US renews call for Ivorian strongman to step aside
US renews call for Gbagbo to step aside as struggle for control of Ivory Coast's main city enters fourth day.
ABIDJAN:
The United States on Sunday renewed a call for Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo to step aside as the struggle for control of Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan entered a fourth day.
"The path forward is clear," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said early Sunday. Gbagbo "must leave now so the conflict may end."
Gbagbo, cornered in his Abidjan palace after forces loyal to internationally recognised election victor Alassane Ouattara claimed control of most of the rest of the country, "is pushing Cote d'Ivoire into lawlessness," Clinton added.
Early Sunday residents and AFP journalists said Ouattara's fighters held firm to their positions as sporadic heavy arms fire broke out near the presidential palace.
Clinton said the United States was "deeply concerned" by what she called "the dangerous and deteriorating situation" in the world's top cocoa producer, including recent reports of human rights abuses and massacres in the west of the country.
Reports of carnage emerged from the western town of Duekoue where the International Red Cross said 800 died in one day in an incident "particularly shocking by its size and brutality".
The Catholic mission Caritas reported 1,000 were "killed or disappeared" while the UN mission gave an initial death toll of 330, accusing fighters from both camps of involvement in the mass killings.
Rinaldo Depagne, an expert from the International Crisis Group think tank, said the accusations could seriously tarnish Ouattara's credibility.
The 69-year-old former prime minister was elected president in November but prevented from taking office as Gbagbo stubbornly refuses to leave.
"It is not good for him at all," Depagne said. "He has been elected democratically and he wears the suit of both a democratic man and one used to the Western world, who worked for the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Suddenly this suit is dirty."
In Abidjan, an offensive by Ouattara's army on Gbagbo's strongholds raged on Saturday when walls shook as mortar and other heavy arms fire broke out near the presidential palace, AFP journalists said.
The UN mission UNOCI meanwhile reported two separate attacks on its peacekeepers by Gbagbo forces, leaving four seriously injured, and warned its mandate allowed "the use of force when under attack."
While Gbagbo's camp claimed to have pushed back an assault Friday, Ouattara's fighters warned that the offensive "has not yet begun".
"We are taking steps to weaken the enemy before mounting an assault," said Captain Leon Kouakou Alla, spokesman for Ouattara's defence ministry.
Weary with failed diplomatic efforts to resolve a post-election crisis, Ouattara's army on Monday launched a lightning offensive across the country before arriving in Abidjan on Thursday.
Fierce fighting accompanied by loud explosions and bursts of machine-gun fire have sent residents of the city of five million people into lockdown, and more than 1,500 foreigners sought refuge at a French military camp.
As the violence escalated, both camps have been accused of atrocities that rights groups say may amount to crimes against humanity.
Hundreds of bodies were discovered in the wake of a fierce battle for Duekoue, with accusations flying as to who is responsible.
Some 330 people were killed early last week, according to Guillaume N'gefa of the UNOCI human rights division, who said most were "executed by 'dozos'," or traditional hunters fighting with Ouattara's camp.
He said that among these more than 100 were killed by pro-Gbagbo forces.
A spokesman for the pro-Ouattara Republican Forces, Seydou Ouattara, said they had killed "militia and not civilians" and sought to distance the forces from the "dozos".
"Militiamen are not civilians. From the moment they are armed, they are considered combatants. We must avoid all confusion," he told AFP.
Ouattara's government accused "the loyal forces, mercenaries and militias of Laurent Gbagbo" of being behind mass graves discovered in the area.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office condemned the "grave violence".
"Too many attacks, too many crimes have already been committed in Ivory Coast over the last four months. Those who are guilty of human rights abuses should know that they will be held to account," it said.
The United Nations estimates a million people have fled Abidjan in recent weeks fearing a bloodbath.
The United States on Sunday renewed a call for Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo to step aside as the struggle for control of Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan entered a fourth day.
"The path forward is clear," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said early Sunday. Gbagbo "must leave now so the conflict may end."
Gbagbo, cornered in his Abidjan palace after forces loyal to internationally recognised election victor Alassane Ouattara claimed control of most of the rest of the country, "is pushing Cote d'Ivoire into lawlessness," Clinton added.
Early Sunday residents and AFP journalists said Ouattara's fighters held firm to their positions as sporadic heavy arms fire broke out near the presidential palace.
Clinton said the United States was "deeply concerned" by what she called "the dangerous and deteriorating situation" in the world's top cocoa producer, including recent reports of human rights abuses and massacres in the west of the country.
Reports of carnage emerged from the western town of Duekoue where the International Red Cross said 800 died in one day in an incident "particularly shocking by its size and brutality".
The Catholic mission Caritas reported 1,000 were "killed or disappeared" while the UN mission gave an initial death toll of 330, accusing fighters from both camps of involvement in the mass killings.
Rinaldo Depagne, an expert from the International Crisis Group think tank, said the accusations could seriously tarnish Ouattara's credibility.
The 69-year-old former prime minister was elected president in November but prevented from taking office as Gbagbo stubbornly refuses to leave.
"It is not good for him at all," Depagne said. "He has been elected democratically and he wears the suit of both a democratic man and one used to the Western world, who worked for the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Suddenly this suit is dirty."
In Abidjan, an offensive by Ouattara's army on Gbagbo's strongholds raged on Saturday when walls shook as mortar and other heavy arms fire broke out near the presidential palace, AFP journalists said.
The UN mission UNOCI meanwhile reported two separate attacks on its peacekeepers by Gbagbo forces, leaving four seriously injured, and warned its mandate allowed "the use of force when under attack."
While Gbagbo's camp claimed to have pushed back an assault Friday, Ouattara's fighters warned that the offensive "has not yet begun".
"We are taking steps to weaken the enemy before mounting an assault," said Captain Leon Kouakou Alla, spokesman for Ouattara's defence ministry.
Weary with failed diplomatic efforts to resolve a post-election crisis, Ouattara's army on Monday launched a lightning offensive across the country before arriving in Abidjan on Thursday.
Fierce fighting accompanied by loud explosions and bursts of machine-gun fire have sent residents of the city of five million people into lockdown, and more than 1,500 foreigners sought refuge at a French military camp.
As the violence escalated, both camps have been accused of atrocities that rights groups say may amount to crimes against humanity.
Hundreds of bodies were discovered in the wake of a fierce battle for Duekoue, with accusations flying as to who is responsible.
Some 330 people were killed early last week, according to Guillaume N'gefa of the UNOCI human rights division, who said most were "executed by 'dozos'," or traditional hunters fighting with Ouattara's camp.
He said that among these more than 100 were killed by pro-Gbagbo forces.
A spokesman for the pro-Ouattara Republican Forces, Seydou Ouattara, said they had killed "militia and not civilians" and sought to distance the forces from the "dozos".
"Militiamen are not civilians. From the moment they are armed, they are considered combatants. We must avoid all confusion," he told AFP.
Ouattara's government accused "the loyal forces, mercenaries and militias of Laurent Gbagbo" of being behind mass graves discovered in the area.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office condemned the "grave violence".
"Too many attacks, too many crimes have already been committed in Ivory Coast over the last four months. Those who are guilty of human rights abuses should know that they will be held to account," it said.
The United Nations estimates a million people have fled Abidjan in recent weeks fearing a bloodbath.