Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Laurent Gbagbo wants to "heal the wounds" of Côte d'Ivoire

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has "insisted he had to heal the wounds" of Côte d'Ivoire, said Monday, May 2 to press the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, after meeting Mr. Gbagbo in Korhogo in his house arrest. The Nobel Peace Bishop Tutu and other members of the Group of Elders ("old"), former Secretary General Kofi Annan and former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights UN, Mary Robinson, arrived in the morning in Korhogo in northern Côte d'Ivoire, to meet with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo fallen.

"We had a brief but cordial exchange, we were pleased that the former president expressed the desire to see the country return to normalcy," said Archbishop Tutu, after meeting with the deposed president for forty- five minutes. "In his speech, [Gbagbo] has insisted that he had to think the wounds of the country.

That's what we're here to encourage. As you have seen, he looks healthy, he told us himself. He looks relaxed and requested a Bible, "said the Nobel Peace Prize. It is the first known visit by officials from Mr. Gbagbo since he is under house arrest in Korhogo. Dressed in a blue shirt and black pants, smiling, the former president shook hands with the three members of the group of Elders and said "thank you for coming," said a journalist from the while the press had been allowed to attend the beginning of the meeting.

Gbagbo, who was captured April 11, also told his supporters Monday that the revival of the Ivorian economy and the restoration of security should prevail over political infighting. At a press conference in Korhogo, northern town where he was taken under house arrest after being caught in Abidjan, the former president stressed that before talk of politics he had first re- state's economy and security in the country.

From Côte d'Ivoire with the objective of promoting "healing and reconciliation," MM. Tutu and Annan, and Mrs. Robinson arrived Sunday in the economic capital, where they met including the head of state, Alassane Ouattara, in power since the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo, after more than four months of post-election crisis and fifteen days of war.

Arrested in his presidential residence in Abidjan with his wife Simone and a hundred people and detained at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, the headquarters of Mr. Ouattara, Gbagbo was transferred on April 13 in Korhogo, where he is house arrest. His wife, meanwhile, was transferred April 22 to Odienné.

The hearings, by the Ivorian justice, the former head of state, his wife and some two hundred former officials of his regime, under house arrest, to begin Wednesday. Mr Gbagbo has been accused of being responsible for abuses, extortion and incitement to hatred. Nearly three thousand people were killed during the four months of crisis and fighting in Ivory Coast, authorities said.

The United Nations reports, more than a thousand dead.

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