African Union Members will not cooperate with Gaddafi warrant

Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi has made clear he would not recognize the International Criminal Court's authority.

The African Union says its members will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, arguing that the measure jeopardizes efforts to negotiate a peace deal in the war-torn nation.

The arrest warrant "seriously complicates the efforts aimed at finding a negotiated political solution to the crisis in Libya," said a statement summarizing the countries' decision at a summit in Equatorial Guinea that ended Friday.

A three-judge panel at court in the Hague in the Netherlands issued arrest warrants June 27 for Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi.

The warrants are "for crimes against humanity," including murder and persecution, "allegedly committed across Libya" from February 15 through "at least" February 28, the court said in a statement.

The court's judges said the arrests were necessary "to ensure their appearances before the court," ensure that the three "do not continue to obstruct and endanger the court's investigations" and "prevent them from using their powers to continue the commission of crimes."

Libya is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the international court's authority, and the court does not have the power to enter Libya and arrest the leaders.

Gadhafi has made clear he would not recognize the court's authority.

Some analysts said last week that the court's move could damage efforts to get Gadhafi to end his 42-year reign, stopping him from leaving the country for fear of being prosecuted.

"In effect, the ICC arrest warrant tells Gadhafi to fight to the death," said Michael Rubin, an analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Speaking to reporters after the court issued the warrants last week, chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo batted away questions from reporters about whether an ICC arrest warrant would discourage Gadhafi from stepping down.

He said the decision to investigate Gadhafi came from a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution, not the court.

The U.N. Security Council referred the matter to the ICC through a resolution February 26, following widespread complaints about Gadhafi's efforts to crush a rebellion.

In a statement Sunday, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office called on Gadhafi to end violence and leave office, noting that the NATO coalition's aim was to protect civilians, not arrange a safe exit for the Libyan leader.

"We have been clear that those responsible should be held to account. The ultimate political objective is to facilitate a transition to a stable, democratic Libya," the spokesman said in a statement. "To achieve this, Gadhafi must step down, and leave Libya to the Libyan people."

On Sunday South African President Jacob Zuma was scheduled to head to Russia for a meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya.

The situation in Libya is slated to be a top agenda item at a Russia-NATO Council meeting Monday, Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the Kremlin.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as part of the meeting in Russia's Black Sea resort town of Sochi, the news agency reported.

"The sole possibility of stabilizing the situation in Libya is an immediate cease-fire and the start of talks between the internal Libyan participants in the conflict with the support of, but not interference from, outside," the Kremlin said, according to RIA Novosti.

African Union reinstates Ivory Coast

The African Union has lifted the suspension it imposed on Ivory Coast after the nation's former leader refused to cede power following the presidential election last year.

During a meeting of its peace and security council Thursday, the body said it has lifted all sanctions in light of President Alassane Ouattara's assumption of power.

"The democratically-elected president ... now assumes state power, marking the end of the post-election crisis," the African Union said.

The West African nation recently ended a political stalemate, which started in December following former President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to step down after he lost elections.

Escalated violence and fears of war forced nearly 1 million residents to flee the main city of Abidjan, aid groups said. The standoff left hundreds dead.

African Union officials urged the president to help promote national reconciliation and boost socio-economic recovery.

The African Union is made up of more than 50 countries in the continent.

Army mutiny spreads to fourth city in Burkina Faso

An army mutiny which erupted last week in the West African state of Burkina Faso has spread to a fourth city.

Protests have now broken out in Kaya in the north of the country, following disturbances in Po and Tenkodogo.

The trouble started last Thursday when soldiers and presidential guards in the capital Ouagadougou protested about unpaid housing allowances.

Hours before the revolt broke out, tens of thousands of people had demonstrated against high food prices.

'Police join mutiny'

President Blaise Compaore, a former coup leader in power since 1987, has sacked his government and appointed a new head of the armed forces to try to quell the unrest.

His government warned on Sunday that mutinous soldiers would face "the full force of the law".

Ouagadougou correspondent Mathieu Bonkongou confirmed that the unrest had now reached Kaya.

Soldiers and police reportedly took to the city's streets late on Sunday and began firing guns into the air until the early hours of Monday.

It is said to be the first time that police have taken part in the mutiny.

The violence in the capital had seen at least 45 injured people admitted to hospital.

In March, some soldiers went on the rampage and managed to free a number of colleagues arrested for rape.

Rebels scoff at Gadhafi's son take over

Saif al-Islam Gadhafi

With no end to Libya's bloody war in sight, a source close to the country's leadership said a Libyan envoy is floating the idea of ruler Moammar Gadhafi passing his power to a son -- a notion rebel leaders deem merely cosmetic.


Under the proposal, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, 38, would help to usher in swift reform, the source said. But Saif Gadhafi has become one of his father's most outspoken defenders since the start of the unrest, despite once being perceived as a leading reformer in the Libyan government.

But a proposal to shift power from Gadhafi to his second-oldest son is "a ridiculous offer," said Ali Aujali, a former Libyan ambassador to the United States who now represents the Libyan opposition in Washington.

"Libyan people, they decided, and they will not go back at all (to) Gadhafi or any member of his family," Aujali said. "His sons, they are killers -- they're just like their father."
Aujali said the rebels are willing to offer Moammar Gadhafi and his family safe passage out of Libya in an exchange for an end to the fighting -- but that's as far as their offer goes.

Gadhafi's forces appeared to have the upper hand Tuesday in renewed fighting in the oil town of al-Brega, where rebel forces were staging a panicked retreat under intense artillery bombardment, according to CNN reporters in the area.
The setback is the latest for a ragtag opposition that has struggled to maintain ground against the better trained and equipped Gadhafi forces, and it comes less than a day after rebel commanders said they had the longtime Libyan leader's forces on the defensive in al-Brega.

Meanwhile, more carnage spread in the besieged city of Misrata on Monday, and a rebel spokesman said a NATO-led effort to help protect civilians seemed nonexistent in some areas.
Five people were killed and 24 wounded in Monday clashes between pro-Gadhafi forces and rebels in Misrata, two sources told CNN.
Residents have said the city has been choked off by Gadhafi troops, with electricity and access to food cut off.

"Every day, life is getting more and more difficult," said one resident, who is not being identified for safety reasons. "There are long queues of people for bread and fuel."
He added some are not leaving their homes for days at a time.
"There are snipers shooting at anything that moves," the resident said. "They are controlling the main road leading to outside the city."

In al-Brega, an opposition officer said Monday that rebel forces had the town surrounded from the north, east and west and had been bombarding the area with rockets for much of the afternoon.
Maj. Miftah Omar Hamzah told CNN that 50 carloads of loyalist forces remained in al-Brega, but he insisted that the Gadhafi troops were on the defensive.

New al-Brega, a suburban area of the homes of workers at a nearby oil refinery, was partially under rebel control on Monday. Opposition officers said they were still clearing the area of Gadhafi forces, and a resident fleeing the area told CNN that it is still unsafe.

There have been no NATO airstrikes in the area for at least 24 hours, he said.
The perceived lack of airstrikes enforcing a U.N. resolution to protect civilian lives and enforce an arms embargo brought criticism from rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani.
"You are supposed to be implementing this resolution and clearly it's not implemented in Misrata, it's not implemented in Zintan or Zahwiya and we're wondering, where are they?" he said.
Though Gadhafi has shown no signs of appeasing the opposition or relinquishing his power to anyone outside his family, cracks in his armor have surfaced.

His longtime confidant and foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, recently fled to London and announced his resignation from the Libyan government. On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department lifted the freeze on Koussa's assets following his split from Gadhafi.

Gheriani said while the conflict persists, he remains hopeful for a revolution.
"I think the Gadhafi regime is crumbling from within," he said. "I think if you look at history, people will always win, and I think victory will be ours."

My life is in danger: Eman al-Obeidy

Eman al-Obeidy, the woman who burst into a Tripoli hotel to tell journalists she was beaten and raped by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi last month, is no longer in custody but says she still fears for her life.

In two telephone interviews with CNN's "AC360," al-Obeidy spoke about her alleged abuse. At times in tears, at other times defiant, she recalled men pouring alcohol into her eyes and repeatedly using rifles to sodomize her. Al-Obeidy said has since been stopped trying to leave Libya and that she has nightmares.

"My life is in danger, and I call on all human rights organization ... to expose the truth and to let me leave now. I am being held hostage here," she said. "They have threatened me with death and told me I will never leave prison again, if I go to the journalists or tell them anything about what's happening in Tripoli."

Al-Obeidy said she spent 72 hours under interrogation after being dragged away from the Tripoli hotel where she tried to tell journalists about her alleged abuse.

Interrogators poured water on her face and threw food at her during the relentless questioning, which ended only after she was examined by a doctor to prove she had been raped, al-Obeidy said. "And when the test came, it verified that I was raped and tortured ... then I was freed."

She said the public statements from a state TV anchor and government officials, who initially called her mentally ill, drunk and a prostitute, have ruined her reputation. Al-Obeidy said her spirits and morale are low and that she has nightmares now.

"They did not give me a chance to respond," she said.

The attempt to discredit al-Obeidy as a promiscuous, un-Islamic woman ties into the idea of sexual shaming in a conservative Muslim society where it's commonly believed that a woman who has been raped has lost her honor, said Mona Eltahawy, a columnist on Arab and Muslim issues.

For a woman in such a society to come forward to claim she has been raped is no small thing.

"No one would do that unless they were raped, and especially in a conservative society," Eltahawy told CNN.

Al-Obeidy burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on March 26 while international journalists staying there were having breakfast.

She told reporters she had been taken from a checkpoint east of Tripoli, held against her will for two days and raped by 15 men.

"They had my hands tied behind me, and they had my legs tied, and they would hit me, while I was tied and bite me in my body. And they would pour alcohol in my eyes so that I would not be able to see and they would sodomize me with their rifles, and they would not let us go to the bathroom. We were not allowed to eat or drink," she told CNN's "AC360," speaking through a translator.

"One man would leave and another would enter. He would finish and then another man would come in," al-Obeidy said.

She said another woman being held captive was able to untie her hands and feet, allowing al-Obeidy to escape.

When CNN saw her in March, al-Obeidy's legs and face were bruised and she had blood on her right inner thigh. Her visible injuries appeared to support her allegations, but CNN could not independently verify her story.

Government officials tried to subdue her, scuffling with reporters in the process and eventually dragged her away.

Al-Obeidy said she is no longer in government custody and has spent time with her sister. But she said she cannot leave the house where she is staying as officials from the police or army will pursue her.

She said that when she tries to leave the house, officials chase her down and take her to a police station. But police don't know what to do with her since she is not charged with a crime, and she is released.

Al-Obeidy said she has been abducted by Gadhafi forces three times -- the first time from the hotel, the second time when she tried to escape to Tunisia last week and a third time on Sunday. She said the abduction Sunday and accompanying threats were an effort to prevent her from taking her complaints to a police investigations unit.

In spite of the danger, al-Obeidy said the most important thing to her is that her voice reaches the world.

"I would like to direct a word to all the people watching us in America that we are a peaceful people and we are not members of al Qaeda. We are a simple people and moderate Muslims -- not extremists -- and we are not asking for anything expect for our freedom and dignity and the most basic human rights which are denied to us," she said.

Her father said Monday he has still not spoken to his daughter and begged the international community to come to her aid.

"What is happening to her is wrong. What can I do? I have no power to do anything. I urge the human rights organizations and all international humanitarian movements to get involved and help us," said Atiq Al-Obeidy.

Turkish ship rescues injured from Misrata

A Turkish humanitarian ship carrying more than 250 injured people from the Libyan city of Misrata has arrived in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Misrata, the only city in the west still controlled by the rebels, has been under siege by forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi for several weeks.

Doctors on board the ship said many people had extremely serious injuries.

Meanwhile, the eastern oil town of Brega has seen continued fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces.

A BBC correspondent says an uneasy stalemate is developing.

Government troops are reported to be holding ground near its university, but are reluctant to engage rebels because of the risk of Nato air strikes.

The poorly armed and disorganised rebel forces are unable or unwilling to push on towards Brega and are calling for more help from the West.

Meanwhile, Libya's Deputy Foreign Minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, has told the Greek prime minister that Col Gaddafi wants the fighting to end.

"It seems that the Libyan authorities are seeking a solution," Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas told reporters in Athens.

Amputations

Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, ordered the Ankara, a car ferry that had been turned into a makeshift hospital, into Misrata on Sunday after it had spend four days waiting for permission to dock.

The ship, which was also carrying medical supplies for doctors in Misrata, arrived under cover from 10 Turkish F-16 fighter jets and two navy frigates, Turkish consular official Ali Akin told the Reuters news agency.

With heavily armed Turkish police special forces standing by, the injured people were taken aboard and laid on mattresses on one of the car decks, above which saline drips were hung. Some were accompanied by their relatives.

Mr Akin said the ship had to leave early after a large crowd - including hundreds of Egyptians - pressed forward on the quayside hoping to escape.

The BBC's Jon Leyne, who went on board the Ankara, says many of the patients have extremely serious injuries, including some amputations.

One man lost part of his leg in an explosion as he was taking his wife into hospital for treatment. A 13-year-old boy described how he was shot by a sniper. A 12 year old was peppered with shrapnel when a rocket exploded near him when he and his brother were on their way to the market.

Mohammed Muftah, who had shrapnel wounds on his legs, back and neck, said Col Gaddafi's troops had "killed entire families".

"I have a neighbour who lost his wife and his three children," he told the AFP news agency. "They did it just to terrorise people."

Our correspondent says everyone had stories of the ever worsening conditions in Misrata. They told him that much of the city had no water or electricity and no-one was safe from shelling or sniper-fire.

"It is very, very bad. In my street, Gaddafi bombed us," Ibrahim al-Aradi, who had wounds in his groin, told Reuters. "We have no water, no electricity. We don't have medicine. There are snipers everywhere."

Doctors on board say medical care conditions Misrata were inadequate, and that more than 200 people had been killed and hundreds more wounded. One unconfirmed report said 160 may have died this week.

At least one person was killed and several wounded early on Sunday when government forces shelled a building in Misrata, a resident told Reuters.

As the ship arrived in Benghazi several hundred rebel supporters waiting on the quayside chanted: "The blood of martyrs is spilled for freedom."

The Ankara would pick up about 100 more wounded before setting sail for the Turkish port of Cesme, where the casualties would be treated in a well-equipped, well-supplied, modern hospital, officials said.

Stalemate

To the east of Benghazi, government troops continued to hold ground near the university in Brega, trading rocket and artillery fire with the rebels.

The rebel Transitional National Council has appealed for new Nato air strikes, as well as weapons and military training to be provided by foreign governments.

They have acknowledged that rebel fighters firing in the air through lack of discipline could have provoked the Nato air strike on a rebel convoy on Friday, which left at least 13 people dead.

The rebel military commanders say they are trying to bring a new professionalism to its military campaign. Road blocks have been set up close to the frontline and only soldiers with at least some training are allowed through.

Iman Bugaighis, a spokeswoman for the rebel council, told the BBC: "We have reorganised our troops. Now the army is in the front and then followed by our volunteers who are fighting with the army."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa meanwhile called for a swift end to the conflict, even if it meant offering Col Gaddafi safe haven in another country.

Fighting resumes in oil city of Brega

Fighting has resumed in Libya with rebel forces continuing to battle for control of the eastern oil town of Brega.

Rebels have captured the university on the outskirts of the city, AFP says.

Overnight, shelling resumed in Misrata, Libya's third biggest city and the last big rebel stronghold in the west, which has been besieged for weeks.

At least 13 people were killed when a coalition plane fired on a rebel convoy between Brega and Ajdabiya on Friday.

The rebels' leadership has acknowledged that firing in the air through lack of discipline could have provoked the Nato air strike on their own forces on Friday.

The opposition leadership says it is trying to bring a new professionalism to its military campaign.

Road blocks have been set up close to the frontline and only soldiers with at least some training are allowed through.

Stalemate

Brega - some 800km (500 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli - has been the scene of intense exchanges over the past few days since pro-Gaddafi forces returned after being driven out.

The rebels had claimed to have recaptured the key oil town on Saturday, but pro-Gaddafi snipers were still said to be active, and others were apparently holed up in the university, AFP reports.

Early on Sunday morning, the rebels pushed forward and were occupying the university's vast campus on the outskirts of Brega, according to an AFP journalist.

At least one person was killed and several wounded early on Sunday when forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi shelled a building in Misrata, a resident has told Reuters news agency.

There have also been reports that Gaddafi forces have shelled the town of Yafran in a mountainous region south-west of Libya's capital, Tripoli, pan-Arab satellite channel al-Arabiya has reported, quoting an eyewitness.

Six-and-a-half weeks after the uprising began, it is hard to see how either side can break out of the military and political deadlock into which this conflict has descended, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in the rebel-controlled city of Benghazi.

Neither side has the power to force an outright military victory, but neither is weak enough to force them into serious peace negotiations either, our correspondent adds.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has called for a swift end to the conflict in Libya even if it means offering Col Gaddafi safe haven in another country.

Speaking to the BBC, Archbishop Tutu, who retired from public life last year, said in an ideal world the Libyan leader should stand trial, but that in reality it was better "to let him have a soft landing and save the lives as many people as you possibly can".

Rebel reorganisation

The rebels are determined to strengthen their forces and defeat Col Gaddafi, a spokeswoman for the transitional national council, Iman Bugaighis, has told the BBC World Service.

"We have reorganised our troops, our army forces. Now the army is in the front and then followed by our volunteers who are fighting with the army," she told the Weekend World Today programme.

"We know and we admit that it's unequal forces of course, and we are, after all, civilians and volunteers, most of us; and it was planned, intentionally, from the beginning not to have [a] structured army.

"Of course we are determined, this is the end of it, that this land cannot bear both of us. We will do whatever it takes to liberate our country."

An uprising against Col Gaddafi's rule in February has developed into an armed conflict pitting rebels against government forces and drawing in a Nato-led coalition with a UN mandate to protect civilians.

At least several thousand people have been killed and many more have been injured as the two sides battle for control over territory.

The country's vital coastal cities are now roughly split between pro-Gaddafi forces controlling Tripoli and the west, and rebels controlling Benghazi in the east.

Who is Alassane Ouattara

Alassane Dramane Ouattara's long battle for the presidency of Ivory Coast has mirrored some of the problems the world's largest cocoa producer has faced over the past decade or so.

• Nickname: Ado
• Age: 69
• Northerner, Muslim
• Economist and former prime minister

 

Ouattara's History

    * 1968: Begins work at the International Monetary Fund
    * 1983: Becomes vice-governor of the Central Bank of West African States
    * 1990: Becomes Ivory Coast's prime minister under President Felix Houphouet-Boigny
    * 1995: Barred from running as a presidential candidate
    * 2000: Again barred from running because of disputes over his nationality
    * 2010: Wins presidential run-off against Laurent Gbagbo, according to the UN

He was twice barred from running in presidential elections because he was regarded as a foreigner - as his mother was from neighbouring Burkina Faso.

He has a reputation as a hard-worker, keen on transparency and good governance.

But his rivals criticise him for being too Western, and say he backed the 2002 attempted coup d'etat - something he denies.

However, those rebels now form the bulk of his fighting forces.

Arguments over his nationality came to symbolise the marginalisation felt in the mainly Muslim north, where many migrants from neighbouring countries have settled since independence to work on cocoa farms and plantations.

Following the 2002 civil war, which split the country between the north and south, the constitution was amended to remove the stipulation that both a presidential candidate's parents be Ivorian.

This opened the way for Mr Ouattara to take on President Laurent Gbagbo in November 2010 - in polls the UN peacekeeping mission in the country says he won.

But Mr Gbagbo's supporters have reacted with outrage, after years of seeing Mr Ouattara demonised on state media as a foreigner and stooge of France, the former colonial power.

Soft-spoken economist

"Ado", as Mr Ouattara is known to his supporters because of his initials, did not start out as a career politician.

The 69 year old is an economist by training - studying in the United States - and has spent much of his career at the International Monetary Fund - where he rose to be deputy head - and the West African Central Bank.

When Ivory Coast's founding father Felix Houphouet-Boigny called him to help rescue Ivory Coast from economic stagnation, he was seen locally as an international technocrat.

He then had a brief taste of power when he served as prime minister between 1990 and 1993 under Mr Houphouet-Boigny.

After Mr Houphouet-Boigny died in 1993, Henri Konan Bedie succeeded to the presidency and played the nationalist card, exploiting Mr Ouattara's links to neighbouring Burkina Faso to sideline him from presidential contests.

Months of instability sparked by attempts to discredit Mr Ouattara culminated in Ivory Coast's first coup in December 1999, by General Robert Guei.

At first the coup appeared to be good news for Mr Ouattara, and several of his supporters assumed senior positions in the military government.

But it became clear that Gen Guei planned to run for the presidency himself and he began employing similar tactics to Mr Bedie.

Mr Ouattara was excluded from the December 2000 poll but Gen Guei's attempts to rig the outcome were defeated by massive street protests by supporters of Mr Gbagbo - then a veteran opposition leader.

Mr Ouattara may again have hoped that a change of regime would be good news for him but it was not to be.

Like his two predecessors, Mr Gbagbo found it useful to shore up his new position of power by using nationalism to attack his main rival, a Muslim with a French wife.

  

Xenophobic attacks on Burkinabes in Abidjan by supporters of Mr Gbagbo were a sign of things to come.

After the 2002 uprising, Mr Gbagbo portrayed himself as under attack from foreign powers.

Mr Gbagbo has followed similar tactics since December - and some had worried they might prove too nasty for the soft-spoken economist.

But from his blockaded hotel in Abidjan, where he has been since being declared presidential winner in December, he has squeezed Mr Gbagbo financially - cutting off his access to vital cocoa funds and international finance.

The banking system has all but collapsed and cocoa beans have been piled up in warehouses in the country's ports.

He did show a steely side - long calling for military action to oust Mr Gbagbo, before finally unleashing the former rebels, who backed him, from their northern strongholds to sweep down towards the seat of power in Abidjan.

With former rebel leader Guillaume Soro as his prime minister, Ado looks set to finally become Ivory Coast's leader after being thwarted for so many years.

Who is Laurent Gbagbo

Laurent Gbagbo is a classically educated academic turned opposition leader, now seen as just another African leader destroying his country by refusing to accept defeat at the ballot box.

Gbagbo's History

    * 1971: Jailed for "subversive teaching"
    * 1982: Exile in Paris after union activism
    * 1988: Returns to Ivory Coast
    * 1990: Defeated in elections
    * 1992: Jailed after student protests
    * 2000: Declared winner of disputed elections
    * 2002: Failed coup divides Ivory Coast
    * 2007: Agrees power-sharing government with former rebels
    * 2010: Elections held five years later. Refuses to go after UN says he lost

After 20 years in opposition, he came to power in 2000, when military leader Robert Guei's attempts to rig elections were defeated by street protests by Mr Gbagbo's supporters in the main city, Abidjan.

Now, he is the one clinging to power after an election dispute and security forces loyal to him accused of firing at unarmed demonstrators in Abidjan.

Mr Gbagbo cut his political teeth in the trade union movement and he plays heavily on his reputation as the main opposition figure to former President Felix Houphouet-Boigny's one-party state.

He started out on the political left, but since the 1980s he has taken a strongly nationalist, even xenophobic, stance.

'Change your glasses'

Mr Gbagbo says the dispute is about a fight for Ivorian (and indeed African) sovereignty and accuses the French and Americans of having it in for him.

Ivory Coast is the nation blessed by God and neo-colonialists want to control it for its cocoa and oil fields, he says.

However, this ploy has not succeeded and the African Union has backed the UN's finding that Mr Gbagbo lost the November 2010 election and he should stand down.

He was accused of surfing on the wave of xenophobia which swept Ivory Coast during the rule of President Henri Konan Bedie.

Mr Bedie introduced the concept of "Ivoirite" (Ivorianness) to prevent Alassane Ouattara, a Muslim from the north, from standing in presidential elections in the 1990s.

Mr Gbagbo denied allegations of opportunism. "I have not changed," he said at the time. "You must change your glasses."

It now looks like Mr Ouattara, the UN-recognised winner of November's election, could have the last laugh, as his forces close in on the presidential palace in Abidjan.

Since the 2002 civil war broke out, Mr Gbagbo's supporters have been accused of carrying out xenophobic attacks in the areas they control - against those from the mainly Muslim north, immigrants from neighbouring African countries and Westerners.

They accused former colonial power France and the international community of not doing enough to put down the rebellion.

'Cicero'

Laurent Gbagbo was born into a Catholic family near Gagnoa, in the cocoa-growing centre-west of the country, nearly 60 years ago.

"Cicero", as he was nicknamed because of his taste for Latin during his schooldays, has a PhD in history.

Beginning his career as a university lecturer, Mr Gbagbo was jailed for two years in 1971 for "subversive" teaching. His nom de guerre was "little brother".

In the 1980s he was involved in trade union activity among academics.

He was one of the first to challenge Ivory Coast's founding President Houphouet-Boigny in the 1980s, as soon as the long-serving independence leader permitted multi-party politics.

In 1982 he sought exile in Paris, returning six years later to attend the founding congress of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).

His time as an opposition leader led to spells in jail and brushes with the authorities.

His wife, Simone, is a powerful politician in her own right and some see her as the real hardline power behind the throne, preventing her husband from giving up power.

The couple have two daughters.

'Good company'

After his election in 2000, Mr Gbagbo said he would break with the personality cult tradition, saying it was no longer necessary to put up portraits of the president in public places and offices.

He also said that the national media would no longer be obliged to mention the president in all news programmes.

But while he was in power, most news broadcasts highlight Mr Gbagbo's daily activities.

He has a reputation for being short-tempered, in particular against "arrogant" journalists, but he is also known for his contagious laughs and vigorous handshakes.

In person he has a broad smile and an easy laugh, and is a born communicator, frequently making use of metaphors from Ivorian daily life.

He is said to have a passion for music, guitar and good food.

"It is a pleasure to have him round for dinner," one of his friends was quoted as saying in Jeune Afrique-L'Intelligent magazine.

Still, the man who campaigned under the slogan "we win or we win", can be a stubborn political player and, his opponents claim, has links to violent militia groups like the students' union, the Fesci, the Young Patriots, and death squads, despite his reputation as a peaceful, Sorbonne-educated socialist.

The UN blames his militias for the worst violence against civilians.

He has also earned himself the nickname "the baker" for his ability to "roll his opponents in the flour", after showing an uncanny knack of coming out on top in any political tussle.

But he may now have met his match.