Paris, Dec 15: French troops deployed in conflict-torn Ivory Coast have been authorised to open fire on people who openly prevent the accomplishment of their mission, Colonel Emmanuel Morin told France inter radio today. Asked about rebel groups who have pledged to fight the French troops, Morin said that he had received "clear" orders.
"It is a case of opening fire on any person manifestly preventing the accomplishment of our mission and... if I witness obvious power abuses, coming from any of the parties," he said.
Morin is head of a 500-strong contingent that is to deploy across the former French colony to enforce a shattered ceasefire between government soldiers and rebels who have held the northern half of the country for three months.
A first 150-strong contingent of paratroopers arrived in Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan late yesterday, being sent to buttress some 1,200 French soldiers already in the west African country.
Morin's statement came the day after thousands of people demonstrated in rebel-held Bouake, Ivory Coast's second city, to denounce the French military presence.
"The aim of the operation has not changed in nature, it has changed in scale," Morin said.
What started as a peacekeeping operation must now "ensure that the ceasefire is actively enforced," he said, adding: "this is more of a dialogue-building mission than a coercive one." Bureau Report