[ 2011-04-17 ]

Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone at the Hotel du Golf in Abidjan. Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces captured him five months after his election defeat

Embassy tunnel led to Gbagbo's capture
French forces blew up a wall blocking a secret
“getaway” tunnel from the Ivory Coast’s
presidential residence in Abidjan to the French
embassy. This enabled government forces to storm
the villa and seize Laurent Gbagbo, the former
president, according to Jacques Vergès, his
lawyer.

Vergès said the tunnel to the embassy had been
dug by Gbagbo’s predecessor, Félix
Houphouët-Boigny. Gbagbo had ordered it to be
walled up.

Vergès has been nicknamed “devil’s
advocate” for defending Carlos the Jackal, the
Venezuelan terrorist, Slobodan Milosevic, the
former Serbian leader, and Klaus Barbie, the
Gestapo officer. He accused France of going beyond
the limits imposed by the United Nations security
council in arresting Gbagbo, 65, who had refused
to acknowledge defeat in last November’s
presidential election.

French and United Nations forces bombed the
residence for two days before launching a raid to
capture Gbagbo last Monday. Thirty French armoured
cars and four helicopters opened the way for
forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the
president-elect, to reach the villa.

Vergès, 86, ridiculed France’s denial that any
French soldier had entered the presidential
residence. “It’s a joke. Gbagbo was arrested
by French troops. The French bombed his residence,
they blew up the wall in the tunnel so
Ouattara’s forces could get through,” he
said.

He added that Gbagbo’s second wife, Simone, had
been harshly treated. “It appears they tried to
assault her sexually,” he alleged. Photographs
show Simone, 61, once known as the “iron
lady”, shortly after her capture. Her clothes
were ripped and she stared forlornly, surrounded
by six captors, at least one of whom can be seen
pulling at her hair.

Vergès said the UN’s presence had been “a fig
leaf” to cover up for French actions. “France
has replaced a head of state it didn’t like with
one that it’s chosen,” he said.

Gérard Longuet, the French defence minister, said
French forces had respected the UN mandate:
“There was no French soldier in the presidential
residence.” The UN denied that international
forces had been involved in the arrest.

Vergès claimed that a war crimes trial would be
disastrous. “If they accuse him of massacres,
they’ll have to look at what happened in
Duékoué, too. The pro-Ouattara forces killed 800
people and hid victims in a well. Accusing Gbagbo
of massacres will backfire,” he said.

Thousands have been killed or wounded in the
postelection violence that has driven 1m people
from their homes in Abidjan alone.

Source - The Times(UK)

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