Gunmen block suspected Ivory Coast mass grave

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Masked gunmen with rocket launchers are blocking access to what officials believe may be a mass grave site in Ivory Coast, the United Nations said, as concerns grow that the West African nation that suffered a 2002-2003 civil war could return to conflict.

The UN reported that heavily armed forces allied with Laurent Gbagbo and joined by masked men, were preventing people from getting to the village of N'Dotre, where the global body said "allegations point to the existence of a mass grave."

The UN did not elaborate on the possible victims, though it has expressed concerns about hundreds of arrests, and dozens of cases of torture and disappearance during the political turmoil since the presidential runoff vote was held nearly a month ago.

"As the violence goes on the number of dead, wounded and missing persons is increasing rapidly," UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Alain Toussaint, an adviser for Gbagbo, has said that he didn't believe soldiers or people close to Gbagbo would carry out the acts of violence that have been reported.

Gbagbo has refused to step down from the presidency despite international calls for his ouster from the U.N., U.S., former colonizer France, the European Union and the African Union. The international community recognizes Alassane Ouattara as the winner, though Gbagbo maintains control of the national military.

Ouattara on Friday condemned the violence in a speech at the Golf Hotel, where he has been holed up since the election, after journalists were helicoptered in by the UN to cover it.

"Serious human rights violations have been recorded all over," he said. "During the curfew, people were kidnapped and killed by Republican Guards and military police accompanied by mercenaries and foreign militiamen."

"I will do everything so that these atrocities don't happen again," he said, specifying that he has asked the International Criminal Court to send a team to investigate in the coming days.

Ouattara also called on the army and the UN to protect civilians.

West African leaders on Friday threatened to use "legitimate force" to remove Gbagbo if he does not give up power peacefully, said James Gbeho, president of the regional bloc ECOWAS - the Economic Community of West African States - following a six-hour emergency summit in Abuja, Nigeria, on Ivory Coast.

Gbeho said ECOWAS was making "an ultimate gesture to Mr. Gbagbo to urge him to make a peaceful exit," and that the group would dispatch a high level delegation to Ivory Coast.

At least 173 deaths have been confirmed in violence over the vote, and the UN is warning the number could be greater since it has been unable to investigate all the allegations. Even the top UN envoy in the country was stopped at gunpoint while trying to look into reports of human rights abuses, the UN deputy human rights commissioner in Geneva said on Thursday.

"Many of the abducted remain missing, and the security forces are refusing to reveal their whereabouts," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "Several witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch had come across bodies with bullet wounds of those arrested or abducted, leading to strong fears of extra-judicial executions."

Gbagbo claimed victory in the presidential election only after his allies threw out half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north, a move that infuriated residents there who have long felt that they are treated as foreigners in their own country by southerners.

-AP