Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo moved from Abidjan,

Gbagbo's Dates With 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
• 2011: Forced from power 
•  

The former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, has been moved out of the main city of Abidjan a day after his arrest, a UN spokesman has said.

The spokesman did not say where Mr Gbagbo had gone but said UN troops were with him to guarantee his security.
He was detained after a week-long siege by forces loyal to his rival, the UN-recognised president Alassane Ouattara.
Mr Ouattara has promised that Mr Gbagbo will not be harmed, but Abidjan remains unstable with sporadic gunfire heard.
There are reports that some soldiers and militiamen loyal to Mr Gbagbo have refused to surrender, despite his call for an end to the fighting.
Mr Gbagbo and his wife, Simone, were taken to Mr Ouattara's headquarters at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan immediately after his arrest.
But UN spokesman Farhan Haq told a news conference in New York on Tuesday that UN peacekeepers had since "helped to move him to another place in Ivory Coast where he is secure".
Mr Haq said only that the new location was outside Abidjan. UN troops would remain with Mr Gbagbo "to ensure his safety", he added.
The head of UN peacekeeping operations, Alain Le Roy, said on Monday that Mr Ouattara might move Mr Gbagbo to his stronghold in the north.
On Monday evening, Mr Ouattara said "all measures" would be taken to ensure the "physical integrity" of Mr Gbagbo and his wife.
He said he had asked his justice minister to launch legal proceedings would be started against them and their aides.
"They will be treated with dignity and their rights will be respected."
Mr Ouattara also announced that a truth and reconciliation commission would be set up to "shed light on all the massacres, crimes, and all cases of human rights violation". Both sides have been accused of atrocities

Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo arrested

Besieged Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo has been detained in the main city Abidjan and delivered to the headquarters of his elected successor.

He reportedly surrendered to Alassane Ouattara's forces after French tanks advanced on his residence.
Mr Gbagbo had been refusing to cede power to Mr Ouattara after losing November's presidential election.

France said pro-Ouattara troops had detained him, but an aide to Mr Gbagbo said it was French special forces.
Mr Gbagbo was then taken to the city's Golf Hotel, where Mr Ouattara has his headquarters.
UN peacekeepers have accused pro-Gbabgo forces of endangering the civilian population, and had asked French troops in Ivory Coast to act against the defiant leader's heavy weapons.
Ivory Coast's permanent representative to the UN, Youssoufou Bamba, said Mr Gbagbo would stand trial.
In London, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that if charges were brought, Mr Gbagbo should be tried in an orderly manner.
'Gbagbo has surrendered' Forces loyal to Mr Ouattara launched an offensive from their stronghold in the north at the end of March, after months of political deadlock during which Mr Gbagbo refused to recognise his rival's election victory.

Continue reading the main story

At the scene

 

Mark Doyle BBC News, Abidjan

 

Senior diplomatic sources say Mr Gbagbo was arrested by forces loyal to Mr Ouattara, and a senior French military source tells me not a single French soldier was present at his arrest.
Who arrested him and how it happened is very significant. If Mr Ouattara is perceived to have been put in power by the French, he will have trouble governing because the nationalists will say he is just a puppet.
If Mr Ouattara is fully in charge of all of the disparate forces loyal to him it is unlikely he would allow Mr Gbagbo to be mistreated or killed. He could be put on trial for alleged war crimes.
Even if other soldiers are in charge, there are UN peacekeeping forces at the Golf Hotel where Mr Gbagbo is said to have been taken, and they will be keeping a very close eye on what is going on.

As they closed in on Mr Gbagbo's power base in Abidjan, UN and French attack helicopters targeted heavy weapons being used by his forces.

Attempts to negotiate his exit failed, and his forces appeared to be making a comeback by the end of last week, even threatening the hotel used by Mr Ouattara.
On Sunday, UN and French helicopters launched a new wave of air strikes, and on Monday French tanks were seen advancing on the residence.
The UN announced that Mr Gbagbo had surrendered to Mr Ouattara's forces.
"The United Nations mission in Cote d'Ivoire [Ivory Coast] has confirmed that former President Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered to the forces of Alassane Ouattara and is currently in their custody," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
Anne Ouloto, a spokeswoman for Mr Ouattara, told AFP news agency that Mr Gbagbo was at the Golf Hotel with his wife and his son Michel.
The hotel is protected by both pro-Ouattara forces and UN peacekeepers.
French denial France's ambassador to Ivory Cost, Jean-Marc Simon, told AFP news agency: "Laurent Gbagbo was arrested by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast and taken to the Golf Hotel."
AFP added that eyewitnesses had seen pro-Ouattara forces entering the presidential compound while French and UN armoured vehicles stood on a road leading to the complex.
However, an aide to Mr Gbagbo, Toussaint Alain, told Reuters news agency from Paris: "Gbagbo has been arrested by French special forces in his residence and has been handed over to the rebel leaders."
An unnamed French government source denied the report.
"Mr Gbagbo was arrested by Mr Ouattara's troops, that is true, but not by French special forces, who did not go into the enclosure of Mr Gbagbo's residence," the source told AFP.
Whether it was by Mr Ouattara's forces or the French is still open to question, the BBC's Mark Doyle reports from Abidjan.
According to our correspondent's sources, it was the French army who were in the lead heading towards the residence of Mr Gbagbo on Monday with a heavily armoured column.

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