Protest outside French military base

Demonstrators protested at the French military base in Abidjan's Port-Bouet neighbourhood on Tuesday, demanding that the French authorities hand over opposition leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara. A number of demonstrators were injured in a stampede when, according to one of the organisers of the sit-in, Genevieve Bro Grebe, French troops used teargas and water hoses to disperse protestors who were threatening to enter the camp, which is close to the main airport. Bro Grebe, a former sports minister in the government of President Laurent Gbagbo, said about 100 people were injured in the stampede. "We accompanied them to hospital," she said, adding that "even the junior minister of health went to treat the wounded". French officials were quoted by news agencies as saying 50 people were injured. "The protest began at about 08h00 and they tried to get into the French military camp. The Ivorian security forces could not contain them, so we had to step in. We used teargas to disperse them," Lieutenant-Colonel Ange-Antoine Leccia, the French army spokesman in Cote d’Ivoire, was quoted by news agencies as saying. According to French and other sources, demonstrators also turned on French nationals and people they apparently believed to be French. Some people were roughed up while some had their vehicles damaged. Other sources said the protestors set up checkpoints along the road outside the camp, stopping passing cars and disrupting traffic between the airport and the city. Government officials later called on demonstrators not to attack French interests but to exercise their right to demonstrate within the proper limits. The demonstration, organised by l'Union des forces patriotiques (Union of Patriotic Forces - a collection of NGOs and pressure groups) was one of a series of protests organised by pro-government groups in reaction to a month-long insurgency. Some pro-government sectors accuse the French of being ambivalent in the Ivorian conflict and alleged that Ouattara was behind the insurgency, which started on 19 September with what government called an attempted coup. Ouattara fled to the French Embassy but his house was damaged by armed men. Some of Tuesday's demonstrators insisted on remaining outside the French military base despite being asked by the organisers to end the sit-in, according to Bro Grebe.