Ivory Coast: 'Gbagbo weapons cache' uncovered

Several generals pledged their allegiance to Alassane Ouattara on Tuesday

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:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13058331

Bahrain: University students attacked as violence escalates

EI has condemned the suspension of higher education in Bahrain as the brutal repression of pro-democracy protesters demanding political reforms within the kingdom continues.

The protesters have been inspired by the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, whose long-serving presidents were forced from power after weeks of demonstrations. Despite the king reshuffling his cabinet he has not replaced the prime minister of more than 40 years, Sheikh Khalifah ibn Salman al-Khalifah.

After eight weeks of protests, more than 1,000 troops from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and 500 from the United Arab Emirates have arrived in Bahrain at the invitation of the government. It is not clear whether soldiers from other Gulf states are taking part in the crackdown, but there are indications that the Saudi troops are being kept in reserve. This is the first time that an Arab government has called for outside military help during the wave of protests sweeping the region.

The Shi’a-led opposition platform has declared as ‘unacceptable’ all intervention by the armed forces of neighbouring countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council, a six-nation regional grouping which includes Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

With a population with a median age of 30 years, and a literacy rate of 91 per cent, Bahrain is a country with a successful educational record. Despite this, youth unemployment levels stand at 19.6 per cent.

Bahrain’s Shi’a Muslim majority has long complained of economic hardship, lack of political freedom and discrimination in jobs in favour of Sunni Muslims by the kingdom’s ruling Sunni Muslim minority. It has also called for the evolution of their nation from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.

The General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) has called for a general strike on 15 March after a spate of violent attacks on university students, and the excessive use of force by riot police in the financial centre of the capital, Manama.

On Tuesday, at least two people were killed in clashes and more than 200 were injured. A trade union source reported: “Security forces have used both rubber bullets and live ammunition against the demonstrators. Men armed with knives, batons and revolvers, claiming to be government supporters, have stopped cars at crossroads and several trade union members have been beaten. The premises of political parties have been burnt down and we fear that there will be an attack on our own premises.”

A three-month state of emergency has been declared by King Hamad ibn Isa al-Khalifa. The academic year of university institutions has also been suspended and the government has imposed a curfew and banned all demonstrations.

Riot police entered Manama's Salmaniya Medical Centre on Wednesday, as doctors reported that they were being prevented from reaching the hospital or treating patients.

One doctor stated that she and her colleagues were hiding from troops who had taken over the building and were shooting at people inside the hospital and threatening the doctors with live ammunition.

"They are all around us with their guns and they are shooting anybody," she said.

source:http://www.ei-ie.org/news/news_details/1700