ABIDJAN (AFP) - Backers of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo cried foul after the UN Security Council slapped an arms embargo on the divided west African state after 10 days of turmoil that sparked an exodus of foreigners and nationals.
"I am disappointed by the abuse that Ivory Coast has suffered at the hands of the international community that manifests itself in this embargo," firebrand parliamentary speaker Mamadou Koulibaly told AFP.
"It is clear that the moral compass within this international community favors those countries that are strong and rich."
The 15-member council voted unanimously Monday in favor of a French resolution against its former star colony in west Africa, banning arms sales for 13 months in the wake of a government air strike on a French military base that left nine French troops and a US civilian dead.
President Laurent Gbagbo has called the three days of strikes on positions in the rebel-held north part of an offensive to "liberate and reunify" the country, divided since a failed September 2002 coup sparked a civil war.
France, however, has called the strikes, which violated an 18-month-old ceasefire, "deliberate", and retaliated by wiping out Ivory Coast's modest air force.
The aggressive riposte spurred a riot of anti-French violence in the main city Abidjan that reportedly left one in four homes owned by Europeans destroyed.
More than 75 complaints -- three of them for rape -- have been filed by those evacuated to France, among the more than 4,500 people who have arrived at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport since chartered flights began lifting off Wednesday from Abidjan, French court officials said.
Dozens of people were injured and several women raped during the mob violence, the French military in Abidjan has said.
Competing death tolls from Ivorian government sources say between 22 and 64 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. There has been no confirmation that any foreign nationals were killed, though two French nationals are missing.
Evacuations were continuing Tuesday, whisking both Swiss and Portuguese nationals home to bring to more than 5,700 the number of foreigners who have fled Ivory Coast after the latest violence to convulse the west African powerhouse, the world's top cocoa producer.
Support for the UN move, which may be followed December 15 with targeted travel bans and the freezing of assets should there be no progress towards implementing a tattered January 2003 peace pact, was high both in France and across the African Union.
The grouping has held talks with the warring parties in Ivory Coast's two years of conflict aiming to steer the country away from a reprise of war that could destabilize the hard-won peace settling over its neighbors.
"We believe the decision of the UN Security Council is a step in the right direction," said Mohammed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), another regional grouping that has played a key role in mediating the Ivory Coast crisis.
"Hopefully, if we can return Ivory Coast to peace and security very quickly, Ivory Coast, like any other country, can then go about to build its armed forces and acquire arms for legitimate purposes."
More than 10,000 Ivorians have flooded into Liberia since the first air strikes hit the northern towns of Korhogo and Bouake on November 4, overwhelming the modest resources available in the war-torn country.
"I have asked the population to help their brothers and sisters who are running to them as we do in Africa, but the way things are going we will soon run out of food," Albert Farnga, superintendent of the border town of Butuo, told AFP.
Power and electricity cuts across the north accompanied the strikes, evoking fears of a widespread health crisis. Power was restored Friday and cut again Sunday before the lights were turned back on again Tuesday.
Life was gradually returning to normal in Abidjan, once one of Africa's most modern and sophisticated cities, with businesses opening their doors and uniformed children heading back to school.
Delivery of cocoa beans, of which Ivory Coast is the world's top producer, remains a problem, the national cocoa board told AFP, owing to the security fears of the small-holder planters responsible for producing the fragrant crop.
Cocoa prices stabilized somewhat on the London market, closing at 988 pounds sterling per tonne on Tuesday after falling to 944 pounds sterling during the day.
"The situation is totally confusing to us; we are waiting for the return of total calm so that we can resume our activities," planter Marc Bonzou told AFP by telephone from the eastern town of Abengourou.
"We are risking the total ruin of our crops."

11/16/2004 - 18:51 GMT - AFP