELICOPTER AS PROTESTS CONTINUE OVER DISPUTED ELECTION VICTORY OF LAURENT GBAGDO
- Date: 25th October 2000
- Summary: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (OCTOBER 25 2000)(REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS, GENDARMES MOVE ASIDE TO LET DEMONSTRATORS IN IVORY COAST'S MAIN CITY ABIDJAN MARCH INTO TOWN (3 SHOTS) 0.11 2. SLV HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS RUN DOWN A STREET INTO TOWN SHOUTING "WE DON'T WANT GUEI", SELF-DECLARED PRESIDENT OF IVORY COAST 0.14 3. VARIOUS, SUPPORTERS HOLD GIANT ELECTION POSTERS AND PHOTOS OF OPPOSITION LEADER LAURENT GBAGBO (3 SHOTS) 0.24 4. SCU PROTESTORS HOLDING UP POSTERS READING "NON A LA POLITIQUE DUE VENTRE - NON A'LA DICTATURE DE GUEL !! " 0.28 5. HAV DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING 0.32 6. HAV SOLDIERS ON GUARD OUTSIDE THE NATIONAL RADIO STATION 0.36 7. HAV SOLDIERS GUARDING THE RADIO STATION MAN A MAKESHIFT BARRICADE 0.39 8. HAV, A FEW PROTESTERS, SOME CLAD IN LEAVES TAUNT SOLDIERS AS THEY WALK DOWN A STREET TOWARDS THE RADIO STATION (2 SHOTS) 0.46 9. HAV , PROTESTERS TAKE COVER AS FIRING STARTS 0.48 10. HAV, SOLDIERS ADVANCE DOWN THE STREET FIRING IN THE AIR TO DISPERSE THE PROTESTERS 0.57 11. VARIOUS, PEOPLE TRYING TO HELP PROTESTER WITH A BULLET WOUND LYING ON THE GROUND (2 SHOTS) 1.03 12. SMV, SOUNDBITE (French), A PROTESTER, SAYING: "We are not going to give up. We will win." 1.06 13. SMV , AMBULANCE ARRIVING AND DRIVING THROUGH CROWD 1.10 14. SMV WOUNDED PROTESTOR CARRIED TO AMBULANCE 1.13 ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (FILE - DECEMBER, 1999)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 15. VARIOUS, IVORY COAST MILITARY LEADER ROBERT GUEI (IN BLUE BERET) AT AKOUEDO MILITARY BARRACKS SHORTLY AFTER HE TOOK POWER (2 SHOTS) 1.22 ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (RECENT)(REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 17. SCU /WIDE GIANT GUEI ELECTION POSTER, WHICH SAYS 'MY PARTY IS THE PEOPLE' (2 SHOTS) 1.33 18. WIDE , TRAFFIC ALONG ROAD 1.39 19. SLV/ WIDE OF ELECTION POSTER OF HIS MAIN CHALLENGER, LAURENT GBAGBO READING " THE HOPE OF A WHOLE PEOPLE" , ALONG SIDE OF ROAD (2 SHOTS) 1.49 20. SLV BUS BOATS ON THE LAGOON IN ABIDJAN 1.55 21. SLV , THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE IN ABIDJAN SEEN THROUGH BARBED WIRE 2.01 22. VARIOUS, SOLDIERS IN FRONT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE (3 SHOTS) 2.09 ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST(FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 23. SMV/ PAN , GUEI GREETING THE LEADERS OF THE MAIN CIVILIAN POLITICAL PARTIES: SELI GNOLEBA, THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL BEFORE THE COUP, MEL THEODORE, A MINOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, ALASSANE OUATTARA, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BARRED BY THE SUPREME COURT FROM STANDING IN THE ELECTIONS, LAURENT GBAGBO AND LAURENT FOLOGO, SENIOR FIGURE IN THE FORMER RULING PARTY (AUDIO AS INCOMING) 2.31 ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (AUDIO AS INCOMING) 24. SLV EXTERIOR OF THE HOTEL IVOIRE AT THE LAUNCH OF GUEI'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN WITH SUPPORTERS HOLDING POSTERS AND CHANTING 2.35 25. SMV GUEI AND HIS WIFE ROSE GUEI GREET THEIR SUPPORTERS INSIDE THE HOTEL 2.43 26. WIDE OF SUPPORTERS CHEERING 2.46 27. SCU SOUNDBITE (FRENCH) LAURENT GBAGBO, IVORIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, SAYING: "Carry the news that the country must change and that the country can't change without one candidate - Laurent Gbagbo." 2.55 28. WIDE OF GBAGBO'S SUPPORTERS APPLAUDING HIS SPEECH 2.57 29. SMV GBAGBO GREETING HIS OFFICIALS AND KISSING HIS WIFE 3.02 30. WIDE OF ABIDJAN STREET SCENE 3.12 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 9th November 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Reuters ID: LVABG4ZZIK509CHMK0C2PZQAEF52
- Story Text: Ivory Coast's military ruler General Robert Guei fled
by helicopter on Wednesday in the face of popular protests in
the main city Abidjan, airport and military sources said.
Shots rang out in the capital and several protesters fell
wounded as they clashed with soldiers during a march on the
national radio station.
A source at the military airport in the city told
Reuters that Guei was accompanied by his interior minister,
Mouassi Grena, but that the destination was unknown.
One military source said that Guei, accused by tens of
thousands of protesters of robbing socialist leader Laurent
Gbagbo of victory in Sunday's presidential election, was
heading for Liberia.
The airport source said that Guei was also accompanied by
two bodyguards.
Paramilitary gendarmes in Ivory Coast who have rallied to
socialist leader Laurent Gbagbo were looking for him so they
could take him to state television to make a statement, an
official of Gbagbo's party said.
Gbagbo says he won Sunday's presidential election in Ivory
Coast.
Street protests erupted on Tuesday when army ruler General
Robert Guei was declared the winner. They continued on
Wednesday (October 25), forcing Guei to flee by helicopter.
The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) official said two
truckloads of gendarmes went to Gbagbo's residence. They were
told he was at his campaign headquarters and headed in that
direction, the official said.
He quoted one gendarme as saying "Gbagbo is the new
president".
Soldiers shot protesters in Ivory Coast on Wednesday when
tens of thousands of marchers denouncing military ruler
General Robert Guei converged on the centre of the main city,
Abidjan.
Reuters reporters saw at least six supporters of socialist
leader Laurent Gbagbo with bullet wounds, some of them
serious. Protesters said some marchers had been shot dead.
The demonstrators marched towards the national radio
station and advanced slowly towards the presidency, holding
posters of Gbagbo aloft, but were repeatedly pushed back by
volleys of gunfire.
"We are not going to give up," one protestor shouted. "We
don't want Guei," hundreds of others chanted.
In a separate development, a leading member of Guei's
junta, Communication Minister Henri Sama, resigned saying
Gbagbo had won Sunday's presidential election and urging Guei
"to spare Ivory Coast a bloodbath" and step down.
"The truth is Gbagbo won the election. I am not a cheat,"
Sama said, adding that he had asked a fellow junta member to
arrest Guei, who was at the military airport.
The protests, which began on Tuesday after the West
African country's army rulers declared Guei winner of the
poll, have affected towns nationwide.
Aides of Gbagbo, who accused Guei of robbing him of
victory and proclaimed himself head of state, said that 11
people had been killed on Tuesday, when soldiers fired in the
air and used teargas, whips and clubs to disperse marchers.
Paramilitary gendarmes and some soldiers rallied to the
protest movement on Wednesday, some linking up with marchers
with armoured vehicles.
Earlier, rival army factions fought an inconclusive
night battle at the key military base of Akouedo, where the
country's first coup began last December.
The battle at Akouedo, on the outskirts of Abidjan,
involved tanks and lasted about two hours, a source close to
Gbagbo said.
At the time, the country was under an overnight curfew,
which ended at 6 a.m. (0600 GMT).
Guei, 59, called Sunday's presidential election and a
parliamentary election set for December 10 to return the
country to constitutional rule following the coup.
His decision to stand himself followed in the footsteps of
successive African leaders who came to power in a coup and
went on to seek legitimacy through the ballot box.
"We will keep up the pressure," Abou Drahamane Sangare,
deputy leader of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), said.
Gbagbo, 55, led the fight that brought multi-party
politics to the world's top cocoa producer in 1990.
Before the election, Gbagbo had threatened Belgrade-style
popular protests if he was cheated of victory.
Guei, who is technically retired from the army, dissolved
the National Electoral Commission on Tuesday.
The Interior Ministry declared him winner of the election
with 52.72 percent of votes cast. It credited Gbagbo, one of
four civilians in the race, with 41.02 percent and accused
unnamed political parties of cheating in the poll.
Gbagbo's party said that he had won the election, taking
59.58 percent of votes cast, on the basis of results with most
votes counted, against 32.91 percent for Guei.
Gbagbo and Guei were the only serious contenders in the
poll after the supreme court barred former Prime Minister
Alassane Ouattara and other political heavyweights from
running under a new constitution approved in a July
referendum.
Military leader Robert Guei declared himself the victor on
Tuesday of Sunday's presidential elections.
France and the United States condemned his declaration and
said the poll was fundamentally flawed.
Guei's action leaves the West African state, traditionally
a bastion of stability and prosperity, in chaos. Guei's army
itself is divided, according to observers.
pj/JMT
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