On her eponymous program today, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell carried water for the Obama administration, warning viewers that not raising the debt ceiling would result in a “crisis” that would “stop the recovery.” Interviewing Politico's Roger Simon, the NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent argued that Republican opposition to empowering the federal government to borrow beyond its $14.3 trillion limit “could be a much larger crisis for America” than the looming government shutdown. [Video embedded after the page break.] Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy The question of whether to raise the debt ceiling is a legitimate one that reporters ought to ask and politicians ought to answer, not the other way around. Just for good measure, Simon sardonically remarked that watching Tea Party activists discuss economic issues “is a little like gawking at the car wreck.” A transcript of the relevant portions of the segment can be found below: MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports April 1, 2011 1:25 p.m. EDT ANDREA MITCHELL: Is there a megaphone for people like Michele Bachmann and others in the tea party who are shouting from the rooftops? Are they getting so much play that that can trump what the White House would like to be an agreement? ROGER SIMON, Politico chief political columnist: I don't think so. She gets a lot of publicity. She has a lot to say. She says it in an interesting way. Part of it is a little like gawking at the car wreck for the media but I think the Republican elders are going to convince the Tea Party people, “look we have two more important fights. One is on the debt limit which is already $14.3 trillion. President Obama wants to raise it. Two, reforming, which is usually a synonym for cutting, entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Why use up our powder now? Keep our powder dry for those two much more important fights.” MITCHELL: But, Roger, doesn't John Boehner also want to avoid a debt ceiling crisis, which could be a much larger crisis for America, for the economy, and stop the recovery? SIMON: He does, but he doesn't want to – I mean, it's Republican dogma that we want a small government, that small government releases the natural initiatives of people. It's hard for a Republican to vote for big government measures. MITCHELL: So you think the debt ceiling actually may be a vote where Boehner and the troops line up together? The Tea Party troops. SIMON: Yes, and it's much more important fight for the long term. MITCHELL: Roger Simon from Politico. Thank you very much. Great to see you. –Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Surgeons tell of relief as gunshot cases fall after ‘pacification’ of Rio’s favelas before the 2016 Olympics Pushing through the emergency department’s rubber-coated swing doors, Dr Luiz Sérgio Verbicaro threw open his arms as if welcoming guests to his new home. Before him a huddle of bored-looking medics made small talk around a table in a corner of the otherwise empty department. Outside, the ambulance bay was deserted. “It is good – and abnormal,” said Verbicaro, 60, a veteran surgeon and the director of the Getúlio Vargas hospital in northern Rio de Janeiro, until recently considered the Latin American champion in gunshot wound cases. “It is a relief.” Once upon a time, the flow of bloodied and disfigured gunshot victims made the Getúlio Vargas team a global reference point in bullet wound treatment – a ghoulish case study in the devastating impact of guns; a warzone hospital, without the war. More than 3,000 cases have been admitted in the last five years, an average of 50 a month. In 2007, the most violent year on record, 767 bullet-wound victims were brought in. Last year there were 583. “It reached a point where on a 12-hour weekend shift … we’d receive an average of five gunshot victims. That was our routine,” said Verbicaro, an Air Force reservist, whose hospital is flanked by what were until recently some of South America’s most violent slums. “Often we couldn’t even leave the hospital … because of shoot-outs.” But not any more. Doctors say a fledgling government drive to “pacify” Rio’s slums – by ridding every favela of heavily armed drugs gangs by the time the city hosts the 2016 Olympics – has sent the number of gunshot patients into freefall. In the wake of a massive military operation in November, in which security forces stormed and permanently occupied two vast favelas near the hospital, the number of bullet wound admissions at Getúlio Vargas has dropped almost 50%. In February there were 29 cases of what doctors call “PAFs” – firearm perforations. In the first 11 days of March there were just four. “Compared with how things were it is fantastic: what we used to get in one week we are now getting in one month,” said Dr Maria Cristina Lopes, head of the emergency department. “Victims were arriving around the clock. It wasn’t just at night or on weekends – it was every day. Since the occupation the drop has been very noticeable.” The calm came at a price. In November, when over 1,600 members of the security forces swept into the shantytowns, clashing with traffickers, 94 gunshot victims were admitted , among them a Reuters photographer and Rosângela Barbosa Alves, a 14-year-old student who was shot in the chest in a gunfight near her home. Lopes, who watched her team fight in vain to save Alves, said she had been the last child brought in with a gunshot injury. “There’s nothing worse than seeing a child die of a stray bullet,” she said. “Children are not born to die children.” Even now the department is not a place for the faint-hearted. Victims of motorway crashes are common and horrific gunshot injuries continue to appear, albeit with less frequency. Earlier, the surgeons treated a 32-year-old man who was rushed in by highway police with multiple gunshots to the head and chest. “Liver injury. Chest drain. Jaw fracture,” listed Verbicaro, leafing through the patient’s sky-blue medical chart. “He’s OK. It must have been a pistol.” But the changes are palpable. During the Guardian’s last visit to the hospital, in 2008, 12 victims had been carried into the so-called “Red Room”, including a three-year-old boy with shrapnel wounds, a policeman with burns to his face from a hand grenade and a 21-year-old man, shot in the head and bundled through the hospital’s guarded entrance in a blood-stained duvet. This time, Verbicaro toured the hospital showing off recent improvements – a new lick of paint, a new chapel for family members, a new tomography machine. Asked what she expected from the rest of her shift, Lopes replied: “Tranquillity.” The 46-year-old paediatrician even hoped that the hospital’s calmer routine might help her quit smoking. “I’ll get there,” she said, an almost full pack lying on her desk. “As the stress levels go down so will the quantity of cigarettes.” Brazil Health Gun crime Gangs Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
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• Hopes that US economy is on course for recovery • FTSE shrugs off blow to UK manufacturing Shares have risen to their highest level on Wall Street since June 2008 after a spurt in job creation boosted hopes that the US economy was on course for recovery. News that non-farm payrolls had expanded by 216,000 last month led to a fresh wave of buying in New York and encouraged the London market to shrug off evidence that the UK’s manufacturing sector had eased back in March. The FTSE 100 Index closed more than 101 points up on the day at 6009.92, its biggest one-day jump since early January, despite a fall in the monthly health-check of the industrial sector conducted by CIPS/Markit. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index dropped from 63.3 to 58.8, to leave it at its lowest level since October, with a sharp fall in new orders coupled with the strongest upward pressure on the price of goods leaving factory gates in the survey’s 12-year history. Marie Diron, economic adviser at Ernst & Young, said: “The sharp fall in the manufacturing PMI is worrying. Although the survey remains at relatively high levels and some correction was expected, this month’s sharp decrease raises doubts about the sustainability of the recovery in the manufacturing sector. The monthly fall is within the range of monthly ‘noise’ for this survey and we will be waiting for confirmation (or reversal) in April to draw firmer conclusions about the outlook.” In Washington, official data came in better than the markets had been expecting, leading to a 100-point jump in the Dow Jones average in early trading and speculation about when the Federal Reserve might start to raise interest rates. On the currency markets, the dollar gained against both the euro and the pound. Dealers had been forecasting a 190,000 increase in payrolls, but the figures showed that the economy created an additional 17,000 jobs in manufacturing, 18,000 in retailing, 45,000 in education and health and 37,000 in leisure and hospitality. The unemployment rate fell for a fourth month, from 8.9% to 8.8%. Paul Ashworth, US analyst with Capital Economics, said: “Conditions in the US labour market are finally starting to show signs of meaningful improvement. The only weakness was a trivial 1,000 dip in construction employment and a 15,000 decline in local government employment. Other encouraging signs in the report were the 29,000 rise in temporary employment, often a leading indicator of total employment, and the recent pick-up in average hours worked. While monthly employment gains around the 200,000 mark are obviously an improvement on what we’ve seen up until now in this recovery, job growth still isn’t strong enough to bring the unemployment rate down rapidly.” US economy US economic growth and recession Economics United States FTSE Stock markets Manufacturing data Manufacturing sector Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
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Death toll unconfirmed after protesters storm Mazar-e-Sharif compound in response to Qur’an burning by US pastor The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has been thrown into jeopardy after protesters enraged by the burning of the Qur’an by a Christian extremist in the US stormed a UN compound in the north of the country and killed a number of foreign staff members. Afghan officials in the usually peaceful city of Mazar-e-Sharif gave varying accounts of what happened, with some UN officials saying the death toll could reach 20. Other reports said two UN staff members were beheaded by a mob that managed to break into the heavily defended compound. Equally unclear were the identities of the victims, with some claiming the UN chief in the city had been killed and others saying he was wounded but survived. One police official said four of the dead were Nepali, probably former Gurkha soldiers now working as security guards, while another three were foreign diplomats. Even if the total number of victims proves at the lower end, perhaps seven as some police sources have claimed, it will constitute the worst crisis to hit the international organisation since 2001. Under UN rules officials will have to consider pulling out staff members or shutting down operations all together. After an attack on a UN guesthouse in 2009 killed five staff members, hundreds of workers were temporarily relocated to Dubai while the organisation spent millions closing guesthouses and outfitting a base on the outskirts of Kabul. Staffan De Mistura, the overall head of all UN activities in the country, flew to Mazar to take stock of the disaster. One senior staff member said there had been “absolutely no discussion” of repositioning staff, but many UN workers feared the incident would mark yet another milestone in the gradual retreat of UN diplomats and aid workers into a world where they only see the inside of fortified compounds and armoured vehicles. The violence also represents a huge setback for the country as it sets out on an ambitious programme, which many sceptics believe is unachievable, of taking full control of its own security from foreign forces by 2014. Last week Hamid Karzai, the president, announced that the commercial hub of Mazar-e-Sharif would be one of the first areas to be transferred to Afghan control this year. Yet even in a city that has possibly the best security in the country, police were no match for the sudden outburst of violence, triggered by the activities of a fringe Christian group on the other side of the world, who burned a copy of the Qur’an in Florida on 21 March. A previous threat by the US pastor Terry Jones last year was prevented after David Petraeus, the commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan, warned that the lives of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan would be endangered. Although the burning went ahead with Jones in attendance more than a week ago, it was only on Friday that the matter was the subject of outraged prayers around Afghanistan. Afterwards thousands of people poured out of Mazar’s Blue Mosque after a tub-thumping sermon by the presiding mullah, with one police official estimating that there were 4,000 people on the streets of the city. The head of the Blue Mosque, Atiqullah Ansari, said only a minority were responsible for the violence, claiming they were the followers of a mullah who served under the Taliban regime. “They went to the UN compound and killed the foreigners. This is what they wanted,” he said. According to people in the throng some of the demonstrators had guns which they used to attack the building. The police responded in kind, shooting live rounds into the crowd. The city’s main hospital said it had treated 20 wounded people, most with bullet wounds. Among the four dead bodies in the hospital, one appeared to be a Nepalese national. Local television pictures showed a mob attacking the guard kiosk of the UN compound, which is surrounded by 12ft-high concrete blast walls. The surviving UN staff were said to be shellshocked and bewildered at the failings of security that had allowed their compound to be overwhelmed. Across the country the UN issued a “white city” order, forcing all staff members into a state of lockdown and banning them from leaving their compounds. Afghanistan United Nations United States Jon Boone guardian.co.uk
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Rebels offer ceasefire as doctor says seven civilians have been killed in an air strike The regime of Muammar Gaddafi has initiated a concerted effort to open lines of communication with western governments in an attempt to bring the conflict in the country to an end. Libya’s former prime minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi told Channel 4: “We are trying to talk to the British, the French and the Americans to stop the killing of people. We are trying to find a mutual solution.” As rebel leaders offered a ceasefire if Gaddafi withdraws his military from Libya’s cities and permits peaceful protests, senior British sources said they were open to dialogue. “If people on the Gaddafi side want to have a conversation we are happy to talk,” one said. “But we will deliver a clear and consistent message: Gaddafi has to go and there has to be a better future for Libya.” The signals came after the Guardian reported that a meeting had taken place between Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to Gaddafi’s influential son Saif al-Islam, and British officials on Wednesday in London. Ismail is a key fixer who has been used by the Gaddafi family to negotiate arms deals and has considerable contacts in the west. Ismail and Moussa Koussa, the Libyan foreign minister who defected to Britain on Wednesday night, are not the only present and former supporters of the regime to have been in contact with Britain. British officials have been in contact with a number of Libyan officials in recent weeks in behind-the-scenes diplomacy, according to a spokesman for David Cameron. He stressed that Britain had not been involved in negotiating any possible trade-offs aimed at sealing Gaddafi’s exit from power. “There are no deals.” The disclosure of the dialogue came as the revolutionary leadership in the east laid down conditions for a ceasefire after a visit by the UN’s special envoy Abdelilah al-Khatib to the rebel capital, Benghazi. “We agree on a ceasefire on the condition that our brothers in the western cities have freedom of expression and also that the forces that are besieging the cities withdraw,” said one of the leadership, Mustafa Abdul Jalil. “Our aim is to liberate and have sovereignty over all of Libya.” The rebels’ initiatives were announced as the first credible report of civilian casualties from the western air campaign emerged. Suleiman Refadi, a doctor who has worked with the rebels, told reporters that seven civilians, including three girls from the same family aged 12 to 16, were killed on Wednesday in an air strike. Refadi said the victims also included three youths and a fourth girl when missiles hit a government ammunition lorry and destroyed two houses about nine miles from Brega and what is now the front line. About 25 people were injured. The report was not independently confirmed. In Tripoli, gunfire was heard near Gaddafi’s compound. Reuters reported that residents said they saw snipers on rooftops and pools of blood on the streets. The rebels made it clear that their talk of a ceasefire should not be seen as a sign of weakness. In an attempt to finally bring order to its chaotic military campaign, the leadership introduced the first of its newly trained troops toward Brega, which was seized by the government earlier this week, and hauled up rocket launchers. They were also seen to have communications equipment which the leadership was appealing to foreign governments to provide just a few days ago. The newly uniformed soldiers included officers who, the rebels said, would establish lines of command to end shambolic confrontations in which revolutionaries have only been able to move forward under the cover of western air strikes and have been unable to hold ground. While the rebels prepared for a new offensive in the east, Gaddafi’s forces launched a fresh assault on Misrata, the last enclave in the west still under the revolutionaries’ control. Libya’s third largest city was hit with tank and artillery fire. “It was random and very intense bombardment,” a spokesman, called Sami, told Reuters by telephone. “We no longer recognise the place. They are targeting everyone, including civilians’ homes.” Libya Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Peter Beaumont Chris McGreal Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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At least three people are killed and scores injured during protests across the country Security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Syria two days after President Bashar al-Assad delivered an uncompromising address aimed at restoring rigid order in a country that rarely witnesses dissent. At least three people were killed and scores more injured as thousands protested across the nation on a day dubbed the “Friday of Martyrs”. The widespread presence of demonstrators on the streets of the country’s towns and cities had been called for by organisers incensed by Assad’s stiff address, which offered none of the concessions hoped for earlier in the week. The southern city of Deraa was again at the vanguard of a nascent reform movement, which continues to be rallied through social media and by activists who have been galvanised by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Security forces were seizing mobile phones, which had been used to film clashes, to decrease the risk of further incriminating images being transferred on the internet. The new security crackdown had been widely expected by demonstrators in the wake of Assad’s speech, which was seen as a clear message that continued dissent would not be tolerated. Several officials from the ruling Ba’ath party had pointed to new committees being set up to explore lifting the state of emergency rule which has banned dissent or political opposition for 48 years. Assad was thought likely to announce the move, and other reforms, on Wednesday. However, his address was instead calibrated to send a signal that he would not capitulate to a restive nation that has shown no defiance similar to the scenes of the past fortnight since an ill-fated Islamist uprising in 1982. Assad sought to pin the blame for the unprecedented unrest in the country on a foreign plot. On Friday, forces opened fire in two suburbs of Damascus: Douma, where a crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered, and Kafer Souseh, where protesters were attacked by loyalists and police as they attempted to leave al-Refai mosque after prayers. In the Kurdish north-east, protests were reported in the border town of Qamischli as well as smaller settlements including Amouda, Tell Tamer and Ras al-Ayn. Until now, Kurdish leaders have refrained from taking to the streets for fear that the government would frame Syria’s uprising as a Kurdish issue. Protesters also took to the streets chanting “Freedom!” in Deraa, Latakia, Banias and Homs. A witness in the Damascus area of Barzeh reported security forces breaking up a gathering there. “Worshippers shouted ‘Freedom, freedom, freedom’ until more than 500 security forces broke them up,” he told the Guardian. Observers said the numbers were uncertain but showed growing unrest. “The protesters were mainly in small groups but this is to be expected,” said Wissam Tarif, a human rights researcher in Syria. “They are spreading all over the country. Each week different towns and cities are going out.” Razan Zeitoneh, a human rights activist in Damascus said: “The regime has made it clear that it will use violence to end this and it prepared for this with bus loads of security forces but still demonstrators went out.” The protests may be a sign that the regime’s gamble on inducing fear has backfired. Much of Assad’s domestic support has traditionally been linked to his image as a reformer. The continued stand-off between the government and protesters has caused anxiety in Syria to rise. It has also provoked a spike in sectarian tensions, after the government suggested incitement between sects was a factor in the uprising. However, Syria’s unrest has no discernible sectarian overtones and protesters in Kafer Souseh chanted “The Syrian people are one”. But activists said fear is growing among Assad’s Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam. Eyewitnesses said in one predominantly Alawite neighbourhood of Damascus a checkpoint for entry area was in force. In the wake of Assad’s speech, several western residents have reported being harassed or questioned by groups of unidentified men and security forces. On Friday the US issued a travel advisory warning against all but essential travel to Syria and advised citizens in the country to consider leaving. Two Reuters journalists remain in detention, but Mohamed Radwan, an Egyptian-American accused by the authorities of selling information abroad, was released. Mosques have so far been the focus of Friday protests, but activists say they are rapidly developing online and offline networks to mobilise people elsewhere. Katherine Marsh is the pseudonym of a journalist working in Damascus. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Huckabee Says He Wants Americans To Be Indoctrinated At Gunpoint by David Barton
April 1, 2011 No CommentI don’t think HuckaJesus is actually going to run for president this time around because he’s enjoying his good-paying gig over at Fox too much, but if he surprises me and does run, add this to the long list of items that should make him unelectable. Mike Huckabee Says He Wants Americans To Be Indoctrinated At Gunpoint : Did Mike Huckabee just flush his presidential aspirations down the proverbial toilet? Well, if American mainstream media has an ounce of journalistic gumption remaining the answer most certainly would be “yes”. Huckabee has just been caught on video, at a Christian supremacist conference, stating that Americans should be forcibly indoctrinated at gunpoint . The organization which hosted the “Rediscover God In America” conference, United in Purpose , has edited Huckabee’s comment from footage of his speech, but not before People For The American Way’s Kyle Mantyla captured the unedited footage , in which Mike Huckabee states, “I almost wish that there would be, like, a simultaneous telecast, and all Americans would be forced–forced at gunpoint no less–to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better for it. I wish it’d happen.” David Barton is the leading promoter of a brand of falsified American history altered to support the claim that America was founded as a Christian, rather than a secular, nation. As Chris Rodda, who has authored an entire book debunking Barton’s brand of pseudo-history, writes , I was quite surprised… to come across a video clip from this conference on the People for the American Way (PFAW) Right Wing Watch blog with the headline “Huckabee: Americans Should Be Forced, At Gunpoint, To Learn From David Barton.” I had watched Huckabee’s speech. How on earth could I have missed a statement like that? Well, I didn’t. It had been edited out of the webcast that I had watched. Kyle Mantyla over at PFAW’s Right Wing Watch had recorded Huckabee’s speech when it was streamed live on Thursday, and posted the ‘forced at gunpoint’ clip on Friday. By Saturday, when I watched the webcast on the United in Purpose website , that part of Huckabee’s speech had been edited out. More there so go read the rest. Our own Dave Neiwert has more on Barton and Glenn Beck and Huckabee’s promotion of him on Fox here — Beck’s ‘Plan’ will feature fake history on church-state separation from David Barton h/t Digby who wrote this about the AlterNet article: Here’s the latest on the GOP field: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee would go toe-to-toe with President Obama if he sought the presidency in 2012, according to a new Fairleigh Dickinson University survey. Among registered voters nationwide, 46 percent said they’d vote for Huckabee and the same number would re-elect the president. That’s good. I think Huckabee would be a terrific president. In hell. If you read this blog you are familiar with David Barton. So are all the Tea partiers who think of Barton as the Commander in chief of Glenn Beck’s Black Robed regiment . He is not just a socially conservative preacher. He’s a full blown propagandist who’s created an alternative history of the United States. It’s not a good one. He’s a very dangerous man. And so, apparently, is Mike Huckabee.
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• Forces backing Ouattara bombard presidential palace • African Union calls on president to resign and end suffering Rebel forces in Ivory Coast have laid siege to the presidential palace as president Laurent Gbagbo made a last stand and the battle for power in Abidjan raged for a second day, with the UN mission coming under heavy fire. Forces backing presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have overrun nearly three-quarters of Ivory Coast and looked poised to topple Gbagbo, but after entering the economic capital met with stiff resistance outside his fortified residence and office. With reports of beatings, looting and arson on the streets of Abidjan, residents barricaded inside their homes reported heavy arms fire throughout the early morning on Friday. On the peninsula where the palace is situated buildings were shaking with each explosion, witnesses said. Ouattara’s spokesman, Patrick Achi, told Reuters: “His house is under attack. That’s for sure. There is a resistance, but it’s under attack. [Gbagbo] hasn’t shown any signs of giving up. I don’t think he will see the game is up, because he really believes God will save him … Gbagbo is in his house. I’m certain. He hasn’t gone anywhere.” Ouattara ordered the borders closed to prevent Gbagbo and his allies fleeing. Ouattara’s foreign affairs minister told the Associated Press: “His inner circle is trying to run, but they won’t be able to.” Not seen in public for five days, Gbagbo has been weakened by high-level defections in the military. The regular army put up almost no opposition during a four-day offensive, including in Gbagbo’s home town, where rebels said they broke into his compound and slept in his bed. Some 50,000 soldiers, police and gendarmes have abandoned Gbagbo, according to the head of the UN mission, Choi Young-jin. “Only the Republican Guard and his special forces remain loyal, guarding the palace and residence,” he told France-Info. The chair of the commission of the African Union, Jean Ping, urged him to immediately hand power to Ouattara “in order to shorten the suffering of the Ivorians”. But a core of Gbagbo loyalists have fought to defend their shrinking territory. A spokesman, Abdon Georges Bayeto, told the BBC: “The president is not going to step down. He’s been elected for five years and we are going to put up a fight.” The heaviest clashes were at the state TV station, which went off air after Ouattara forces seized it overnight. Gbagbo’s forces said they had retaken it this morning. A senior diplomat said fighting continued. Heavy weapons fire was also heard at two military bases. Amid a sense of anarchy, the UN called on Ouattara to rein in his forces. A spokesman for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights said: “We are receiving unconfirmed but worrying reports that [pro-Ouattara forces] have been committing human rights violations.” French forces took 500 foreigners, made up of 150 French nationals plus other Europeans and also Lebanese citizens, to safety in a military camp. Thierry Burkhard, a spokesman, told Reuters: “There is a security vacuum and that has opened the way for looters to roam the streets.” There were no plans to repatriate the French nationals, he said. “There is no proof the French are specifically targeted. The looters are pillaging houses where there is something to take.” The UN said its compound came under heavy gunfire on Thursday afternoon from Gbagbo’s special forces, entrenched close to the presidential palace. The UN troops returned fire in a gun battle that lasted three hours. Zahra Abidi, a Swedish official of the UN peacekeeping mission, was killed on Thursday. A security source said she was standing on the balcony of a friend’s house while shooting was going on nearby and was hit by a bullet. Charity workers said it had become impossible for people in Abidjan to obtain medical care. Many are also out of food and water, as the markets are closed. Gbagbo lost last November’s presidential election, according to his country’s election commission and international observers, but has refused to step down. Sanctions imposed on him and his circle have failed to dislodge him. The offensive is expected to end Gbagbo’s regime within hours or days. “It’s over except for the shooting,” one diplomat said. The four-month standoff since the election has killed nearly 500 people, according to UN figures, although the real toll is probably far higher. About 1 million have fled Abidjan alone, and 122,000 more have crossed into Liberia, according to the UN. Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo Alassane Ouattara United Nations David Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Forces backing Ouattara bombard presidential palace • African Union calls on president to resign and end suffering Rebel forces in Ivory Coast have laid siege to the presidential palace as president Laurent Gbagbo made a last stand and the battle for power in Abidjan raged for a second day, with the UN mission coming under heavy fire. Forces backing presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have overrun nearly three-quarters of Ivory Coast and looked poised to topple Gbagbo, but after entering the economic capital met with stiff resistance outside his fortified residence and office. With reports of beatings, looting and arson on the streets of Abidjan, residents barricaded inside their homes reported heavy arms fire throughout the early morning on Friday. On the peninsula where the palace is situated buildings were shaking with each explosion, witnesses said. Ouattara’s spokesman, Patrick Achi, told Reuters: “His house is under attack. That’s for sure. There is a resistance, but it’s under attack. [Gbagbo] hasn’t shown any signs of giving up. I don’t think he will see the game is up, because he really believes God will save him … Gbagbo is in his house. I’m certain. He hasn’t gone anywhere.” Ouattara ordered the borders closed to prevent Gbagbo and his allies fleeing. Ouattara’s foreign affairs minister told the Associated Press: “His inner circle is trying to run, but they won’t be able to.” Not seen in public for five days, Gbagbo has been weakened by high-level defections in the military. The regular army put up almost no opposition during a four-day offensive, including in Gbagbo’s home town, where rebels said they broke into his compound and slept in his bed. Some 50,000 soldiers, police and gendarmes have abandoned Gbagbo, according to the head of the UN mission, Choi Young-jin. “Only the Republican Guard and his special forces remain loyal, guarding the palace and residence,” he told France-Info. The chair of the commission of the African Union, Jean Ping, urged him to immediately hand power to Ouattara “in order to shorten the suffering of the Ivorians”. But a core of Gbagbo loyalists have fought to defend their shrinking territory. A spokesman, Abdon Georges Bayeto, told the BBC: “The president is not going to step down. He’s been elected for five years and we are going to put up a fight.” The heaviest clashes were at the state TV station, which went off air after Ouattara forces seized it overnight. Gbagbo’s forces said they had retaken it this morning. A senior diplomat said fighting continued. Heavy weapons fire was also heard at two military bases. Amid a sense of anarchy, the UN called on Ouattara to rein in his forces. A spokesman for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights said: “We are receiving unconfirmed but worrying reports that [pro-Ouattara forces] have been committing human rights violations.” French forces took 500 foreigners, made up of 150 French nationals plus other Europeans and also Lebanese citizens, to safety in a military camp. Thierry Burkhard, a spokesman, told Reuters: “There is a security vacuum and that has opened the way for looters to roam the streets.” There were no plans to repatriate the French nationals, he said. “There is no proof the French are specifically targeted. The looters are pillaging houses where there is something to take.” The UN said its compound came under heavy gunfire on Thursday afternoon from Gbagbo’s special forces, entrenched close to the presidential palace. The UN troops returned fire in a gun battle that lasted three hours. Zahra Abidi, a Swedish official of the UN peacekeeping mission, was killed on Thursday. A security source said she was standing on the balcony of a friend’s house while shooting was going on nearby and was hit by a bullet. Charity workers said it had become impossible for people in Abidjan to obtain medical care. Many are also out of food and water, as the markets are closed. Gbagbo lost last November’s presidential election, according to his country’s election commission and international observers, but has refused to step down. Sanctions imposed on him and his circle have failed to dislodge him. The offensive is expected to end Gbagbo’s regime within hours or days. “It’s over except for the shooting,” one diplomat said. The four-month standoff since the election has killed nearly 500 people, according to UN figures, although the real toll is probably far higher. About 1 million have fled Abidjan alone, and 122,000 more have crossed into Liberia, according to the UN. Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo Alassane Ouattara United Nations David Smith guardian.co.uk
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