Four die as protesters storm UN base

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.

The deaths were the first reported in violent protests 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 dominated by Gbagbo loyalists. UN bases and vehicles have been attacked.

The four protesters were killed when demonstrators stormed a base used by Bangladeshi peacekeepers at Guiglo.

A UN spokeswoman, Margherita Amodeo, said: “The Guiglo camp was stormed at 4 am. They were repelled by Bangladeshi soldiers ... I know there are four from among the attackers (who were killed).”

UN forces have now evacuated from the towns of Guiglo and Duekoue.

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

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

France’s chief of defence, General Henri Bentegat, said he believed the time had come for the international community to impose sanctions to back the peace process.

France has around 4,000 troops in the country enforcing a fragile peace alongside more than 7,000 UN troops and police.

Three hundred people demonstrated outside the UN headquarters in Abidjan, which was besieged by hundreds of government supporters the day before.

The UN and international mediators are struggling to implement a long-delayed peace plan.

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. It has not applied them.

The protests erupted after an international group overseeing the peace process recommended 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.