UNITED NATIONS, (AFP) - The UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose an immediate arms embargo on Ivory Coast as the exodus of foreign nationals from the troubled west African nation gathered pace.
The 13-month embargo is backed up by a targeted travel ban and assets freeze on individuals in the divided state on December 15 if key steps are not taken to implement the stalled peace accord in the former French colony.
Resolution 1572 was adopted unanimously despite earlier opposition from China and others who felt the African Union should be given more time to mediate a solution before an embargo was imposed.
France drafted the resolution earlier this month after nine French peacekeepers and a US aid worker were killed in an air strike by Ivorian government war planes in the north of the country.
French forces retaliated, wiping out the tiny nation's air force in a move that set off deadly anti-French and anti-foreign riots and vandalism that reportedly left dozens dead.
The 15-nation council agreed to heed a weekend call by African leaders to put the embargo in place without delay in a bid to defuse the tension in the world's top producer of cocoa, which has been divided since a coup attempt in September 2002 against President Laurent Gbagbo set off civil war.
"The Security Council has never stopped saying that there is no military solution for the crisis in Ivory Coast. There is only a political solution," French ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said after the vote.
De La Sabliere in particular cited two crucial stumbling blocks -- the failure of the rebels to disarm and the delay in amending a constitutional amendment that critics say is intended to block a rival of Gbagbo from running in elections next year.
"We take note of it but we want to make it clear -- it is unfair and conducted in an unfair manner," Ivory Coast's UN ambassador, Philippe Djangone-Bi, said of the resolution.
He accused France of becoming "practically party to the conflict" by favouring the rebels in drafting the resolution and targeted Paris for blame, even though the resolution was co-sponsored by six other council nations.
The exodus of French and other foreign nationals from Ivory Coast continued, with more than 5,000 people evacuated since Wednesday, following a week of anti-French violence and vandalism in the main city Abidjan.
Meanwhile in the rebel-held north, power and water were cut for the second time since government airstrikes on northern towns began on November 4, in violation of an 18-month ceasefire, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis.
The last plane chartered by the French government to evacuate foreign nationals arrived in Paris early Tuesday from Abidjan bringing the total number of foreigners flown to Paris from its former model colony to more than 4,500 since the anti-westerner violence exploded.
Another 1,000 have escaped on private flights.
Laurent, 42, an electric company employee, emerged from the plane and said "it's better to be here than back there. I didn't hesitate to leave".
Earlier fleeing expatriates have told tales of unchecked violence, machete attacks, rapes and looting, although a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said there had been no reports of murder.
Similar flights have been arranged by other nations, with Switzerland announcing Monday that it would send a plane out overnight which was able to pick up 160 people, more than the total of Swiss nationals living here.
"The Swiss who decide to stay are taking a risk," the Swiss Foreign Ministry said. Another plane was expected to arrive in Abidjan on Tuesday from Sweden.
The country's lurch back into unrest has led even people with dual Ivorian citizenship to flee what was once a regional powerhouse.
"It hurts me when someone is so able to destroy a country that he did not build himself," said one man carrying just a small suitcase as he left his homeland, in a terse allusion to Gbagbo.
Some 14,000 French nationals, including 8,000 with dual nationality, were living in Ivory Coast before the violence erupted on November 6.
When civil war broke out in the Ivory Coast in 2002, the French army evacuated about 3,000 foreigners from 23 nations, most of them French.
11/16/2004 - 08:03 GMT - AFP