UN condemns intimidation of staff in Ivory Coast

Condemned the UN envoy in Ivory Coast on Monday, intimidation tactics against United Nations personnel, saying that the gunmen were threatening the staff of the United Nations after ignore the request to Laurent Gbagbo that thousands of peacekeepers to leave the country - Abidjan, Ivory Coast (AFP).

A spokesman for Gbagbo in Paris on Monday that he doubted soldiers or those that support President Gbagbo will take part in such tactics.

In the meantime, the UN Security Council called on all parties to recognize the opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, President of the Ivory Coast.

The resolution was adopted unanimously Monday by the Council stepped up pressure on Gbagbo to concede defeat, which he refused to do. The resolution urges all Ivorian parties and stakeholders "to respect the will of the people and the election results" in light of the recognition and sometimes by the African Union and Economic Community of West African regional group "in order to ensure peace" in the Ivory Coast.

The United Nations has also pledged to continue with his mission despite an order from Gbagbo to its peacekeeping troops to leave.

"Men armed with up-to-home personal staff of the United Nations, and asked them to leave their homes and look under the pretext of looking for weapons," said the Special Representative of the United Nations Choi Young-jin told a news conference Monday in Abidjan.

Said Toussaint Alain, an adviser to Gbagbo, he did not believe that the soldiers or people close to President Gbagbo to carry out such acts.

"The UN is trying to manipulate public opinion and looking for a pretext for military intervention," said the Associated Press in Paris.

Gbagbo has raised the demand that the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations fears that staff members leave and other foreigners could be targeted in the violence. Over the weekend, masked gunmen opened fire on a UN base in the West African nation, though no one was hurt from the global body in the attack. And two were wounded military observers in another attack.

Ordered the U.S. State Department on Sunday, most of its staff to leave Ivory Coast because of the deteriorating security situation and the growing anti-Western sentiment.

The United Nations says has killed more than 50 people in recent days, and that it had received hundreds of reports of people abducted from their homes at night by armed attackers dressed in military uniforms. He said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, there is growing evidence of "gross violations of human rights."

Said Alan Gbagbo adviser, said he doubted whether the allegations of kidnapping were true, but if they were, and are carried out by supporters of his opponent, dressed in military uniforms.

In a statement read on state television Saturday, said a spokeswoman for Gbagbo to peace-keeping forces of the United Nations 9000 and last French forces supporting 900 of them to leave the country immediately. Gbagbo has accused the UN mission with the support his opponent, and at times, and arming the rebels who support him.

United Nations and the international community to understand and sometimes the winner of the vote last month's presidential run-off. Have been invited to the United Nations by the same country to supervise the elections and the ratification of the results after a peace agreement after the war of 2002-2003 in the Ivory Coast civil.

About 800 UN troops to protect the hotel, which sometimes tries to rule the country. They are in turn surrounded by Gbagbo's forces. On Monday, the United Nations said it was completely surrounded the hotel and that people at home has not been able to get the necessary medicines.

In the meantime, the European Union said Monday it will impose asset freezes and visa bans on Gbagbo and his wife after the deadline passed Sundays, his step on them.

Gbagbo's adviser said Europe should not interfere.

"Europe must understand that this is not the colonial period," said Alain, Gbagbo's adviser for EU relations. "Or if Europe wants to colonize the Ivory Coast, if Europe wants to subjugate the Ivory Coast, and then let's be clear on this subject and we will become European citizens."

It is also the United States to impose sanctions on Gbagbo, his family and his entourage.

Sanctions, however, usually failed to reverse the illegal usurpation of power in Africa in the past.

The Ivory Coast, once an economic center due to its role as a producer in the world of cocoa. Division of the country's civil war in the north controlled by the rebels and pro-South. While not officially included the country in a peace deal in 2007, and sometimes still draws his support from the northern half of the country where he was born while Gbagbo's power base in the south.

Gbagbo claimed victory in presidential elections only after the allies, expelled half a million ballot papers of the strongholds of times in the north, a move that angered the people there who feel they are treated as foreigners in their country long before the southerners.

National identity is still in the heart of the gap. Took the question of which allows up to vote in these elections, which the long-awaited years to settle and officials tried to differentiate between the Ivory Coast, with roots in neighboring countries and foreigners.

It was sometimes prevented himself from running in previous elections, amid accusations that he was not in Côte d'Ivoire, and that of Burkina Faso