ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo was overthrown by Ivorians, not by foreign powers, the United Nations said on Thursday amid rising criticism of its role in the removal of the former leader.
Gbagbo was captured this week by forces loyal to internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara — ending a bloody power struggle — but only after French and U.N. forces pounded Gbagbo’s heavy weapons stockpiles.
“The fundamental feeling is that (Gbagbo) failed to win the hearts and minds of the population here,” the U.N. mission chief in Ivory Coast, Y.J. Choi, told reporters in Abidjan. “He underestimated the will of the people, and the credit must go to the Ivorian people.”
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that U.N. peacekeepers had taken sides in the conflict in Ivory Coast and called this a “very dangerous tendency,” adding to criticisms by Gbagbo supporters that Ouattara is a patsy of the West.
France, the former colonial power in Ivory Coast, is also involved in Western military operations to destroy heavy weapons held by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, amid a rebellion there.
Ouattara won 54 percent of the vote in last November’s presidential election, according to U.N.-certified results, but Gbagbo rejected the outcome, claiming fraud
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