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| Laurent Gbagbo |
UNITED NATIONS — Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo was arrested Monday by French-backed forces of president-elect Alassane Ouattara, raising hopes for an imminent end to the strife that has wracked the West African country since Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his defeat in a November presidential election.
Following an attack on Gbagbo’s residence in the capital, Abidjan, by French forces earlier Monday, troops loyal to Ouattara went in and seized Gbagbo, according to U.N., French and Ivorian officials.
Gbagbo “has been arrested,” said Youssoufou Bamba, the U.N. envoy of president-elect Ouattara. “He is alive” and will be “brought to justice,” he said in a telephone interview.
Initial reports indicated that French troops had captured Gbagbo and turned him over to Ouattara’s forces. But Bamba subsequently told reporters that the arrest operation had been carried out by forces loyal to Ouattara.
“I am clear about that,” he told reporters outside the U.N. Security Council. “That’s the Republican Forces of Cote d’Ivoire who have conducted the operation. Gbagbo is arrested. He is under our custody. . . . Right now, he is being brought to a safe location for the next course of action.”
Bamba said he was confident that as “the news will spread” of Gbagbo’s arrest, his forces “will stop fighting and they will lay down their weapons.” He added: “Those fighting are fighting for nothing, because this man is over, this era is over. We will address the serious problem of the humanitarian situation and the security situation . . . and restore public order.”
A spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast said it has “confirmed that former president Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered to the forces of Alassane Ouattara and is currently in their custody.” The spokesman, Farhan Haq, said the U.N. mission was “providing protection and security in accordance with its mandate,” Reuters news agency reported.
For their part, Gbagbo’s supporters dismissed claims that the operation was carried out by Ouattara’s forces, noting that French and U.N. attack helicopters pounded the presidential palace and Gbagbo’s residence.
“It’s absolutely untrue,” said Zakaria Fellah, a Gbagbo loyalist and adviser, who claimed that French ground troops were deployed around the presidential residence. Fellah, who is in the United States, said he has been in constant telephone contact with Gbagbo loyalists in the vicinity of the fighting.
“The so-called regime of Ouattara’s forces were completely absent,” he said.
Any Ouattara loyalists who may have played any role in the arrest, he said, were merely “auxiliaries” of the U.N. and French troops. “This operation, the final assault, was carried out by the French troops,” he said.
Fellah said the manner in which Gbagbo was deposed will leave a legacy of deep resentment among his supporters, who will view this as another example of the former colonial power, France, using superior firepower to decide who will rule the country.
In London, British Foreign Minister William Hague urged Gbagbo’s captors to give him a fair trial.
“Mr. Gbagbo has acted against any democratic principles in the way he has behaved in recent months, and of course there have been many many breaches of any rule of law as well,” Hague told a news conference. “At the same time, we would say that he must be treated with respect, and any judicial process that follows should be a fair and properly organized judicial process.”
The arrest came after French armored vehicles closed in on the compound where Gbagbo had been holed up in a bunker while trying to remain in power despite Ouattara’s victory in the November election, the results of which were certified by the United Nations.
The column of more than two dozen armored vehicles advanced on the compound from a French base in Ivory Coast, a former French colony, a day after U.N. and French helicopters attacked Gbagbo’s forces, destroying its heavy weapons and damaging the presidential residence.
A U.N. Security Council resolution approved in March authorized the use of force in Ivory Coast. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Gbagbo of using heavy weapons against civilians in his effort to cling to power.
Branigin reported from Washington.
lynchc@washpost.com
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