ABIDJAN - Opponents of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo on Thursday blocked roads and burned tyres in several cities in a spate of protests against his reinstatement of officials blamed for a toxic waste scandal. In some cases, police used tear gas and fired shots into the air to break up the disturbances, which reflected simmering political tensions in the West African state, where rebels have occupied the north since a brief 2002-2003 civil war.

The demonstrations erupted after a public dispute between the president and his interim prime minister, Charles Konan Banny, over their respective powers under a UN-backed peace plan that foresees elections within a year. Opposition spokesmen reported one protester killed by police in the south-central town of Toumodi and several more injured by gunfire, but there was no independent confirmation of this.

Protests, most involving opposition youths who set up burning barricades across roads, broke out in the political capital Yamoussoukro, parts of the economic capital Abidjan and other cities across the south of the world's No. 1 cocoa grower. Opposition youth leaders had called for demonstrations to protest against a decision by Gbagbo to reinstate three civil servants criticised for negligence over the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan in August that killed 10 people.

"This morning we came out to show our anger," one of the demonstrators in Toumodi said. In the Abidjan neighbourhood of Adjame, the protesters burned tyres in front of the district mayor's office, forcing street vendors to flee. Police broke up the protest. In Yamoussoukro, the protesters set up street barricades with burning tyres but later dispersed.

Prime Minister Banny was named in 2005 under a UN road map to elections in the war-divided state. After elections failed to take place in October this year, a new UN resolution kept Gbagbo in office for another year but broadened Banny's powers, setting the two on a collision course.

Gbagbo announced on Sunday he was reinstating the senior civil servants suspended by Banny in an inquiry into the dumping of the poisonous waste in Abidjan, which made thousands ill. On Monday, Banny rejected the reinstatement move as damaging to the fight against impunity, after the men -- seen as Gbagbo loyalists -- were accused of negligence by a commission established by the premier.
(Planet Ark, 01/12/2006)
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