Wow, this will stop the violence, Just ask Iraq

20041116.001

This will show those mean old nasty rebels and end the horror!


U.N. orders Ivory Coast arms ban
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Posted: 5:18 AM EST (1018 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council has voted to impose a 13-month arms embargo on the Ivory Coast.
Battles between government and rebel forces in the troubled African nation prompted the intervention of French troops and the evacuations of foreign nationals earlier this month.
The resolution on Monday was backed by the European Union, the African Union and France, a permanent member of the Security Council and the former colonial power in Ivory Coast.
The embargo takes effect immediately -- a move French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said was made at the request of African states.
"In our first draft, our cosponsors didn't ask for immediate sanctions," he said. "But the AU considered it was necessary."
According to the French Foreign Ministry, more than 5,000 of its citizens been repatriated since November 10. "More than ever, there can only be a political exit to the crisis," the foreign ministry said Tuesday, regarding current tensions in Ivory Coast.
An estimated 10,000 citizens of other African nations have also fled to neighboring countries.
French troops are part of a U.N.-backed peacekeeping effort to monitor a cease-fire between government forces in the mostly Christian south and rebel forces who took over the mostly Muslim north after a failed coup in 2002.
Ivorian Ambassador Philippe Djangone-bi complained the embargo was "unfair and conducted in an unfair manner."
"How do we ensure the security of our own people from the rebels without arms?" he asked.
The Ivorian government broke a cease-fire agreement November 4 by launching airstrikes against rebel positions and bombed a French position two days later in an apparent accident. The raid killed nine French soldiers and an American aid worker.
The French retaliated by destroying two Ivorian air force planes and three helicopters.
Tens of thousands of Ivorians roared into the streets afterward, protesting the French and accusing them of trying to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo.
Thousands massed around Abidjan's Hotel Ivoire, where French troops had erected barricades and said they were using the facility to safeguard foreign nationals.
Ivorians demanded that the French leave the country and destroyed most of Abidjan's French-speaking schools.
The violence prompted the evacuations of thousands of French nationals, about 400 Britons and nonessential U.N. staff.

More

Vulture 6