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    French troops fire to disperse protesters
    (Agencies)
    Updated: 2004-11-08 21:17

    French troops in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan fired into the air on Monday to disperse thousands of demonstrators massing to support the West African country's President Laurent Gbagbo.

    State radio urged protesters to form a "human shield" to protect Gbagbo's home in a plush residential district in case French troops, who have taken over a hotel complex nearby, tried to move toward the residence.

    "We are asking our patriots to go and join the others at the Hotel Ivoire ... We are asking for French tanks to go back to their base," firebrand pro-Gbagbo youth leader Charles Ble Goude said on state radio, shortly after the shooting.

    Gbagbo, leader of the world's biggest cocoa producer, has appealed for an end to the mob violence which erupted after France destroyed most of the country's air force in retaliation for the killing of nine French peacekeepers.

    The price of cocoa for December delivery rose sharply in London on Monday by up to 11 percent because of the unrest.

    France should withdraw its armored vehicles from Abidjan to ease tension, a Gbagbo aide said. "The tension will ease when the French tanks are back with the 43rd (Marines regiment)," Toussaint Alain told Reuters in Paris by telephone from Abidjan.

    A truck bristling with so-called "Young Patriots" could be seen racing to the scene where French armored vehicles were parked in front of the hotel, surrounded by barbed wire.

    A French military source told Reuters French troops might later secure Gbagbo's residence. He said French and Ivorian military officials would make a significant declaration in the afternoon.

    "They are trying to stage a coup d'etat against Ivory Coast. We are opposed. We are all going to the head of state's residence to form a barricade," said a demonstrator called Thierry. "We are demonstrating with our bare hands."

    French President Jacques Chirac said in a speech that France was Ivory Coast's ally and urged national reconciliation after anti-French crowd violence erupted at the weekend.

    A French army source said military vehicles were in the car park of the hotel to "secure the zone." A French convoy of at least 30 vehicles was seen heading toward the hotel earlier.

    LOOTING AND RIOTING

    France deployed troops on the streets of the main city Abidjan on Sunday, took control of the airport and flew in hundreds of extra soldiers to contain the backlash of looting and rioting in major towns across Ivory Coast.

    French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Monday no evacuation of French citizens was planned, although she said the situation remained "extremely fragile."

    Under heavy international pressure to end the unrest, Gbagbo -- whose country is cut in half with rebels holding the north -- made his first public appearance since the crisis began by going on state television on Sunday night.

    "I am calling on people to remain calm, I am asking all the demonstrators to return home. You must not give in to provocation," Gbagbo said after days of fiery rhetoric from his supporters had whipped up anti-French anger.

    French and United Nations (news - web sites) peacekeeping officials said Abidjan was generally calm on Sunday night but groups of youths were still out looting in the affluent Cocody district.

     

    Ivorian officials initially maintained they had no evidence their military had struck the French peacekeepers in an air raid on the rebel-held town of Bouake on Saturday. But on Sunday the army acknowledged responsibility; it said it had not meant to target the French and appealed for calm.

    On President Chirac's orders, the French military retaliated by blowing up two Ivorian Sukhoi 25 fighters and five helicopters in Abidjan and the capital Yamoussoukro.

    Groups of Ivorian militants then attacked foreigners and foreign-owned businesses in Abidjan, prompting French troops to stage dramatic airborne rescues to evacuate residents under siege in their apartment blocks.

    The U.N. Security Council, the African Union and the European Union (news - web sites) issued urgent appeals for an end to the violence, which also threatens stability in West Africa where other states have been plagued by conflicts in the past decade or so.



     
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