West Africa: Burkina Faso Urges Gbagbo to Step Down

23 January 2003

Paris — IVORY COAST President Laurent Gbagbo must stand down and be called to account for "numerous atrocities committed by his backers" during the four-month conflict in Ivory Coast, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso said Tuesday. "In the long term, the only solution (to the Ivorian crisis) is for Gbagbo to go," Compaore told Le Parisien newspaper. His country was accused by the Ivorian authorities of being behind a rebellion in September that has left the world's leading cocoa producer split in two. "It was flawed elections (in October 2000 which brought Gbagbo to power) that led to the war, and only truly transparent elections can end it," he said, echoing a demand made by rebels who have controlled the northern half of Ivory Coast since they rose up against Gbagbo last year.

Both sides, together with Ivory Coast's political opposition, have been holding talks near Paris since last Wednesday aimed at finding a solution to the protracted conflict in the world's leading cocoa producer. "Gbagbo will end up like (former Yugoslav president) Milosevic, before the UN war crimes tribunal, where he must be held to account for the mass graves and numerous atrocities committed by his backers, and for the death squads that operate in his country," Compaore said. More than 100 bodies were found in a shallow grave in the frontline town of Monoko-Zohi last month by French soldiers monitoring a ceasefire between government troops and the main rebel force in the west African country.

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