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Gbagbo ally 'fears for his life'

Updated Friday, June 29th 2012 at 00:00 GMT +3

Ivory Coast's firebrand youth leader Charles Ble Goude has told the BBC that he fears for his life more than a year after he went into hiding.

Mr Ble Goude went on the run after the capture in April 2011 of ex-President Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to accept electoral defeat and now faces war crimes charges at The Hague.

Ivory Coast then issued an arrest warrant for the pro- Gbagbo loyalist.

"I'm not running from justice... people are looking to kill me," he said.

The UN oversaw the November 2010 election and said it was won by Alassane Ouattara, who was eventually inaugurated after a four-month stand-off in which some 3,000 people were killed.

Mr Ble Goude was put under UN sanctions in 2006 accused of inciting attacks against UN personnel.

'No militia'

During the interview with the BBC World Today programme, he refused to say where he was speaking from, but confirmed he was outside Ivory Coast.

 

Known for his vitriolic speeches, Mr Ble Goude is alleged to have mobilised thousands of young men to join the army in the final days of the election dispute.

But he told the BBC that, as head of the Young Patriots group, he had only organised rallies and meetings and never run a militia.

"I am not chief of militia - I've never bought weapons, we went to the streets against those who had weapons, we were bare handed," he said.

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