I Coast: Gbagbo accuses diplomats

  1. Posted on Sunday 12 December 2010 - 15:30
    KingsleyKobo
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    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
    Ivory Coast incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo on Sunday accused some foreign diplomats based in the country of trying to discreetly persuade a number of army chiefs to abandon him for his rival Alassane Ouattara's camp.
    I.Coast: Gbagbo accuses diplomats of destabilisation
    “For several days, civil and military members of certain Western chancelleries in Abidjan have discreetly approached senior officers in our national army,” newly appointed Interior Minister Emile Guirieoulou alleged on state TV RTI.

    He warned that Gbagbo's government “will no longer tolerate meddling by any diplomat in the internal affairs of the state of Ivory Coast.”

    Earlier on Thursday, Gbagbo, conscious of his isolation from the international community, proposed a friendly dialogue to Ouattara saying “let’s sit down and talk”, but Ouattara’s parallel government’s spokesman Patrick Achi dismissed possibilities of such a meeting “until Gbagbo accepts defeat and quits the presidency.”

    Despite enormous pressure from the international community to handover power to Ouattara who was declared winner of the Nov.28 presidential run-off by the election commission, Gbagbo still clings to his seat, branding his legitimacy from the Constitutional Council, which overturned Ouattara’s victory by annulling hundreds of thousands of votes and handing Gbagbo a new five-year term.

    On Friday the United States said strategic sanctions were being prepared against Gbagbo, his family and collaborators if he continues to spurn calls to cede power.

    The political deadlock in the west African country will quake the already fragile economy, according to the chairman of the country’s Chamber of Commerce Jean-Louis Billon, who has asked companies operating in the private sector to stop paying taxes.

    “We don’t know which of the two presidents or governments will survive in the end, so we are not sure which to deal with at the moment,” he said.

    Ouattara’s Prime Minister and former rebel chief Soro Guillaume told a press conference on Friday that he would be moving to the country’s prime minister office to start work this week.

    The office is being occupied by Gbagbo’s new Prime Minster Aké N’gbo, raising fears of possible armed clashes in the commercial city Abidjan this week.

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