Awwal 14, 1432 H/Feb 17, 2011, SPA -- Ivory Coast's biggest bank shut down its operations Thursday, joining the companies fleeting the country's deepening political crisis as hundreds of growers in the world's largest cocoa exporter burned their beans in protest, AP reported. Together, the financial institutions halting operations this week control hold more than half of the civil servant bank accounts in the West African country. The move is expected to prevent the majority from receiving their February salaries. French bank Societe Generale announced Thursday is was shutting down its Ivorian subsidiary SGBCI after three other international banks pulled out of the troubled nation this week, creating lines of people desperately seeking to take out their savings in fear of a cash shortage. Britain's Standard Chartered, France's BNP-Paribas and America's Citibank already said they were suspending operations. «The bank is no longer in a position to ensure high quality, secure operating conditions for its clients and staff,» Societe Generale said in a statement. «We are no longer able to ensure the short term supply of currency/cash to our branches.» Diplomats and observers have been wagering that once civil servants stop receiving their pay, they will defect en masse away from incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to accept election results showing that the opposition candidate won the Nov. 28 vote. The election was won by Gbagbo's opponent, Alassane Ouattara, according to the country's electoral commission and a U.N. certification. Ouattara's victory has been endorsed by numerous countries including the United States, former colonial power France, as well as the European Union and the African Union. Ouattara has attempted to run the country from a hotel under the protection of U.N. peacekeepers, and he has called for a ban on cocoa exports to step up the pressure on Gbagbo to cede power. Several hundred angry cocoa farmers set piles of cocoa beans on fire in front of the European Union office in Abidjan on Thursday, protesting sanctions they say have paralyzed the industry in the world's largest cocoa grower. After pulling up a truck loaded with five tons of cocoa outside the EU headquarters, the cocoa planters spilled a half dozen sacks of beans on the sidewalk before setting them on fire. «We aren't politicians, we're farmers,» said Patrick Ayemou, a cocoa farmer from the Sud Comoe region. «We own this cocoa, and the European Union shouldn't confuse politicians and farmers. Because of the EU's embargo, we can't live off the fruits of our labor.» The European Union has imposed a visa ban and financial sanctions on Gbagbo and dozens of members of his inner circle. It has also prohibited any European companies from doing business with a long list of top officials and institutions accused of propping up Gbagbo's regime. The U.S. has also announced a visa ban on a shorter list of Gbagbo allies. Ivory Coast was once an economic hub because of its role as the world's top cocoa producer. The 2002-2003 civil war split the country into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south. While the country officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara still draws his support from the northern half of the country where he was born while Gbagbo's power base is in the south. -- SPA
