Ivory Coast’s president-elect Alassane Outtara is holed up in a hotel that has been encircled by the army, on orders of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, for two months. Now, Outtara tells Time, he’s ready for West Africa’s economic community to use force. “I wanted to give peace and dialogue a chance. Now that that's failed, we must consider other methods,” he says. “Gbagbo and his cronies are behaving like gangsters.”
The economic alliance, known as Ecowas, will need help from the EU and US, Outtara says. As for timing, “I hope we will know when by the end of this month, because it will make two months since I've been elected.” Meanwhile, he believes only 10% of the military supports Gbagbo. “The real problem is that Gbagbo has stashed a huge supply of arms,” he says. But “at some stage, the majority of the army will move, I think, against Mr. Gbagbo. Force should be used against him, whether internally or externally."
(More Alassane Ouattara stories.)
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