Gbagbo arrested in Ivory Coast
CBC News
Posted: Apr 11, 2011 6:42 AM ET
Last Updated: Apr 11, 2011 2:58 PM ET
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Former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo, who had been trying to cling to power from a bunker in his presidential compound, has been arrested by forces loyal to the country's recognized leader, Alassane Ouattara.A spokesman for the French Embassy in the West African nation said Gbagbo, who had been holed up in his compound since last week, was apprehended by opposition troops on Monday.
A Reuters report said he was arrested by Ouattara's forces but with the support of French and UN troops. A UN statement rejected the claim that any of the agency's forces were involved in the capture, but Agence France-Presse later reported that UN peacekeeping troops are guarding Gbagbo at the same hotel in Abidjan where Ouattara has been based.
Earlier in the day, French tanks advanced toward his bunker, the first time that forces from the former colonial ruler have become involved in the ground operation to oust him. Twenty-five military vehicles, including tanks and armoured personnel carriers left a French army base.
Only several hundred metres from Gbagbo's mansion, at least 10 armoured vehicles flying the French flag driving through the neighbourhood had sent pro-Gbagbo gunmen fleeing. Two tanks took up a position at a key intersection, while the others advanced toward Gbagbo's home.
Issard Soumahro, a pro-Ouattara fighter at the scene, told The Associated Press that the ground offensive to seize Gbagbo began after the French launched airstrikes until at least 3 a.m. Monday.
"We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker. He was there with his wife and his son. He wasn't hurt, but he was tired and his cheek was swollen from where a soldier had slapped him," Soumahro said.
Gbagbo emerged from his bunker in a white sleeveless undershirt. He then was interrogated and brought to the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara has been trying to run his presidency since the Nov. 28 vote. Officials are now waiting for him to sign a piece of paper that formally hands power over to Ouattara, Soumahro said.
'The nightmare is over'
"The nightmare is over for the people of Ivory Coast," said Youssoufou Bamba, Ivory Coast's UN ambassador.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Gbagbo's arrest sends a strong signal to dictators and tyrants about the consequences of ignoring the people's will.
Dictators cannot disregard "the voice of their own people in free and fair elections," Clinton said. There will be consequences for those who cling to power, she added.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the capture ends months of unnecessary conflict.
"This is an end of a chapter that should never have been," Ban said. "We have to help them to restore stability, rule of law, and address all humanitarian and security issues."
He said Gbagbo's "physical safety should be ensured and I'm going to urge that."
Bamba, who was appointed UN ambassador by Ouattara, said Gbagbo will face justice. He predicted that fighting that has wracked the former French colony will stop as soon as all of the pro-Gbagbo forces learn of his capture.
Richard Downie, an Africa expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it will be very difficult for Ivory Coast to mount a domestic court to try Gbagbo, saying it would "probably be a lighting rod for more unrest."
"(Ouattara) didn't want to come to power this way, though the barrel of a gun," Downie said. "He was elected fairly and freely. But this is the situation he was dealt. It's going to be incredibly difficult for him to bring the country together."
Ouattara's private television station broadcast images of a serene Gbagbo sitting on his bed. It was not immediately clear if the images were taken right after his capture.
"It's a victory ... considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast," Ouattara's ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, said on France-Info radio. He emphasized that the man in power for a decade would be "treated with humanity."
"We must not in any way make a royal gift to Laurent Gbagbo in making him a martyr," Coulibaly said. "He must be alive and he must answer for the crimes against humanity that he committed."
Some critics had accused Gbagbo of clinging to power in part to avoid prosecution by the International Criminal Court. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has begun preliminary examination of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ivory Coast, including accusations levelled against forces seeking to install Ouattara.
"We need to think about what his future should be," Ban said, adding that's up to Ouattara and his government.
Ivory Coast was divided into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south by a 2002-2003 civil war. The country was officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal. The long-delayed presidential election was intended to help reunify the nation but instead unleashed months of violence.
Gbagbo, who won 46 per cent of the vote, held power for a decade and already had overstayed his mandate by five years when the November election took place. When the country's election commission and international observers declared he lost the election after it was finally held, he refused to step down.
The former history professor defied near-universal pressure to cede power to Ouattara. The two set up parallel administrations that vied for control of the West African economic powerhouse, the world's largest cocoa producer. Ouattara drew his support from the UN and world powers. Gbagbo maintained his hold over the country's military and security forces who terrorized his opponents.
Gbagbo had described efforts to oust him from power as tantamount to a foreign coup d'état.
French government distances itself from arrest
On Monday, the French government sought to distance itself from Gbagbo's arrest. Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, the French forces spokesman in Abidjan, said French forces were not involved in Gbagbo's arrest.Gbagbo has lost control of virtually the entire West African country over the last two weeks as forces loyal to internationally recognized winner Ouattara have swept down from the north and west into the commercial capital of Abidjan.
Pro-Ouattara forces began an offensive late last month to install him in power, sweeping across the country in just days before meeting resistance in Abidjan.
"Everyone here is traumatized," said Philomene Houe, a 39-year-old soap maker in Duekoue, a town in the country's southwest, where hundreds have been killed in post-election violence. "We've all lost something — a member of the family, our homes, our belongings."
Human Rights Watch has accused the pro-Ouattara forces of killing hundreds of civilians, raping political opponents and burning villages during the offensive to try to put Ouattara in office.
"While the international community has been focused on the political stalemate over the presidency, forces on both sides have committed numerous atrocities against civilians, their leaders showing little interest in reining them in," said Daniel Bekele, Human Rights Watch Africa director.
With files from The Associated Press
James Devaney/FilmMagicUs Magazine 
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