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French embassy attacked in Ivory Coast
( 2003-01-28 09:36 ) (7 )

Mobs attacked France's embassy and army base, looted stores and beat foreigners Sunday as Ivory Coast's key city erupted in anger over a French-brokered peace deal that government supporters said yielded too much to rebels.

Protesters put up roadblocks and burned tires throughout the West African city of 3 million, attacking the few foreigners who ventured out.

Rampaging crowds looted whatever French institutions they could break into and ransacked the city's main shopping center and a radio station.

In Paris, where the draft peace accord was reached Friday, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo appealed for order.

"I ask all Ivorians to stay calm, to go back to their homes and wait for me to come home and address them," Gbagbo said in a message aimed at his rioting supporters. The Ivorian leader insisted he was "pleased" at the accord.

"There are two ways to end a conflict. Either you win the war" or submit to negotiation and compromise, Gbagbo told a Paris news conference. "I did not win the war."

Amid the attacks, a French Defense Ministry official said France would "reinforce" its military presence -- already 2,500 strong -- but said details still were being worked out.

The furious protests erupted late Saturday and early Sunday as news of the peace deal reached the heavily pro-government commercial capital, Abidjan. The wide-ranging plan, aimed at ending the four-month insurgency, envisions a power-sharing deal between the government and rebels.

Government supporters surged toward the French Embassy, the main French military base and other French centers, blaming the French for results of the two weeks of peace talks outside Paris.

"France has disappointed us. They gave power to people who took up arms against Ivory Coast. They have opened Pandora's box," said Ble Goude, an influential youth leader who has organized weeks of pro-government demonstrations that sometimes turned violent.

Explosions sounded from near the French Embassy during the morning, as French forces fired tear gas to drive back the thousands of protesters. A pillar of white smoke rose over the area.

By mid-afternoon, the land around the compound was blackened by fire. Men wearing civilian clothes and armed with machine guns stood guard on the roof.

"We're trying to make sure our French citizens are secure," an embassy worker inside the compound said, saying workers were otherwise too busy to talk.

Forces at the French military base fired tear gas and water cannon to drive back what French military spokesman Lt. Col. Ange-Antoine Leccia said were rock-throwing protesters.

In Paris, a French Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said crowds had "pillaged" a French school and Abidjan's French cultural center.

Embassies urged their nationals to stay inside. There were no immediate firm reports of casualties, although some rioters claimed the French defense of the embassy had injured two protesters.

The peace deal triggered vastly different responses in Bouake, the northern rebel stronghold.

Supporters banged drums and danced in the streets, celebrating the power-sharing deal for a transition government to lead Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, until elections in 2005.

Sharing power is a key part of the accord to end the first-ever war in once-stable Ivory Coast, which broke out Sept. 19 with a failed coup attempt against Gbagbo. Rebels quickly seized the northern half of the country and in November, took parts of the coffee- and cocoa-rich west. Rebels accuse Gbagbo of fanning ethnic tensions.

Some delegates to the Paris peace talks say the deal awards the northern-based rebels control of the Interior and Defense ministries -- giving them say over the army and the heavily pro-government paramilitary police.

Top officials have refused to confirm or deny that split, but that appeared to be the element that ignited the pro-government riots.

By early morning Sunday, thousands --many waving sticks and rocks -- had filled the streets of Abidjan, surging down highways and closing them to traffic.

The unrest raised doubts over the success of the peace plan -- especially because it apparently lacks support of Ivory Coast's powerful security forces, which allowed the mobs to break a strict 9 p.m. curfew.

Protesters burned tires, and scattered gunfire rang out in the city during the night. Others looted French institutions and pillaged the city's main shopping center and a radio station.

The United States welcomed the accord, but hundreds gathered in a peaceful rally outside the U.S. Embassy, urging Washington to come out against the peace deal. "Bush Jr. Save Us," said the slogan on one protester's sign.