HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020924/1/333jx.html Agence France-Presse Tuesday September 24, 10:54 PM US troops en route to save children trapped in I. Coast US troops were preparing to leave for the west African nation of Ivory Coast to rescue American and European children trapped in a battle between the army and mutineers as a French contingent on the ground ruled out any immediate evacuation. The 170 children -- 160 of them from the United States, the others from Canada and the Netherlands -- were trapped in the International Christian Academy in the central city of Bouake, with machine-gun bullets going just a few metres (feet) over their heads, school officials told AFP on Tuesday. The fighting followed an uprising in Abidjan, the main city on the coast, which left 270 dead and 300 wounded last Thursday, according to a government tally. Mutineers also hold Korhogo, the biggest town in the mainly Muslim North. "At the request of the American ambassador to the Ivory Coast, the European Command intends to move forces there to ensure the safety of our American citizens," said Lieutenant Commander Don Sewell, a Navy spokesman in Washington. "The purpose is to go there and assist in moving American citizens from the Christian Academy, where they are, to a safe location, still within Ivory Coast. But, he insisted, "this is not an evacuation." The commander of French troops bivouacked at Yamoussoukro, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Bouake, meanwhile ruled out any immediate evacuation of the 1,000 foreigners in Bouake, who include 600 French nationals. "If securing the situation leads to an evacuation, we have the means to carry it out, but for the moment we are not at that point," Colonel Charles de Kersabiec told journalists. The approximately 250 French troops set up camp at Yamoussoukro airport on Monday after driving 350 kilometres (250 miles) overnight from Abidjan. De Kersabiec confirmed that French reinforcements were on their way from Abidjan on Tuesday -- the former colonial power maintains a 600-strong garrison in Abidjan, and flew in extra troops from France and nearby Gabon at the weekend -- but refused to specify their number. The contingent already in place, equipped with armoured vehicles and three large Cougar helicopters, numbers about 250 men and women. On Tuesday, the government troops were ensconced in the eastern suburbs of Bouake, shooting into the centre, military sources said. "Lots of the children are frightened," a school administrator, Michel Cousineau, told AFP from the academy. Cousineau said three military trucks carrying 60 soldiers were outside the school. "They are sweeping the area and firing shots from time to time. Gunfire is going on in the distance, and it's heavy at times," he said. James Forlines, director of a Baptist mission involved with the school told AFP from Nashville, Tennessee that administrators there had reported earlier that "50-calibre machine-gun bullets are going eight to 10 feet (about three metres) over our heads". The newspaper of Ivory Coast's ruling party meanwhile accused President Blaise Compaore of neighbouring Burkina Faso of masterminding the uprising. "Ivory Coast, our country, is at war against a regime, that of Blaise Compaore; that's good to know," the daily Notre Vie declared Tuesday. The government had earlier said the uprising was a bid to topple President Laurent Gbagbo and blamed it on Ivory Coast's former military ruler, General Robert Guei, who was among the hundreds killed in Abidjan on Thursday, adding that it was masterminded by an unspecified "rogue state" in the region. Burkinabes make up the majority of Ivory Coast's large immigrant population. More than a third of the 16 million people in Ivory Coast -- the world's largest cocoa producer -- are foreigners. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
