Demonstrations against French troops continue

Several hundred pro-government youths staged a protest demonstration outside the French military base in Abidjan on Tuesday for the second day running, while President Laurent Gbagbo expressed sympathy with their demands for a resumption of war against rebels occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire. However, Gbagbo over-ruled the demonstrators'demands that 4,000 French peacekeeping troops patrolling a buffer zone between the government and rebel-held zones of the country be withdrawn. "I understand how fed up these young people are," he told the French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview published on Tuesday. "But their problem is not the presence of French troops. The problem is the French are between them and the rebels. So they want to finish the war and be done with it." But on a more restrained note, Gbagbo added: "I asked the (French) troops of Operation Unicorn to be there and I haven't changed my mind." Ivorian police dispersed the protestors outside the French base next to Abidjan airport with tear gas, but the demonstrators promised to attack other French interests in the evening if French troops did not withdraw from the buffer zone that keeps the government forces and rebels apart. Earlier in the day, French soldiers guarding the base also used tear gas to push back the protestors, who belonged to militia-style youth groups known as "Young Patriots." These hardline youth groups, which undergo military-style training, enjoy the tacit support of the government and their leaders are protected by police and army bodyguards. Gbagbo told Le Figaro: "I support these young patriots. A national consciousness is being born." Tension in Cote d'Ivoire has risen since Sunday, when French peacekeepers clashed with a contingent of Ivorian government soldiers which was escorting a group of 200 Young Patriots as they tried to march through the demilitarised buffer zone towards the rebel capital Bouake. A few hours later, a group of unidentified soldiers interrupted state television programmes to demand the withdrawal of French soldiers from the frontline and the dismissal of three top military commanders, including General Mathias Doue, the military chief of staff so that the civil war could resume. Gbagbo, did not express support for Doue in his interview with Le Figaro. Neither did he condemn the soldiers who demanded Doue's removal within 48 hours. However, the president stressed that it was up to him alone to appoint and dismiss senior military officers. The UN-led monitoring committee set up to oversee the implementation of a peace agreement signed between Gbagbo and the rebels last January, lamented that the weekend clash had undermined a month of frantic diplomacy to try and put Cote d'Ivoire's crumbling peace process back on track. It issued a statement expressing "deep bitterness" that these efforts "risked being wiped out by the very unfortunate attempt to violate the ceasefire line." The rebels withdrew from a broad-based government of national reconciliation on 23 September, citing lack of progress in implementing the French-brokered peace agreement. They accused Gbagbo of failing to delegate real power to their nominees in the cabinet of national unity. The president has never disguised his belief that the Linas Marcoussis peace accord gave too much away to the rebels. He reiterated to Le Figaro that it was "a bad solution." Gbagbo added: "It was the only remedy proposed to me and I take it like I did cod liver oil when I was a little boy, with a grimace."