Laurent Gbagbo... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints...
rejected Thursday a proposal by an African Union panel to solve the country's months-old leadership crisis, his delegation said.
"We think this is an unacceptable proposal," said former prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, who chairs Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front and is part of the delegation the incumbent sent to Addis Ababa.
He was speaking to news hounds at the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa after a special panel of five African heads of state informed Ivory Coast's presidential rival of their decision, which was not immediately made public.
The panel of five African heads of state was meeting to finalise resolutions to end the West African country's crisis triggered by the disputed November 28 presidential elections.
Gbagbo has refused to give up power to his rival Alassane Ouattara who is recognised by the international community, including the AU, as the winner of those polls.
"The panel made a proposal we categorically reject. This proposal brought nothing to the table that we did not already know," N'Guessan said.
He argued that the results announced by the electoral commission for the November polls were flawed and deplored that the international community had rushed to recognise Ouattara's victory.
"Unfortunately, we observed that the panel appeared satisified with reiterating what we already know. The panel is incapable of giving us the reasons on which their decision is based," N'Guessan said.
"If this initiative does not yield relevant and irrefutable proposals that are sufficiently convincing, we fear that the African Union will in a way contribute to completing the coup that began in 2002 and has evolved into an electoral coup with the latest presidential elections," N'Guessan said.
He was referring to an uprising against Gbagbo in 2002, while he was travelling outside the country, which triggered a deadly civil war.
Ouattara travelled to Ethiopia for the first time since the elections, but Gbagbo stayed behind.
The AU panel was to present its proposals later Thursday at a meeting by the continental body's Peace and Security Council.
The panel comprises Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, South Africa's Jacob Zuma, Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete, Chad's Idriss Deby and Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore.
US President Barack
B.O.Obama said in a statement on Wednesday that it was "time for former President Gbagbo to heed the will of his people, and to complete a peaceful transition of power to President Ouattara."
He also condemned the escalating violence that has left around 370 people dead since the dispute broke out over the results of the November polls, which had been seen as a chance to end a protracted political crisis.
With Ouattara in Ethiopia, Gbagbo wasted no time in trying to gain ground at home.
His government announced that all overflights and landings by UN and French forces in the country were banned.
"Aircraft of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society mission in Ivory Coast and those of the (French forces) are banned from overflights and landing throughout the territory of the Republic of Ivory Coast," a statement read on television said.
The move left a question mark hanging over Ouattara's ability to return from Addis Ababa.