France cuts Ivory Coast forces

Gbagbo was pulled from his burning residence yesterday by troops of Alassane Ouattara, elected president last year.

The pro-Ouattara forces had received support by French tanks and helicopters.

Mr Longuet praised the operation in the former French colony, saying that it “functioned well”.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Gbagbo’s capture would send a signal to other African countries holding elections this year.

Meanwhile Mr Ouattara called on all fighters to put down their arms.

More than a million civilians fled their homes and untold numbers were killed in the more than four-month power struggle between the two rivals. The stand-off threatened to re-ignite a civil war in the world’s largest cocoa producer, once divided in two by a civil war nearly a decade ago.

“After more than four months of post-electoral crisis, marked by so many human lives lost, we are finally at the dawn of a new era of hope,” Mr Ouattara said in an address to the nation on radio and television.

Residents of the commercial capital of Abidjan refrained from celebrating in public, still fearful of the many armed fighters prowling the streets and refusing to believe their leader Gbagbo had been arrested.

Gbagbo’s security forces have been accused of using mortars and machine guns to mow down opponents. Gbagbo could be forced to answer for his soldiers’ crimes, but an international trial threatens to stoke the divisions that Mr Ouattara will now have to heal as president.

Mr Ouattara cut short speculation that Gbagbo would be delivered to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, calling for an Ivorian investigation into the former president, his wife and their entourage.

He also called on his supporters to refrain from retaliatory violence and said he intended to establish a truth and reconciliation commission.