Anyone see any irony in this?
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Heavily armed French forces in armored vehicles and helicopters took control of Ivory Coast\'s international airport Friday, after thousands of rock-throwing demonstrators attacked fleeing French citizens.
Members of the mob — angry over concessions in a a French-brokered peace deal for the West African nation — had invaded the airport, storming the tarmac and taunting French passengers trying to escape the troubled former French colony.
At least two French soldiers were injured by rocks, one seriously, French military spokesman Lt. Col. Philippe Perret said. Rioters terrorized passengers, stealing suitcases and handbags, Perret said.
"Go home and don\'t come back!" the protesters screamed at families as they grabbed their bags and rushed into the airport.
The airport clash follows days of often-violent protests by government loyalists. Government supporters are angry over a peace deal closed Jan. 24 in Paris that they say yields too much power to Ivory Coast\'s rebels, who have seized more than half the country in a 4-month-old civil war.
France urged its citizens to get out, recommending in a new message posted on the French Foreign Ministry\'s web site that "French people whose presence isn\'t indispensable leave the country." The United States, Britain and others recommended the same for their citizens months ago.
About 5,000 protesters massed at the airport by midmorning, and numbers of them held the tarmac for about 45 minutes.
The chaos prevented some passengers from boarding flights, while others were trapped inside planes and in the departure hall of the airport.
At the peak, Ivorian paramilitary troops and police sought to convince the whistle-blowing protesters — mostly young men dressed in the orange, green and white colors of the West African nation\'s flag — to leave.
Minutes later, four French military helicopters touched down on the tarmac and soldiers spilled out, rushing to secure the area as several demonstrators set a French flag on fire.
French forces in a dozen armored vehicles mounted with cannon took up posts on the airport perimeter and the main airport road.
Ivorian troops and the French together appeared to restore some order at the airport, although all but one airline suspended flights, and demonstrators remained out in force.
Militant youths continued to harass vehicles traveling to and from the airport.
Ivorian Defense Minister Bertin Kadet arrived at the airport at late morning, and sought to calm the crowd.
"I have asked the French military to evacuate the area in order to pacify the crowd," Kadet told the protesters.
He charged that the sight of such French military force only heightened the mob\'s anger.
The French forces, however, showed no sign of leaving.
"One thing is sure, we\'ll be at the airport as long as French nationals are there," French Commander Frederic Thomazo said.
"The Ivorian military is unable to provide liberty of movement," French army spokesman Perret said. "This is unacceptable."
The demonstration broke out early Friday morning to protest the scheduled arrival of Ivorian Seydou Diarra, slated to be the new prime minister under the now-threatened peace deal.
Demonstrators declared that they\'d gathered to "keep Diarra from touching Ivory Coast soil."
Diarra at midday remained in Dakar, Senegal, where West African leaders gathered to search for resolution to the crisis in Ivory Coast.
Representatives of Ivory Coast\'s northern-based rebels also joined the talks.
Ivory Coast, the world\'s largest cocoa exporter, was once a stable African powerhouse. A 1999 military coup, its first-ever, ended decades of stability. Ethnic and political violence culminated in another coup attempt in September and subsequent civil war.
Rebels in the north and west accuse President Laurent Gbagbo of fanning ethnic hatred, and demand his resignation. The French-brokered peace deal was meant to create a power-sharing government until 2005 elections.
France has 2,500 troops based in the country to protect more than 16,000 French civilians. Paris sent another 130 paramilitary police on Thursday as violence welled against its citizens.
Meanwhile Friday, neighboring Liberia threatened trouble on another front for Ivory Coast — accusing Ivory Coast forces of hunting down and killing innocent Liberian refugees in Ivory Coast. Some Liberian gunmen are fighting on the side of rebels in Ivory Coast\'s west, which has sparked anger here against Liberians in general.
"Liberia will not sit back to see Liberians being humiliated and killed," Justice Minister Lavela Koboi Johnson said in a statement, without specifying what action his government might take.
