(CNN) - Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called for calm Monday after that forces have stormed the residence of the President and arrested of Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to accept the results of the presidential election last year plunged the West African nation into civil war.
Finally, we arrived at the dawn of a new era of hope,"Ouattara said in a televised speech. "We hoped this transfer had been different, but we need to focus on today.".
He urged his compatriots to lay down their arms and said that he asked the Minister of justice to launch legal proceedings against Gbagbo, his wife and his colleagues. Gbagbo is at the Golf Hotel, Ouattara and the United Nations Headquarters.
Fighting seem to end quickly after the arrest of Gbagbo, said Alain Le Roy, under-Secretary-General, Department of United Nations peace operations.
"To my knowledge, most of the fighting has stopped," he said, adding that "there are pockets of resistance here and there."
Gbagbo has requested and received the protection of the United Nations, according to Le Roy, who said forces is also ensure the safety of the wife of the former leader.
"I understand Ouattara President that he wants that President Gbagbo to go to trial in Ivory Coast," said the official of the United Nations.
The former President "is alive and well and is brought to justice, said Ambassador of the country to the Organization of the United Nations, Youssoufou Bamba." He and the Embassy of France, said forces loyal to Ouattara made the arrest.
But already, an adviser to Gbagbo, Don Ahoua Mello, said that French soldiers had stormed Gbagbo's residence. The French Ministry of defence rejected the request of Don Mello, saying: step of French troops entered the residence.
The authorities are trying to move carefully and follow the legal procedures of judging, Gbagbo, said a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the events, refusing to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation.
The arrest was "a step in the right direction to return to normalcy in C?te d'Ivoire," the source said, adding that the city of Abidjan is a wreck, a humanitarian challenge, "death squads, militias roaming (and) bodies burning in the streets."
Speaking from inside the hotel of the golf course, Gbagbo told supporters to stop the fighting.
"I hope that people lay down their arms and return to a normal state of the civil rule so that the crisis can be concluded as quickly as possible," he said.
The US President Barack Obama cheered news of the latest developments in C?te d'Ivoire.
"It is a victory for the democratic will of the Ivorian people, who have suffered for too long by the instability that followed the election," he said in a statement.
Obama urged Ouattara and the people of C?te d'Ivoire to begin now "the hard work of reconciliation and reconstruction."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Gbagbo capture "sends a signal to dictators and tyrants." ... They cannot ignore the voice of their own people.
"There will be consequences for those who cling to power" Clinton warned.
United Nations forces were not involved in the raid on the residence of Gbagbo, said the spokesman for the UN Hamadoun Toure.
He earlier said that the mission of the United Nations does not extend to retrieve the former President of his fief.
But the French and UN troops hammered forces Gbagbo, citing their mission to protect civilians in the country.
Left Abidjan fighting with sporadic power and sanitation, and residents said corpses were left in the streets.
At least tens of thousands of people fled in neighbours in Liberia to escape the fighting, according to Oxfam, the international aid organization.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that 800 people had been shot dead in the town of Duékoué West cocoa during the conflict producers. An official of the United Nations put the number of dead at 330 in the incident.
In his televised statement, Ouattara said that he would set up a truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate allegations of violations of human rights.
Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon last week predicted that the outcome of the crisis in C?te d'Ivoire would be the tone of other nations in Africa.
"What is happening in C?te d'Ivoire has enormous implications for the continent which will have 16 presidential elections this year," he said, using the French name for the country.CNN Jack Maddox, Sarita Harilela, Carol Jordan, Mariano Castillo, Niki Cook, Matthew Hoye, Alan Silverleib and Zain Verjee contributed to this report
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