Ivory Coast: African Union Suspension
By REUTERS
Published: December 9, 2010
The African Union suspended Ivory Coast on Thursday until President Laurent Gbagbo hands over power to Alassane Ouattara. According to provisional results, Mr. Ouattara won the election last month. The United States said it would consider sanctions against Mr. Gbagbo, his family and supporters if he did not step down.
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US threatens sanctions against Ivory Coast
SLIDESHOW
United Nations soldiers from Senegal patrol in the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. The U.N. Security Council is ready to take targeted measures against people who try to upset the peace process or violate human rights in Ivory Coast. The international body is also calling on all sides to respect the electoral victory of opposition presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) (Thibault Camus - AP)
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
The Associated PressThursday, December 9, 2010; 5:19 PM
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- The United States warned Laurent Gbagbo that he faces punitive sanctions if he continues to refuse to step down following a disputed election that the United Nations says were won by his opponent.
The African Union, meanwhile, suspended Ivory Coast's membership on Thursday in the latest sign of growing pressure against the country's former president.
Gbagbo has not spoken publicly since his rushed inauguration over the weekend, after he rejected the results released by his country's electoral commission which showed that the opposition leader Alassane Ouattara had won by a nearly 10-point margin. Those results were certified by the United Nations who declared that Ouattara had won by "an irrefutable margin."
The country has been on a knife's edge ever since the results were released last week. The international community including the United States, the European Union, former colonizer France, the African Union and the United Nations have spoken in one voice telling Gbagbo to step aside.
Since then Gbagbo has retreated further and further, encircling himself with hard-liners and going so far as to refuse a telephone call from President Barack Obama.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that Obama warned Gbagbo of "consequences" if he does not step aside and peacefully transfer power to his successor.
The urbane 65-year-old who spent years as an expatriate in France is likely to face a travel ban that would target not only him but also his family, including his children and may prevent him from leaving the country. Among the only countries in Europe that has not spoken out against Gbagbo is Russia, prompting one senior diplomat to joke that Gbagbo may need to take his summer vacation in Moscow.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said unspecified sanctions could be applied to Gbagbo and to others "if he makes the wrong choice."
Ivory Coast is proving to be a test case for democracy in Africa because it is the only place where the U.N. was invited by the country itself to supervise the vote and certify the verdict following a 2005 peace accord. That puts this contested election in a different category than recent ones in Kenya and Zimbabwe, where the international community was unable to force sitting presidents to hand over power. In both of those instances, the candidate considered by most observers to be the race's legitimate winner were forced to accept power-sharing arrangements with the incumbent.
Before declaring Ouattara the winner, the U.N. reviewed results from all 20,000 polling stations. U.N. Special Representative Choi Young-jin said the results were clear-cut and gave Ouattara a decisive victory.
On Thursday, he arrived at the Golf Hotel and met behind closed doors with Ouattara, who has been forced to use the hotel as his headquarters because Gbagbo is still occupying the presidential palace.
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