Post date: Dec 30, 2010 10:40:37 PM
A pair of famous French lawyers offer their support and council to Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo during a visit to Abidjan.
ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (DECEMBER 30, 2010) REUTERS - Famous French lawyers Roland Dumas and Jacques Verges visited Ivory Coast's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo on Thursday (December 30) to offer their support and professional council, as most of the international community rejects Gbagbo's claim at the presidency and asks for his departure from power.
Dumas, a former foreign minister under president Francois Mitterand, and president of the French constitutional court joined Verges, famous in France for defending notorious figures such as Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal, who said France needs to stop treating Ivory Coast as a colony and distanced themselves from the politics of their country."France cannot treat Ivory Coast as a colony, Ivory Coast is an independent country we need to respect. In Ivory Coast there are 15,000 French people living an honest life and being treated honestly, and Ivory Coast has consented with the French society and very favourably deals with it," Verges said in front of the Ivorian presidential palace after meeting with Gbagbo.
The U.N. General Assembly last week recognised Gbagbo's leader Alassane Ouattara as Ivory Coast's legitimate president by unanimously deciding the list of diplomats he submitted to the world body be recognized as the sole representatives of Ivory Coast.
But the incumbent president shows no signs of giving in after the election results were overturned by the country's top court, run by a Gbagbo ally, over allegations of fraud.
Gbagbo has accused former colonial power France of orchestrating an international plot alongside the United States to remove him from power. The French government dismissed the allegations as groundless.
"What we would like to say to the French authorities is not to forget Vietnam," Verges said in front of the Ivorian presidential palace.
A delegation of three West African leaders will return to Ivory Coast next week to try to persuade Gbagbo, president since 2000, to cede power or risk facing "legitimate force." The dispute over the election results has provoked lethal street clashes and threatens to restart open conflict.