20110428
Reuters
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast has launched a criminal probe against former president Laurent Gbagbo, his wife Simone and 100 other close associates over alleged human rights abuses, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

The investigation comes two weeks after Gbagbo was ousted from power by forces loyal to his successor Alassane Ouattara, backed by French and U.N. troops who were deployed to help end a four-month power struggle in which more than 1,500 were killed.

Banks were preparing to open their doors for the first time in weeks on Thursday, while the cocoa sector in the world's top grower was making arrangements to resume exports frozen by a de facto embargo that has sent world prices to record highs.

But in a sign of continued tensions, residents in the main city Abidjan reported sporadic fighting with heavy and automatic weapons as Ouattara's troops battled with rival insurgents.

"A preliminary investigation has been opened against Laurent Gbagbo, his wife and his entourage," said government spokesman Patrick Achi. "I cannot say what the main charges are. That is the task of the courts."

Critics of Gbagbo want to take him to task for atrocities committed during a 10-year rule that included a descent into 2002-2003 civil war and the brutal repression of opposition protests in the weeks following the November 28 presidential poll.

Gbagbo, who is under house arrest in the north of the country, has brushed aside such allegations.

How he is treated will test how Ouattara manages to balance the need for both justice and reconciliation in a country torn apart by years of political and ethnic divisions. U.N.-backed results showed Gbagbo won around 46 percent of the vote.

While much of the city has been calm since Gbagbo's arrest on April 11, fighting broke out in the Abidjan neighbourhood of Abobo on Wednesday as Ouattara's forces attacked a rival insurgent group, a resident and a spokesman for the group said.

"We are in the process of disarmament and we have asked our fighters to prepare to lay down their arms, and it is in this context that the FRCI (Ivorian army), who took positions around us yesterday, launched an offensive on our headquarters," said a spokesman for the insurgent group, Invisible Commando.

"We don't understand this action by the FRCI," he said.

An FRCI commander who asked not to be named confirmed they had attacked the Invisible Commando, saying the offensive was aimed at disarming the group.

The FRCI is mostly made up of ex-rebels from the 2002-2003 war, and those fighters have had a longstanding rivalry with the Invisible Commando despite their shared opposition to Gbagbo.

Separately, residents in the Abidjan suburb of Yopougon reported heavy arms fire and helicopter gunships overhead. Yopougon has been the scene of sporadic battles between army forces and pro-Gbagbo militia for days. A U.N. spokesman said its helicopters had been deployed for reconnaissance only.

The country's cocoa trade and banking sector, shut down by the violence and international sanctions aimed at forcing Gbagbo from power peacefully, are set to resume within days. Societe Generale Group said its Ivorian branches would open on Thursday.

Separately, Eric Koffi, director of operations for the CGFCC cocoa sector body, told Reuters on Tuesday that he expected exports to resume within days.

However there was no clear timetable for the restart as a row continued between exporting companies and customs authorities over payment arrangements for export duties.

Exporters said they could not accept a demand by customs that the duty be paid in cash, insisting they could not restart supplies until it agreed to accept payment by cheque, arguing that this was the case before the start of the crisis.