Pro-Gbagbo youths resume protests against French peacekeepers

Wielding machetes, hurling stones, firing marbles with catapults and slinging burning tyres, young supporters of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo have resumed their protests against the continued presence of French peacekeeping troops in the divided country. On Tuesday, about 300 members the militia-style youth movement known as the Young Patriots staged a third day of rowdy demonstrations outside the main French military base in Abidjan, ignoring a plea by Gbagbo to stop the violence. The resumption of Young Patriot protests outside the base near Abidjan airport after a gap of three months, comes as political tensions are rising and Cote d'Ivoire's fragile peace process once more appears to be running into quicksand. The latest deal between Gbagbo, the parliamentary opposition parties and rebels occupying the north of the country, signed in the Ghanaian capital Accra on July 30, is coming unstuck. The government has failed to legislate promised political reforms and it is now clear that the rebels will not begin to disarm on 15 October as planned. As in previous times of crisis since a French-brokered peace agreement was signed in January 2003, the 4,000 French troops, stationed alongside 6,000 UN peacekeepers in the world's largest cocoa producer, are coming under attack from Gbagbo supporters. So too are people from northern Cote d'Ivoire and immigrants from other West African countries suspected of sympathising with the rebels. They were the main target of a particularly brutal raid by police and soldiers on Adjame market in Abidjan on 29 September. It provoked a protest from the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI), which said it was "seriously worried" that human rights violations appeared to have taken place. Many traders were beaten up and had their goods confiscated as the security forces raided the market on the grounds of checking for unlicensed traders and diplomatic sources said some women were raped. Then on Monday the French force said its troops were involved in a clash with machete-wielding youths at the small town of Sikensi, 80 km north of Abidjan, injuring one of them with a rubber bullet fired in self-defence. For the past two weeks, the government's feared Mi-24 helicopter gunships have been making frequent low-level flights over Abidjan, raising fears of renewed violence among the population as a whole, and military road blocks have been stepped up. The unease of the large French expatriate community in the city has meanwhile increased following the murder of a French restaurant owner in the nearby beach resort of Grand Bassam on Sunday. The French consulate said he was shot dead in his own restaurant after being badly beaten up by intruders. Charles Ble Goude, the firebrand leader of the Young Patriots, who according to diplomats has close links with Gbagbo, organised the latest protest demonstrations outside the French base in Abidjan. The immediate focus of his attention this time was last month's arrest of 12 French soldiers accused of stealing money from a bank they were supposed to be guarding in the rebel-held city of Man. On Tuesday, witnesses said French soldiers responded to the Young Patriot protesting outside their Abidjan by firing tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. French military spokesman Henry Aussavy told IRIN that 15 of his men had been slightly injured in the fracas. The violence occurred despite a televised plea for calm by Gbagbo on Monday night. "To all those who want to organise protests in front of the (French base) and in front of the U.N., I am asking them to stay at home," he said. The President issued a further plea for calm at a meeting with his own military commanders and those of the French and UN peacekeeping forces on Tuesday. According to a transcript of the meeting made available to IRIN, Gbagbo said it was time to end the "wild rumours" which had been flying round, an apparent reference to recent talk of a possible coup. This has been partly whipped up by pro-Gbagbo newspapers, such as Note Voie, Le Temps and Le Courier which have recently carried frequent reports about alleged coup plots and assassination plans. Gbagbo put the blame for the latest flare-up on the approach of 15 October, the deadline for the start of disarmament under the terms of the Accra Three agreement. "I believe we shouldn't have a fixation around October 15," he said, according to the transcript of his meeting with the military chiefs. The last round of international peace talks in the Ghanaian capital Accra in July set the mid-October deadline for both rebels and militias to start handing over their weapons and also called on Gbagbo's ruling party to push through long-delayed political reforms, aimed at paving the way for disarmament. The reforms are aimed at giving four million immigrants to Cote d'Ivoire from other West African countries and their descendents greater rights to own land, take Ivorian nationality and run for the presidency. They are also seen as a precursor to securing free and fair elections, scheduled for a year's time. But a special session of parliament closed without passing any of them last week. Parliament reopens on Wednesday, but there are no expectations that it will pass the legal reform package in time for disarmament to kick off on 15 October. Nobody appears to have any clear idea of what will happen next, but the demonstrations of the last three days are further evidence that political tempers are rising. Several diplomats and political commentators described this week's demonstrations as a show of force by Gbagbo and his supporters. "All this muscle flexing is just to test the waters. The real troubles are ahead," said one analyst who used to work as an advisor to Gbagbo. One West African diplomat working for the United Nations in Dakar agreed. "We all know where it is coming from," he said. But the diplomat added that what was more worrying than the recent violence was the fact that Cote d'Ivoire appeared to be "on a one-way street to nowhere."