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French fire disperse ivory coast marchers { November 8 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=617292§ion=news http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=617292§ion=news French fire to disperse Ivory Coast marchers Mon 8 November, 2004 14:08 By Media Coulibaly and Silvia Aloisi ABIDJAN (Reuters) - French troops have fired into the air to disperse protesters gathering to protect President Laurent Gbagbo, as unrest swept Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan after weekend clashes between French and Ivorian forces. Ivory Coast's army chief of staff General Mathias Doue was meeting French troops at an Abidjan hotel, witnesses said. State media said they were in talks to end the crisis in the world's top cocoa grower and would make a joint declaration shortly. Protesters threatened to form a "human shield" round Gbagbo's home in a plush residential district in case French soldiers, who have taken over the nearby Hotel Ivoire complex, moved towards the residence. Gbagbo appealed on Sunday for an end to the anti-French mob violence which erupted after France destroyed most of the former French colony's small air force, in retaliation for the killing of nine French peacekeepers. "They are trying to stage a coup d'etat against Ivory Coast. We are opposed. We are all going to the head of state's residence to form a barricade," said a demonstrator at the hotel called Thierry. "We are demonstrating with our bare hands." State television showed pictures of bleeding protesters, whom it said had been wounded near the hotel. It showed one woman who appeared to have a bullet wound in her right arm. France deployed troops on the streets of Abidjan on Sunday, took control of the airport and flew in reinforcements to contain a backlash of looting and rioting in major towns across Ivory Coast which supplies 45 percent of the world's cocoa. Nearly 2,000 foreign nationals were sheltering in French and United Nations bases in Abidjan, many plucked to safety by French helicopters as machete-wielding mobs looted their homes. A Gbagbo aide said France should withdraw its armoured vehicles from Abidjan to calm the situation. French helicopters clattered overhead and there was sporadic shooting. Loud thuds appeared to be coming from a central district of the sprawling city, across a lagoon from the French-controlled hotel. MORE TROOPS A truck bristling with so-called "Young Patriots" could be seen racing to the scene where French armoured vehicles were parked in front of the hotel, surrounded by barbed wire. A French military source told Reuters that French troops might later secure Gbagbo's residence. French President Jacques Chirac said in a speech that France was Ivory Coast's ally and urged national reconciliation. No evacuation of French citizens was planned, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Monday, although she said the situation was "extremely fragile". Ivorian officials initially maintained they had no evidence their military had struck the French peacekeepers in an air raid on the rebel-held town of Bouake on Saturday, the first stage of an offensive to oust the insurgents who control the north. But on Sunday the army acknowledged responsibility. It said it had not meant to target the French and appealed for calm. On Chirac's orders, the French military retaliated using heavy weapons and air strikes from its own helicopters to destroy two Ivorian Sukhoi 25 fighters and five helicopters in Abidjan and the capital Yamoussoukro. Groups of Ivorian militants then attacked foreigners and foreign-owned businesses in Abidjan, prompting French troops to stage dramatic airborne rescues to evacuate residents under siege in their apartment blocks. The U.N. Security Council, the African Union and the European Union issued urgent appeals for an end to the violence, which also threatens stability in West Africa where other states have been plagued by conflicts in the past decade or so. A French army spokesman in Senegal said more troops left the capital Dakar for Ivory Coast on Monday. A large military transport plane was seen taking off earlier.

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