EU slaps sanctions on Ivory Coast's Gbagbo

Defiant Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo and 18 others will be hit by European Union sanctions for refusing to concede defeat to presidential rival Alassane Ouattara, officials said Monday as Ouattara's camp called on the United Nations to head off a "civil war."
Despite fierce international pressure, Gbagbo is relying on military might to cling to power and has asked UN peacekeepers and French troops to quit the country amid unrest that has claimed at least 50 lives since Thursday. Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said diplomats agreed Monday on a list of officials who will be barred from travelling to the EU and will have assets held in the bloc frozen.
"There are 19 names on the list, including President Gbagbo ... and his wife," Kocijancic said. The move, due to be formally adopted later this week, represents a hardening of the EU's position. A draft sanctions list seen last week by the German Press Agency dpa only targeted 11 officials - but not Gbagbo himself. A spokesman for the presidency of Ouattara, whom the world recognises as the rightful winner of last month's presidential polls, said he did not believe sanctions would budge Gbagbo and called for the UN peacekeeping force to be given a tougher mandate at a Security Council meeting later Monday.
"We want them to transform to an intervention force against whoever will attack civilians," Patrick Achi told dpa. "I hope it will happen because now ... because could go further and reach a civil war." The Security Council is due to meet in New York to discuss the UN Operation in Cote D'Ivoire's (ONUCI) mandate, which expires at the end of this month.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has already rejected Ggabgo's order for the 10,000 UN troops to leave the former French colony, and warned those responsible for attacks on peacekeepers would be "held accountable." A UN patrol entering headquarters was fired on by six unidentified armed men on Friday night. No injuries were reported. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, on Sunday said more than 50 people had been killed since Thursday and warned that pro-Gbagbo military and militia were abducting hundreds of people and carrying out extrajudicial killings. Achi said he believed the true number of dead was higher, saying his camp had discovered a mass grave containing 60 bodies on Sunday.