West African leaders hold emergency meeting on Ivory Coast

West African leaders were huddling in Nigeria on Friday over how best to defuse an escalating crisis in Ivory Coast, where President Laurent Gbagbo refuses to concede power.

The 15-member Economic Community of West African States has already urged Gbagbo to acknowledge the results of a presidential election and hand over power to his challenger, Alassane Ouattara.

But Gbagbo continues to defy international criticism of his legitimacy and many in the region fear the political turmoil could spark another civil war in Ivory Coast.

The emergency Economic Community meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, is another regional attempt to find a solution. Some Africa analysts believe the organization's members are discussing all options on the table, including a military one.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said earlier this week that the United States and other countries were discussing with African nations the possibility of augmenting the existing U.N. force in Ivory Coast.

However, he said it was unclear what a U.S. contribution could look like, with forces of logistical support or something more indirect among the options.

The African Union has suspended Ivory Coast from the organization "until such a time the democratically elected president effectively assumes state power." The World Bank has halted lending and disbursing funds to Ivory Coast and has closed its office in the country.

Global leaders have sent a clear message to Gbagbo: Recognize the people's will and step down. They have also harshly condemned purported human rights abuses committed by Gbagbo's backers.

Kyung-wha Kang, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, has said that between December 16 and Tuesday, human rights officers had "substantiated allegations of 173 killings, 90 instances of torture and ill treatment, 471 arrests and detentions and 24 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances." She added that the actual numbers may be much higher.
Ivory Coast election crisis

"Unfortunately, it has been impossible to investigate all the allegations of serious human rights violations, including reports of mass graves, due to restrictions on movement by U.N. personnel," she said. "Indeed, the special representative of the secretary-general was stopped at gunpoint as he sought to verify such allegations."

While acknowledging "the situation is very, very difficult to live" in, Charles Ble Goude -- the nation's youth minister under Gbagbo -- said the government is "dealing with that."

He said Thursday that "the U.N. report is not correct," especially in its fingering fellow Gbagbo backers as being to blame for the recent violence.

Instead, he accused Ouattara's supporters of using weapons at what had been billed as peaceful rallies to attack soldiers. He also said Ouattara's backers burned a building that housed government troops.

"The consequences of that are, they are no more a peaceful opposition," said Goude.

The violence is fallout of the November 28 presidential runoff, after which the country's Independent Electoral Commission named Ouattara the winner. But its Constitutional Council invalidated those results and declared that Gbagbo won.

Goude said that he and others in Gbagbo's circle couldn't accept the electoral commission picking Ouattara, noting that it announced its decision in a hotel that was also being used as Ouattara's headquarters. While stressing a desire for talks on the issue, he said there is no intention for Gbagbo to forfeit a seat that he believes is rightfully his.

"Why do you want someone who won an election to step down?" Goude said. "The president has been elected."

The international community also has largely blamed Gbagbo's backers for inciting various abuses, which Kang said are reminiscent of violence that plagued the Ivory Coast in 2004.

"The political stalemate has been characterized by the use of excessive force by the supporters of ... Gbagbo to repress public gatherings and marches; harassment and intimidation; arbitrary arrest and detention; torture; disappearances; and extrajudicial killings," Kang said Thursday at a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland devoted to the political crisis in the Ivory Coast.

Kang said the U.N. Operation in Cote d'Ivoire, as the agency is known, using the nation's French name, is receiving 300 calls a day on a 24-hour line for reporting human rights abuses.

She called for removing restrictions imposed by "security forces and youth groups loyal to Mr. Gbagbo," claiming they had hindered the ability of the United Nations to deliver services and humanitarian aid.

"The deteriorating conditions and general insecurity have severely hampered economic and social activities for many Ivorians, especially the poorest, resulting in the serious infringement of economic and social rights," she said.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/12/24/ivory.coast.conflict/