UN asks Ivory Coast's leader to end anti-UN campaign

Jan 5, 2011, 21:00 GMT

New York - The United Nations called on Wednesday for an end to another round of anti-UN mission rhetoric launched by supporters of the Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo.

The UN was taking issue with the fact that supporters of Gbagbo, who refuses to give up the presidency after losing a vote to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, launched a second phase of 'hostile media campaign' against the UN mission in Abidjan.

'This campaign must have been planned at the highest level of ... Gbagbo's camp on December 29,' the UN said. It said the Ivorian Radio Television station continued to show pictures of two people, claiming they were victims of shooting by the UN peacekeepers.

'The UN mission demands the immediate cessation of this negative campaign,' the UN said. The UN has also denounced severe human rights violations by the Gbagbo administration after close to 200 people have been killed in protests.

It said the first phase of anti-UN campaign began in mid-December after Gbagbo asked the UN to leave Ivory Coast in retaliation for its demand for him to step down.

Gbagbo troops also mounted a blockade the Golf Hotel, where the UN mission maintains a headquarters in Abidjan.

Diplomatic efforts by the African Union and regional grouping ECOWAS have so far failed to end the political stalemate in Abidjan.

Ouattara has named his own ambassador to the United Nations, which has accepted the credentials and dismissed the credentials of Gbagbo's envoy.