France uses military force
after Ivory Coast airstrike
Chaos erupts with an explosion of anti-French
violence in France's former West African colony
BY PARI AH KOUASSI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — France
rolled out overwhelming military
force Sunday to put down an explo
sion of anti-French violence in its for
mer West African colony, deploying
troops, armored vehicles, and heli
copter gunships against machete
waving mobs that hunted house-to
house for foreigners.
In the second of two days that
stood to alter French-Ivory Coast re
lations — and perhaps Ivory Coast it
self — French forces seized strategic
control of the largest city, comman
deering airports and posting gun
boats under bridges in the commer
cial capital, Abidjan.
The chaos erupted Saturday
when Ivory Coast warplanes
launched a surprise airstrike that
killed nine French peacekeepers and
a civilian American aid worker. The
French militavy move in after clashes
France rolled out overwhelming military force Sunday to curb an
explosion of anti-French violence in its former West African colony.
GUINEA
SIERRA )
LEONE
Atlantic
Ocean
MALI (vji j
French troops
destroy Ivory Coast
air force of two
grounded jets and
} three helicopter on
Saturday.
BURKINA
FASO
J
LIBERIA
Yamoussoukro
► Loyalists mobs rampaged in a second
day of looting and burning of buildings
► The Red Cross handled about 150
people wounded from violence
Abidjan
rrl
► About 300 French hoops
arrived; 300 more were on
the way
► French helicopters fired
percussion grenades to
breakup mobs
SOURCE: ESRI
AP
government later called the
bombing a mistake.
France hit back within hours, wip
ing out Ivory Coast’s air force..
The airstrike on the peacekeepers
came after government forces last
week broke a cease-fire and launched
aerial bomb attacks on rebel positions.
The peacekeepers are trying to
hold together a nation whose stabili
ty is vital in a region where several
nations are only just recovering from
devastating civil wars in the 1990s.
On Sunday, loyalist mobs ram
paged, outraged by the crushing
French military response.
A crowd clutching machetes and
iron bars entered one neighborhood,
demanding to know whether any
French lived there.
“If there are any whites in this
neighborhood, we’re going to get...
them,” one man shouted.
“It’s better to kill the whites than
steal their stuff,” another yelled.
The Red Cross said it handled
about 150 people wounded in the
violence.
The U.N. Security Council, in
emergency session late Saturday, de
manded an immediate halt to all mil
itary action in Ivory Coast, and
France blamed Ivory Coast’s leader.
“I think President (Laurent) Gbag
bo is personally responsible for what
has happened,” French Foreign Min
ister Michel Barnier said Sunday.
Gbagbo’s spokesman said that
Ivory Coast was willing to cease fire
and immediately pull forces from the
peacekeeper-controlled buffer zone.
Ivory Coast will ask the U.N. Se
curity Council for action against
France, presidential spokesman
Desire Tagro said.
IN BRIEF
Abundance Northwest:
Plus-size dubbing
SEATTLE — Making the dub scene
is not always fun for full-sized people
— that is, the 55 percent of Americans
who don’t fit the National Institutes of
Health’s body-mass standard.
Enter Abundance Northwest, about
to celebrate a year of size-positive club
nights, where big men and women get
together to mingle, drink and dance.
About 100 plus-size people find
their way once or twice a month to
Abundance Northwest’s parties, held
at various Seattle-area locations. Some
travel from as far as away as Portland
and Vancouver, British Columbia.
“I think the vibe is different from
the Seattle bar scene,” said vivacious
plus-size Melissa Habeck, 33, of Seat
de. “I mean, it’s cliquey like anything
else, but I guess we all have one com
mon bond.”
The goal of Abundance Northwest
is to ditch the idea that anyone is too
fat to go out.
“They dance a lot and have a good
time,” said Juan Flores, owner of Chi
huahua’s Mexican Restaurant and
Cantina, a favorite Abundance venue
in Auburn, south of Seattle. “We get
phone calls from all over, asking di
rections on how to get here.”
James expects crowds to grow as
the holidays approach.
“We know there’s a lot of hip plus
size people out there, and that’s who
we wanted to attract — the fun
crowd that wants to go out and dance
and wear club clothes,” she said.
— The Associated Press
Militants demand
prisoners' release;
three held hostage
Videotape of ailing hostages could mean Afghan
militants are copying the tactics of Iraqi insurgents
BY STEPHEN GRAHAM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan — Mili
tants said Sunday they handed
over a list of 26 prisoners, some
possibly held by the United States
at Guantanamo Bay, who they
would take in exchange for three
kidnapped U.N. workers.
A purported spokesman for the
Taliban splinter group claiming to
hold the three foreigners also said it
might drop its other demands,
which include a U.N. withdrawal
from Afghanistan.
Ishaq Manzoor said the list was
given to Afghan officials during
talks at a secret location on Sun
day afternoon.
A three-strong government del
egation asked for two days to look
for the prisoners and find out
whether they are in Afghanistan
or outside, and where they are be
ing held, Manzoor said in a
telephone call.
The talks could resume on Tues
day, he said.
Neither the United Nations nor
the government have confirmed
any contact with the kidnappers,
though Afghan officials insist they
are making progress toward the
hostages’ release.
Another spokesman for the
Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of
Muslims, said it was represented in
the talks by two businessmen act
ing as go-betweens.
Sadir Momin said the group was
“hopeful that the government and
the United Nations will accept
some of our demands. It is likely
that we may relax some of our
conditions.”
The group has previously said
that some of the prisoners it wants
freed may be in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, or at U.S. and Afghan jails in
Afghanistan. It has also demanded
that the United Nations and British
troops withdraw from Afghanistan.
Momin didn't say which of these
demands could be eased and none
of the militants’ claims could be in
dependently verified.
The kidnapping of Annetta Flani
gan of Northern Ireland, Angelito
Nayan of the Philippines and
Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo was the
first against foreigners in Kabul
since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The militants released a video
tape of the hostages last Sunday fu
eling concern that they are copying
the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.
The group says Flanigan is ail
ing and that all three are suffering
from cold and a diet of little more
than cookies.
U.N. spokesman Manoel de
Almeida e Silva said the concern of
relatives, friends and colleagues
was increasing “every day, every
hour and every minute.”
“The best response for their need
of medical attention is their imme
diate release,” Almeida e Silva said.
Separately, a wealthy Kosovan
businessman claiming to speak for
a group of friends and associates of
Hebibi arrived in Kabul with his
own initiative to seek her freedom.
Behgjet Pacolli said that he was
seeking to contact the kidnappers
through tribal, factional and reli
gious leaders and already had “a
very, very convincing indication”
that she was alive.
Pacolli said he believed the three
were being held separately in the
Kabul area, but declined to elabo
rate. He insisted he was not offering
money to secure Hebibi’s release.
The commander in chief of the
Afghan armed forces, Bismillah
Khan, condemned the abduction
Sunday as “against the culture of
Afghanistan.”
President-elect Hamid Karzai
also renewed his condemnation of
the kidnapping on Saturday, when
he received a visit from Pakistani
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Associated Press writer Noor Khan in
Kandahar contributed to this report
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