Four killed as protesters storm Ivory Coast UN base

ABIDJAN - Four pro-government protesters were killed in western Ivory Coast yesterday when UN peacekeepers opened fire to repel an attack on their base in a third day of anti-UN riots, Ivorian and UN officials said.

The deaths were the first reported in violent protests this week by supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo who are demanding that UN and French peacekeepers withdraw from the West African country, which was divided in two by a 2002 civil war.

Government supporters began the protests this week to oppose a call by foreign mediators to end the mandate of the national parliament, which is dominated by Gbagbo loyalists. UN bases and vehicles have been attacked by hundreds of protesters.

The four protesters were killed when demonstrators stormed a base used by Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers at Guiglo in the west of the world's top cocoa producer, which is split between a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.

"The Guiglo camp was stormed at about 4 a.m. this morning. They were repelled by Bangladeshi soldiers ... I know there are four from among the attackers (who were killed)," UN spokeswoman Margherita Amodeo said.

An Ivorian military commander, who also confirmed the deaths but asked not to be named, said UN peacekeepers had since evacuated from the western towns of Guiglo and Duekoue.

A French army spokesman said the four protesters who were killed had tried to take weapons and had climbed on to armored vehicles. He said 12 more demonstrators had been injured.

In the commercial capital Abidjan, pro-government youths blocked streets and took over state television studios from where they broadcast demands for UN and French peacekeeping troops to leave.

An adviser to President Gbagbo said Nigerian President and African Union chairman Olusegun Obasanjo, who has helped mediate Ivory Coast's peace process, would arrive in the country today.

CALL FOR SANCTIONS

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Gbagbo's government to halt what he called "orchestrated violence directed against the United Nations".

France's chief of defence staff said on Wednesday he believed the time had come for the international community to impose sanctions to back the peace process.

"The (U.N.) Security Council has warned for a long time that sanctions are needed," General Henri Bentegeat told Europe 1 radio.

He said world leaders were losing patience with Ivory Coast, where France has around 4,000 troops enforcing a fragile peace alongside more than 7,000 UN troops and police.

In Abidjan yesterday, pro-Gbagbo youths were stopping and searching cars at roadblocks thrown across streets. There was no public transport in many parts of the city.

Around 300 protesters returned on yesterday to demonstrate outside UN mission headquarters in Abidjan, which was besieged by hundreds of government supporters on Tuesday.

The United Nations and international mediators are struggling to implement a long-delayed peace plan that now requires a presidential election to be held by the end of October following a process of disarmament.

The UN Security Council voted for targeted sanctions a year ago, including a travel ban or a freeze on assets, against individuals blocking the peace process. But it has not applied them despite renewing them last December.

In a blow to the UN-backed efforts, Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front party (FPI) said on Tuesday it was pulling out of the peace process.

The anti-UN protests in Abidjan and other cities erupted after an international working group charged with overseeing the peace process recommended on Sunday that the Ivorian parliament, whose mandate expired last month, should not be reconvened.

Gbagbo loyalists, who dominate the parliament, accused international mediators and the UN of overstepping their authority and trying to override sovereign institutions.

- REUTERS