State radio urged protesters to form a "human
shield" to protect Gbagbo's home in a plush residential district in case French
troops, who have taken over a hotel complex nearby, tried to move toward the
residence.
"We are asking our patriots to go and join the others at the Hotel Ivoire ...
We are asking for French tanks to go back to their base," firebrand pro-Gbagbo
youth leader Charles Ble Goude said on state radio, shortly after the shooting.
Gbagbo, leader of the world's biggest cocoa producer, has appealed for an end
to the mob violence which erupted after France destroyed most of the country's
air force in retaliation for the killing of nine French peacekeepers.
The price of cocoa for December delivery rose sharply in London on Monday by
up to 11 percent because of the unrest.
France should withdraw its armored vehicles from Abidjan to ease tension, a
Gbagbo aide said. "The tension will ease when the French tanks are back with the
43rd (Marines regiment)," Toussaint Alain told Reuters in Paris by telephone
from Abidjan.
A truck bristling with so-called "Young Patriots" could be seen racing to the
scene where French armored vehicles were parked in front of the hotel,
surrounded by barbed wire.
A French military source told Reuters French troops might later secure
Gbagbo's residence. He said French and Ivorian military officials would make a
significant declaration in the afternoon.
"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 called Thierry. "We are demonstrating with our bare hands."
French President Jacques Chirac said in a speech that France was Ivory
Coast's ally and urged national reconciliation after anti-French crowd violence
erupted at the weekend.
A French army source said military vehicles were in the car park of the hotel
to "secure the zone." A French convoy of at least 30 vehicles was seen heading
toward the hotel earlier.
LOOTING AND RIOTING
France deployed troops on the streets of the main city Abidjan on Sunday,
took control of the airport and flew in hundreds of extra soldiers to contain
the backlash of looting and rioting in major towns across Ivory Coast.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Monday no evacuation of
French citizens was planned, although she said the situation remained "extremely
fragile."
Under heavy international pressure to end the unrest, Gbagbo -- whose country
is cut in half with rebels holding the north -- made his first public appearance
since the crisis began by going on state television on Sunday night.
"I am calling on people to remain calm, I am asking all the demonstrators to
return home. You must not give in to provocation," Gbagbo said after days of
fiery rhetoric from his supporters had whipped up anti-French anger.
French and United Nations (news
- web
sites) peacekeeping officials said Abidjan was generally calm on Sunday
night but groups of youths were still out looting in the affluent Cocody
district.
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. But on Sunday the army acknowledged responsibility; it said
it had not meant to target the French and appealed for calm.
On President Chirac's orders, the French military retaliated by blowing up
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 (news
- web
sites) 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.