Cote d’Ivoire’s former President Laurent Gbagbo will appear before the International Criminal Court within days to face charges of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, the first former head of state to be tried by the court since its inception in 2002.

Cote d’Ivoire’s strongman

who ‘rolled his opponents in the flour’

COTE D’IVOIRE’S Laurent Gbagbo became the first former head of state Wednesday to be handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he will appear on murder and rape charges next week.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo vowed Gbagbo’s transfer was “just the beginning” as the deposed leader’s party denounced the move.

Gbagbo, 66, was taken into the court’s custody early Wednesday after being flown to the Netherlands on a chartered flight — the first person to be brought to account for Cote d’Ivoire’s post-election violence that killed 3,000 people.

He had been under arrest since April, when troops loyal to Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara and backed by U.N. and French forces stormed his residence in Abidjan after he refused for five months to give up power following an election defeat.

“Gbagbo allegedly bears individual criminal responsibility, as indirect co-perpetrator, for four counts of crimes against humanity, namely murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and other inhuman acts,” the ICC said in a statement.

The crimes were allegedly committed between Dec. 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011.

Gbagbo will make his first appearance before ICC judges Monday.

After 20 years in opposition, Gbagbo came to power in 2000 when military leader Robert Guei’s attempts to rig elections were defeated by street protests in the main city, Abidjan.

In April 2011, Gbagbo was himself forced from office — captured and placed under the control of supporters of his rival Ouattara, internationally regarded as the winner of the run-off elections in November 2011.

Amid high tension, the electoral commission pronounced Ouattara the victor, but Cote d’Ivoire’s Constitutional Council said Gbagbo had won.

The United States and the United Nations recognized Ouattara as the winner, but both candidates had themselves sworn in as president.

A stand-off then ensued, with Gbagbo in the presidential palace and Ouattara and his entourage based in a hotel in Abidjan.

Skirmishes and battles between the rival forces took place across Cote d’Ivoire culminating in Ouattara’s troops sweeping into Abidjan at the end of March.

As the final battle closed in on the presidential residence, U.N. and French helicopters attacked munitions stores in the city and Gbagbo and his family sheltered in the basement bunker until their capture.

Gbagbo cut his political teeth in the trade union movement and he relied heavily on his reputation as the main opposition figure to former President Felix Houphouet-Boigny’s one-party state.

He started out on the political left, but since the 1980s he has taken a strongly nationalist, even xenophobic, stance.

Gbagbo said the dispute over Cote d’Ivoire’s presidency was a fight for Ivorian (and indeed African) sovereignty and he accused the French and Americans of having a grudge against him.

Cote d’Ivoire, he said, is the nation blessed by God and neo-colonialists want to control it for its cocoa and oil fields.

However, this argument did not prevail and the African Union backed the U.N.’s finding that Gbagbo lost the election and should stand down.

Gbagbo was accused of surfing on the wave of xenophobia that swept Cote d’Ivoire during the rule of President Henri Konan Bedie.

Bedie introduced the concept of “Ivoirite” (Ivorianness) to prevent Ouattara, a Muslim from the north, from standing in presidential elections in the 1990s.

Gbagbo denied allegations of opportunism. “I have not changed,” he said at the time. “Change your glasses.”

Since the 2002 civil war broke out, Gbagbo’s supporters have been accused of carrying out xenophobic attacks in the areas they control — against those from the mainly Muslim north, immigrants from neighboring African countries and Westerners.

They accused former colonial power France and the international community of not doing enough to put down the rebellion.

Gbagbo was born into a Catholic family near Gagnoa, in the cocoa-growing central-west of the country, May 31, 1945.

“Cicero,” as he was nicknamed because of his taste for Latin during his school days, has a PhD in history.

Beginning his career as a university lecturer, Gbagbo was jailed for two years in 1971 for “subversive” teaching. His nom de guerre was “little brother.”

In the 1980s he was involved in trade union activity among academics.

He was one of the first to challenge Cote d’Ivoire’s founding President Houphouet-Boigny in the 1980s — as soon as the long-serving independence leader permitted multi-party politics.

In 1982 he sought exile in Paris, returning six years later to attend the founding congress of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).

His time as an opposition leader led to spells in jail and brushes with the authorities.

His wife, Simone, is a powerful politician in her own right and some see her as the real hardliner behind the throne, preventing her husband from giving up power.

After his election in 2000, Gbagbo said he would break with the personality cult tradition, saying it was no longer necessary to put up portraits of the president in public places and offices.

He also said that the national media would no longer be obliged to mention the president in all news programs.

But while he was in power, most news broadcasts highlighted Gbagbo’s daily activities.

He has a reputation for being short-tempered, in particular against “arrogant” journalists, but he is also known for his contagious laughs and vigorous handshakes.

In person he has a broad smile and an easy laugh, and is a born communicator, frequently making use of metaphors from Ivorian daily life.

He is said to have a passion for music, guitar and good food.

“It is a pleasure to have him round for dinner,” one of his friends was quoted as saying in Jeune Afrique-L’Intelligent magazine.

Still, the man who campaigned under the slogan “we win or we win” can be a stubborn political player. His opponents claim he has links to violent militia groups like the students’ union, the Fesci, the Young Patriots, and death squads, despite his reputation as a peaceful, Sorbonne-educated socialist.

The United Nations blames his militias for the worst violence against civilians.

He has also earned himself the nickname “the baker” for his ability to “roll his opponents in the flour,” after showing an uncanny knack of coming out on top in any political tussle.

But it appears he has now met his match.

(SD-Agencies)