Ivory Coast in political violence

Supporters of Alassane Ouattara, who has claimed to have won last month's presidential election, burn tires in a street in Abidjan on December 16. Supporters of would-be Ivory Coast president Ouattara urged world powers Wednesday to use military force to oust defiant strongman Laurent Gbagbo.
The United States said it was in talks with Ivory Coast's neighbours about mustering UN reinforcements, and the World Bank said it had agreed with these West African capitals to halt loans to the regime.
The new pressure on Gbagbo came after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Ivory Coast faces "a real risk of a return to civil war" unless Gbagbo stands down and hands power to his rival Alassane Ouattara.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick said in Paris that he had agreed with the leaders of Ivory Coast's partners in the West African Economic and Monetary union that Abidjan be cut off from international funding.
"They are also convening a meeting of ministers this week to affirm and strengthen this approach," he said of the West Africans, after holding talks with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"We are in discussions with other regional countries to see if there are ways in which we can reinforce the UN peacekeeping force," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington.
Crowley said Washington was in talks with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and a diplomat in Abidjan confirmed a "military option" would be at the table at the bloc's crisis summit on Friday.
Ouattara's camp has welcomed international support, but his would-be prime minister, former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, had a stark message.
"After all the international pressure and the sanctions which did not have any effect on Mr Gbagbo, it's obvious that only one solution remains, that of force," Soro told France's i-Tele.
"I call on the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, the African Union and ECOWAS to envisage using force," he declared.
Every day now brings new international action against Gbagbo. On Wednesday, the European Union confirmed that visa bans had gone into effect against him and 18 close associates.
"The EU recalls that the result of the presidential election, in favour of President Alassane Ouattara, can neither be submitted to any form of evaluation nor be questioned," top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton said.
"On the contrary, it is important that transfer of power takes place without delay and without preconditions," she added.
The new measures reflect rising frustration at Gbagbo's refusal to step down in favour of his rival Ouattara, who also claims to have won last month's election and has been recognised as president by world powers.
The streets of Abidjan were lively, with traffic jams signalling the return to work for many after a month of crisis, but tensions remain high and former colonial power France urged its nationals to leave.
Many of the estimated 15,000 French expatriates have left for Christmas or to escape the mood of fear. Those who have not left should now depart "provisionally", French government spokesman Francois Baroin said.
Several other countries, including the United States, had already advised citizens to leave, and Nigeria said it was bringing out diplomats' families after a security incident at its embassy.
Gbagbo has deployed his armed forces to put down pro-Ouattara protests and to bottle up his adversary in the Golf Hotel, a luxury Abidjan resort protected by 800 UN peacekeeping troops.
"I am president of Ivory Coast. I thank the Ivorians who renewed their faith in me," Gbagbo declared late Tuesday, in a rare televised address.
The 65-year-old strongman accused the United Nations of "making war" on his people, and insisted French and UN peacekeepers would have to leave.
United Nations human rights and peacekeeping officials have accused Gbagbo's security forces of "massive human rights abuses" and are probing reports that he has hired Liberian mercenaries as death squads.
On Tuesday, Ban issued a plea on behalf of the troops in the United Nations 9,000-strong UNOCI peacekeeping mission, in particular those dug in around the Golf Hotel in Abidjan protecting Ouattara's besieged shadow government.
He warned the UN General Assembly that a "disruption of life-support supplies for the mission and the Golf Hotel will put our peacekeepers in a critical situation in the coming days."
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/212675/ivory-coast-ouattara-camp-urges-force-to-oust-gbagbo


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North Korea 'ready for sacred war' with the South

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playInvited dignitaries watched the live exercises along with the South Korean president
North Korea is ready for a "sacred war of justice" using a nuclear deterrent, its armed forces minister has said.
Kim Yong-chun accused South Korea of making preparations for war by holding live-fire exercises near the border.
The drills are one of the largest in South Korea's history, involving tanks, helicopters and fighter planes.
North Korea shelled a Southern island last month killing four people - the first time Northern shells had killed civilians since the 1950-53 war.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has promised immediate retaliation to any further Northern attack.
The BBC's John Sudworth says people on the Korean peninsula are used to fiery rhetoric from Pyongyang, but as the tension escalates, the danger is that one side will feel forced to act on its threats.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis


John Sudworth
BBC NewsThere is no doubt that the verbal ante is being upped by both sides here at the moment.
I don't think we should read too much into it. It's the sort of thing we've heard from North Korea before. It's threatened to use its nuclear deterrent in the past.
But I think there will be people who worry that what's happening is that as each side lays down this conditional threat, a line is being drawn in the sand and it's tempting the other side to cross over it.
And the worry is that if you keep talking tough, both North and South Korea, eventually you may be forced to act on it.

'Military provocation'
The South Korean army acknowledged that the drill was aimed to display its firepower.
Although the South has conducted 47 military drills this year, this is the largest winter live-fire exercise ever conducted on land.
The North earlier branded Seoul's exercises "warmongering" but until now had not threatened the South with any retaliation.
During a meeting in the North Korean capital, Mr Kim, quoted by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency, accused the South of preparing for a new Korean War.
"The South Korean puppet forces perpetrated such grave military provocation as renewing their shelling against the DPRK [North Korea] during their recent exercises for a war of aggression in the West Sea [Yellow Sea] of Korea," he said.
"This indicates that the enemy's scenario for aggression aimed at the start of another Korean War, has reached the phase of its implementation."
"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK are getting fully prepared to launch a sacred war of justice of Korean style based on the nuclear deterrent at anytime necessary to cope with the enemies' actions deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war," he added.
Despite possessing enough plutonium to create a bomb, the North is not thought to have succeeded in building a nuclear weapon.
Both China and Russia have called on the South to defuse tensions and US officials too are privately expressing their concern about Seoul's new, more aggressive stance.
South Korea and the US had already been conducting large-scale military exercises, following the apparent torpedoing of a South Korean warship by the North on 26 March, which killed 46 south Korean sailors.
Efforts to redirect the Korean issue back to the negotiating table have been unsuccessful.
China and the North say it is time to return to the six-nation talks about North Korea's nuclear programmes.
But the US, South Korea and Japan have said they will not return to such talks, which have previously involved rewards for the North if it cuts back on nuclear development.
North Korea walked out of the six-party talks in April 2009 and expelled UN nuclear inspectors from the country.

Are you in the region? What do you think the impact of the South Korean military drills will be? You can send us your views and experiences using the form below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12067735

Aung San Suu Kyi "A dialogue with the recently released Burmese dissident about democracy, conflict, and the need for reconciliation."

News special Last Modified: 22 Dec 2010 14:00 GMT
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Aung San Suu Kyi, the recently released Burmese dissident, has become an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression and human rights violations in Myanmar.
The 65-year-old has spent most of the last 20 years in some form of detention because of her efforts to bring democracy to military-ruled Burma.
In 1991, one year after her party, the National League for Democracy, won an overwhelming victory in an election the junta later nullified, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Now she talks to Al Jazeera about the country's future, the need for change, and why she believes that national reconciliation is the road Myanmar has to take to get the country out of the present state of economic stagnation and political unfreedom.
She speaks about democracy, development, a strong civil society, and the humanitarian situation in Myanmar - and how change and progress could be achieved.
To put the challenges facing Myanmar into global context we are joined by a distinguished panel of experts:
Helping us facilitate the dialogue is Maung Zarni, a Burmese dissident and an academic research fellow at the London School of Economis. His first-hand knowledge of Burma allows him to share his insights of armed conflicts, resistance, and the Burmese military.
Mary Kaldor is professor and co-director of Gobal Governance. She has written extensively on global civil society, how ordinary people organise to change the way their countries and global institutions are run.
Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political commentator and regular colomnist for the UK newspaper The Guardian. He is professor of European studies at Oxford University. His main interest is civil resistance and the role of Europe and the old West in an increasingly western world. In 2000, Aung San Suu Kyi invited Professor Garton Ash to Burma to speak to members of her party, the National League for Democracy, about transitions to democracies.