Seven Chinese UN peacekeepers in Cote d'Ivoire were all reported
safe, as a four-day violent anti-UN demonstration in the country
calmed down on Thursday.
Xinhua News Agency confirmed that two of them are staying in
Abidjan, the country's commercial center, and the rest are based in
different areas.
There are no reported deaths of Chinese people either.
The Chinese Embassy in Cote d'Ivoire told China Daily
that demonstrators had been dispersed on Thursday afternoon and the
"tension has already eased."
Xinhua said protesters had left the places they had besieged for
several days, including the French military base and the UN's
headquarters in Abidjan.
The UN reported no deaths of its peacekeepers in the country
during the four-day demonstration.
Cote d'Ivoire has been separated between a government-controlled
south and a rebel-held north since a failed coup in September 2002.
About 6,000 UN peacekeepers and 4,000 French troops were stationed
to try to maintain peace in 2004. Chinese observers and strategists
began to join the UN peacekeeping force in the same year.
The latest demonstration was ignited last week by a suggestion
from the UN to dismiss Cote d'Ivoire's congress, which supports
President Laurent Gbagbo.
Gbagbo's supporters, organized by the ruling Ivorian Popular
Front (IPF), condemned the UN and France for their interference
into Cote d'Ivoire's affairs and started a large anti-UN protest in
some parts of the country on Sunday.
On Wednesday, a swarm of protesters attacked the UN peacekeeping
camp in Guiglo, a western town.
After an exchange of gunfire, four protestors were shot dead and
12 wounded by the peacekeepers.
Peacekeepers retreated after the attack and about 2,000
demonstrators took up the camp afterward.
According to the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
(IRIN), Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo flew late that day to
Cote d'Ivoire for talks.
After several hours of discussions, Obasanjo, Gbagbo and new
Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny issued a statement saying: "The
UN working group does not have the power to dissolve the national
assembly. The working group has not dissolved the national
assembly."
Following the statement, the leader of Cote d'Ivoire's Young
Patriot, a youth group in favor of Gbagbo, asked on Thursday for
its members who had led the demonstrations to pack up their
roadblocks and go home, IRIN reported.
On the same day, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed his
"deep concern" at the situation in Cote d'Ivoire, condemning the
"orchestrated violence directed against the UN, the population, as
well as the inactions of some national authorities in responding to
the situation," IRIN quoted him as saying.
(China Daily January 21, 2006)