2006年VOA标准英语-Pro-Government Protests Continue in Ivory

By Joe Bavier
Abidjan
17 January 2006

Protesters walk past a makeshift road block in the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast  
  
Militant¹ supporters of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo are staging a second day of protests against a recommendation by international mediators to dissolve parliament. Militants² manned barricades⁴ in the commercial capital, Abidjan, and invaded a U.N. peacekeeper base in another southern city.

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Angry supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo remained in the streets of Abidjan Tuesday afternoon, a day after one of Ivory Coast's main youth leaders called for an end to protests.

One student manning a barricade³ in the Abidjan neighborhood of Cocody, Urbain Zege, said just because one man said to return home does not mean he speaks for everyone.

"Who has talked yesterday night? You know that in Cote d'Ivoire there are many, many, many organizations. The one who spoke⁵ yesterday night is responsible for one organizations among many, many others. So, our organization does not say that we have to stop the movement. So, we are in the streets until they decide to stop," Zege said.

The head of the pro-Gbagbo student union known as FESCI, Serge Koffi, in an address broadcast on state television Monday night, said his supporters should leave the streets.

However, militants began massing around the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission during the day Monday. And, by mid-morning Tuesday, several hundred pro-Gbagbo militants, known as Young Patriots⁶, had blocked the entrance to the French embassy as well.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast says around 1,000 Young Patriots invaded a base manned by Bangladeshi peacekeepers in the city of Guiglo Tuesday afternoon. The mission says there had been no violence at the camp, and protesters were staging a sit-in. But the protests have led to several instances of violence in Abidjan, says the head of the U.N.s communications team in Ivory Coast, Margherita Amodeo.

"The situation in Abidjan is very similar to the one we had yesterday," said Amodeo. "There's a crowd of Young Patriots outside the U.N. building as we speak, and it's a growing crowd. We had an attack on a U.N. convoy⁷ this morning shortly before 7 a.m."

Amodeo said four U.N. vehicles were heavily damaged in the incident.

Several U.N. vehicles were attacked Sunday as members of the U.N.-backed International Working Group on Ivory Coast were meeting at an Abidjan hotel. In a statement read late Sunday, the mediation⁸ team recommended dissolving the National Assembly.

The mandate⁹ of the body, which is dominated by supporters of the president, expired in December.

Demonstrators erected¹⁰ barricades and blocked major streets in Abidjan beginning early Monday in protest.

The leader of a pro-Gbagbo militia¹¹, known as the GPP, Moussa Toure Zeguen says more demonstrations¹² are on the way in the hours and days to come.

"What we are preparing now is really a big mobilization of our soldiers, because we are sure, what we are preparing is to fight for our real liberation. The Ivorian people must take their destiny in their own hands," he said.

The U.N. special representative in Ivory Coast, Pierre Schori, was meeting with President Gbagbo Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to calm the situation. Public demonstrations in Abidjan have been officially banned by presidential decree since December 2004.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 barricade   

n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住

参考例句：

• The soldiers make a barricade across the road.士兵在路上设路障。
• It is difficult to break through a steel barricade.冲破钢铁障碍很难。

4 barricades   

路障，障碍物( barricade的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The police stormed the barricades the demonstrators had put up. 警察冲破了示威者筑起的街垒。
• Others died young, in prison or on the barricades. 另一些人年轻时就死在监牢里或街垒旁。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 patriots   

爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Abraham Lincoln was a fine type of the American patriots. 亚伯拉罕·林肯是美国爱国者的优秀典型。
• These patriots would fight to death before they surrendered. 这些爱国者宁愿战斗到死，也不愿投降。

7 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

8 mediation   

n.调解

参考例句：

• The dispute was settled by mediation of the third country. 这场争端通过第三国的斡旋而得以解决。
• The dispute was settled by mediation. 经调解使争端得以解决。

9 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

10 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。

11 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

12 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。