Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara ordered ousted rival Laurent Gbagbo under house arrest as the newly installed leader yesterday fought to impose his authority and stamp out insecurity.
As US President Barack Obama phoned Ouattara to congratulate him on finally taking office, the new Ivorian government said that the man who was captured on Monday after he had refused to cede power would remain in detention.
“Pending the opening of a judicial inquiry, Mr Laurent Gbagbo and some of his companions have been placed under house arrest,” Ivorian Justice Minister Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
The government did not say where Gbagbo was being held, nor who the “companions” were. He was arrested with his wife Simone, son Michel and several former officials of his ousted regime.
The Ouattara government has said it is determined Gbagbo will face justice over the months of fighting that erupted after he refused to admit defeat in November’s presidential election.
Ouattara’s most pressing task is to quell unrest in Gbagbo strongholds, particularly in the main city Abidjan.
Amid the euphoria on Tuesday among his supporters, residents in some parts of the city reported fresh clashes involving heavy weapons fire around the Plateau District, which is home to the presidential palace.
In Cocody, the neighborhood where Gbagbo was arrested, a resident said “there was sporadic small arms fire in the morning, after which we heard rocket and heavy machine-gun fire for several minutes.”
Tensions were exacerbated further by news that a former interior minister who was arrested along with Gbagbo, Desire Tagro, died on Tuesday in circumstances that remained unclear, sources said.
A Gbagbo supporter alleged that Tagro was shot while in custody at the hotel, where the ousted president was taken after his capture, but one of the sources, a diplomat, said that he might have tried to kill himself.
Fighting in Abidjan has left streets littered with bodies and parts of the city in the grip of looters.
However, a semblance of normal life appeared to return to large parts of the city, with traffic back on the streets and some shops reopening.
The White House said in a statement that Obama had called Ouattara “to congratulate him on assuming his duties as the democratically elected president of Cote d’Ivoire.”
“President Obama offered support for President Ouattara’s efforts to unite Cote d’Ivoire, restart the economy, restore security and reform the security forces,” it added.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said yesterday that Paris would reduce the number of troops it keeps stationed in Ivory Coast to 900 from the current 1,700 following the removal from power of Gbagbo.
Longuet told a parliamentary hearing that French and Ivorian troops were patrolling the streets of Abidjan to ensure the rule of law, but that France would not seek to maintain a permanent fighting force in the cocoa-exporting nation.
“This Licorne force will ... rapidly be drawn down to its size before the crisis, that is to say it will be reduced to 900 from 1,700,” Longuet told a National Assembly defense commission.
The UN, which has more than 9,000 troops and police in Ivory Coast, will keep up its mission helping to restore law and order.
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