[ 2011-04-13 ]

Ivory Coast: 'Gbagbo weapons cache' uncovered
French troops have discovered several large arms
caches in Ivory Coast that they said would have
been used by former Ivorian leader Laurent
Gbagbo.

The weapons, stored at villas in the main city of
Abidjan, included mortars, cannons and rockets.

Mr Gbagbo is reportedly being held under house
arrest in Abidjan.

French forces led an assault against him on Monday
to force him from power. He had refused to accept
defeat in a November election.

His rival in last year's election, Alassane
Ouattara, who was internationally recognised as
winning the poll, has now taken power.

During the stand-off between Mr Gbagbo and Mr
Ouattara about 1,500 people were killed and a
million forced from their homes.

The BBC's Mark Doyle says the French army took
journalists to three innocent-looking villas in
central Abidjan where they had discovered the
weapons.

He says there were enough arms there to launch a
new war, more evidence that the dispute over last
year's polls were leading the country into chaos.

The French troops documented the arms before
handing them over to African UN soldiers for safe
disposal.

Earlier, five generals who had remained loyal to
Mr Gbagbo pledged allegiance to Mr Ouattara,
though there are reports that some soldiers and
militiamen have refused to surrender.

Risk of reprisals

US President Barack Obama has called Mr Ouattara
to congratulate him and offer support as Ivory
Coast tries to recover from the recent conflict.

Mr Ouattara's government said Mr Gbagbo had been
placed under house arrest, without saying where,
AFP news agency reported.

"Pending the opening of a judicial inquiry, Mr
Laurent Gbagbo and some of his companions have
been placed under house arrest," said Justice
Minister Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio.

There had been confusion about Mr Gbagbo's
whereabouts, with the UN retracting an earlier
claim that he had been moved out of Abidjan.

Immediately after his arrest Mr Gbagbo had been
taken with his wife Simone to Mr Ouattara's
headquarters at Abidjan's Golf Hotel.

Mr Ouattara has promised that Mr Gbagbo will not
be harmed, but rather "treated with dignity".

He has appealed for calm, and announced that a
truth and reconciliation commission will be set up
to "shed light on all the massacres, crimes, and
all cases of human rights violation".

Both sides have been accused of atrocities.

Troops loyal to Mr Ouattara also began patrolling
the streets of the southern city on Tuesday in an
attempt to restore order. Despite their presence,
sporadic gun and mortar fire was heard.

International human rights group Amnesty
International warned that those seen as supporters
of Mr Gbagbo were at risk of violent reprisals,
despite Mr Ouattara appeals.

"Today in Abidjan, armed men, some wearing
military uniforms, have been conducting
house-to-house searches in neighbourhoods where
real or perceived supporters of Laurent Gbagbo are
living," the group said.

It quoted one witness saying he had seen a
policeman belonging to Mr Gbagbo's ethnic group
being dragged from his house and shot at point
blank range.

Until a 2002 rebellion split the country in two,
Ivory Coast - the world's largest cocoa producer -
was the most developed economy in West Africa.

Source - BBC

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