|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Chirac retaliates for the 9 killded soldiers French forces wiped out Ivory Coast's military aircraft in retaliation for the killing of nine of its soldiers stationed here, as anti-French feeling reach boiling point in the west African former French colony.
French President Jacques Chirac thereupon ordered the destruction of all Ivory Coast planes involved in ceasefire violations in the country, divided since a failed coup two years ago.
The French blew up two warplanes on the ground and later destroyed at least three army helicopters by later Saturday, a French army spokesman said.
Resentment against France boiled up in Abidjan, where youths chanting anti-French slogans looted and torched four French schools.
Thousands of young supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo were reported marching on Abidjan airport, where a company of French infantry was stationed.
An hour-long clash had earlier occurred at the airport between French and Ivorian troops.
Ivorian forces closed the airport on Saturday afternoon and evacuated staff, sealing off the perimeter and closing it to air traffic, airport sources said.
France has had troops stationed in Ivory Coast since last year after helping to mediate a peace agreement following the breakout of a civil war in 2002, but the implementation of the pact has been fitful and Ivory Coast has remained divided.
The attack by Russian-built Sukhoi fighter-bombers which dropped a 500 pound bomb was the most serious against French military personnel in operations since one in Lebanon in 1983 killing 58 personnel.
A French military spokesman ruled out the possibility of error by Ivory Coast aircrew.
France called upon the UN Security Council for support to modify the rules of engagement of UN and French peacekeepers currently in Ivory Coast.
Essentially these are allowed to use force only in legitimate self-defence. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said France had destroyed the Ivorian aircraft as an act of legitimate self-defence.
The Security Council condemned the attack on French forces and voiced support for French and UN forces in the country.
French forces late Saturday destroyed two Ivorian MI-24 attack helicopters and an MI-8 transport chopper, military staff said.
French military sources told AFP that in addition to the Sukhoi fighter-bombers that at a total of five helicopters were also targetted. This is just about all of the military aircraft the Ivorian government forces possess.
France also ordered 300 more troops to Ivory Coast to buttress its 4,000-member peacekeeping force.
It also scrambled three Mirage fighter jets from Chad to Libreville in Gabon. Skirmishes were reported Saturday between Ivorian government and rebel troops near Bouake, where a UN spokesman said artillery exchanges could be heard. Chirac called Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo after the attack "to warn him against any act liable to break the ceasefire" between the government and rebel New Forces holding the north of the country, presidency officials said. The slide toward renewed civil war intensified earlier in the week when government forces bombarded northern rebel positions. The attacks drew a sharp rebuke from the African Union, which accused the government of going back on agreements to work for national reconciliation. The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the attack on the French peace-keepers was "inadmissable," and warned Gbagbo he was responsible for the safety of all foreigners in the country, including the 14,000 French nationals. The future of the Ivory Coast's relationship with the EU depended on it, he said. In attacks apparently ordered by Gbagbo, government jets Thursday began pounding northern communities under the control of the New Forces since September 2002 when an insurrection erupted in the wake of a failed military coup. The attacks were the most serious ceasefire violation since the French-brokered Marcoussis agreement in January last year that was intended to bring the rebel leaders into a unity government. The French Unicorn force along with 6,000 United Nations peacekeepers polices a "confidence zone" set up to separate the warring parties while political dialogue takes place. The New Forces warned they would launch an assault if government forces cross into the UN-controlled zone. The head of the New Forces, Guillaume Soro, described the air raids as a "coup d'etat" and accused Gbagbo of pushing the country back towards war to serve his own political interests. |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
