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Cote d'Ivoire: No War, but No Security
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Jun 10, 2011 (110610)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"Between May 13 and 25, Human Rights Watch interviewed 132
victims and witnesses to violence by both sides during the
battle for Abidjan and in the weeks after Gbagbo's arrest.
Killings, torture, and inhumane treatment by Ouattara's armed
forces continued while a Human Rights Watch researcher was in
Abidjan, with clear ethnic targeting during widespread acts of
reprisal and intimidation." - Human Rights Watch
In his inaugural speech on May 21, Côte d'Ivoire President
Alassane Outtara called for Ivorians to come together and unite.
The text and tone of his speech was conciliatory, observers
agreed, and earlier in May he called for the International
Criminal Court to investigate human rights abuses on all sides,
including those by his own troops.
But if his words are to have credibility, observers also agree,
his administration must take effective action to halt
ethnically-based reprisals that are ongoing. Recent reports by
Amnesty International and by Human Rights Watch provide ample
evidence not only of killings and other abuses against civilians
by both sides during the months of post-election conflict, but
also that such action are still continuing. Those international
forces that supported the legitimacy of Outtara's election and
aided his victory in the post-election conflict have the
obligation to demand that his government take responsibility for
creating a climate in which it may be possible for Ivorians to
respond to his call to come together.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a summary article and
excerpts from the latest Human Rights Watch report, published on
June 3.
Other relevant recent reports and analyses include:
Amnesty International, May 25,2011
"Both Sides Responsible for War Crimes and Crimes Against
Humanity"
http://allafrica.com/stories/201105250108.html
International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House,
1 June 2011
"Reprisals Against Pro-Gbagbo Journalists Continue; Opposition
Press Re-Emerges"
http://allafrica.com/stories/201106020540.html
Véronique Tadjo, "Of Saviours, God and Domination", May 20, 2011
http://allafrica.com/stories/201105200001.html
Colette Braeckmann, "Ouattara: le discours et la realité" May
22, 2011
http://blog.lesoir.be/colette-braeckman / direct URL:
http://tinyurl.com/6b2vv85
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Côte d'Ivoire, see
http://www.africafocus.org/country/cotedivoire.php
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See my Foreign Policy in Focus Commentary for June 7, 2011 at
http://www.fpif.org/articles/game_changers_in_global_aids_fight
Healthgap announcement of victory in getting pledge from world
leaders for 16 million on AIDS treatment by 2015
http://www.healthgap.org/worldmakesbold.htm
and news coverage of the UN High-Level Meeting on AIDS
concluding today at
http://www.un.org/en/ga/aidsmeeting2011/ and
http://tinyurl.com/6d7o4hn
[For more frequent updates from AfricaFocus on articles of
interest, visit the AfricaFocus Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AfricaFocus/101867576407]
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Many thanks to those subscribers who have recently sent in a
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If you haven't yet sent in such a payment and are able to do so,
please help AfricaFocus reach more people with reliable
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++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++
Côte d'Ivoire: Hiding Out in Abidjan
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
3 June 2011
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations]
http://www.irinnews.org /
http://allafrica.com/stories/201106060674.html
Dakar - People from ethnic groups seen as pro-Laurent Gbagbo are
hiding out, using aliases in public and fearing for their lives,
amid attacks by government forces in the main city Abidjan,
residents told IRIN.
"It is total and constant insecurity for people from ethnic
groups seen as pro-Gbagbo," said a young man calling himself
Toupé.
People from allegedly targeted ethnic groups have started using
nicknames, "so when we address one another in public we cannot
be identified", explained another youth known as Pascal Soro.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a 2 June report says forces of
President Alassane Ouattara's government have killed scores of
real or perceived backers of Gbagbo since the former president
was arrested in April.
"The actions President Ouattara takes or fails to take in the
coming weeks will define how seriously he takes this cycle of
violence," Corinne Dufka, HRW senior West Africa researcher,
told IRIN.
Residents of the Yopougon District, from where the government
army Forces R&ecute;publicaines de Côte d'Ivoire (FRCI) recently
chased Gbagbo militia, told IRIN people from many ethnic groups
- particularly Bét´ and Guéré - are not safe.
"We thought when FRCI came and forced the militia out, there
would be security - it has been exactly the opposite," Toupé
said.
Attacks by FRCI are not linked to whether or not one was a
Gbagbo militant, residents told IRIN. "It's enough that you have
a name from one of these ethnic groups of the west," Toupé, from
Yopougon, told IRIN from a neighbourhood where he has been
hiding since mid-April. "You're lucky if all you get is a broken
arm or leg."
He lived in the largely pro-Gbagbo Sicogi area of Yopougon. "For
them [FRCI], if you're a youth and you're from there, you're
with the militia - that's it, you're through."
Toupé said he has no news of his wife and one-year-old child,
from whom he was separated when they all fled violence.
Reconciliation impossible?
Both Toupé and Pascal Soro said people back in their
neighbourhoods, including friends from the Malink´ ethnic group,
tell them it is not safe to come back. "For now we've got to
stay where no one knows us," Pascal Soro told IRIN.
"We are truly imprisoned in our own country," said Toupé. "We
cannot even speak out. State TV gives the impression all is OK
and on track towards reconciliation. Nothing could be further
from the truth, but there is no place for opposition on the
state airwaves."
Yopougon residents say reconciliation in the country is
impossible in the current environment. "If the new authorities
want peace and reconciliation they must put an end to
indiscriminate arrests and killings carried out each night on
the pretext that the targets are opposition militia," student
Valentin Konet told IRIN.
Dufka said FRCI members suspected of abuses must be held
accountable. "Initially the hope was that these were isolated
acts by undisciplined elements and resulting from the loose and
informal way FRCI was thrown together. The fact that high-level
officers, who long held prominent posts in the [former antiGbagbo]
Forces Nouvelles, are credibly implicated, raises
considerable concern."
HRW is calling on the government to put on administrative leave
any FRCI members suspected of violations pending investigation.
FRCI and Ouattara communications officers said a new government
- announced on 1 June - was just getting installed and officials
were not yet ready to comment on the report.
Côte d'Ivoire: Gbagbo Supporters Tortured, Killed in Abidjan
Rampant Reprisals by Pro-Ouattara Forces Mar New Presidency
Human Rights Watch
June 2, 2011
[Excerpts only. For full report see
http://www.hrw.org/africa/cote-divoire /
direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/3as2fkx]
(Dakar) - Armed forces loyal to President Alassane Ouattara have
killed at least 149 real or perceived supporters of the former
President Laurent Gbagbo since taking control of the commercial
capital in mid-April, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. ProGbagbo
militiamen killed at least 220 men in the days
immediately preceding and following Gbagbo's arrest on April 11,
when the nearly four-month conflict drew to a close.
Between May 13 and 25, Human Rights Watch interviewed 132
victims and witnesses to violence by both sides during the
battle for Abidjan and in the weeks after Gbagbo's arrest.
Killings, torture, and inhumane treatment by Ouattara's armed
forces continued while a Human Rights Watch researcher was in
Abidjan, with clear ethnic targeting during widespread acts of
reprisal and intimidation.
"The hope of a new era following President Ouattara's
inauguration will fade fast unless these horrible abuses against
pro-Gbagbo groups stop immediately," said Corinne Dufka, senior
West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The president has
repeatedly promised credible, impartial investigations and
prosecutions; now is the time to keep those promises."
Ouattara's Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire (Forces
Républicaines de la Côte d'Ivoire, FRCI) killed at least 95
unarmed people in Abidjan during operations in late April and
May, when they sealed off and searched areas formerly controlled
by pro-Gbagbo militia, Human Rights Watch found. The majority of
documented abuses occurred in the longtime pro-Gbagbo stronghold
of Yopougon, the focus of the final battle in Abidjan. Most
killings were point-blank executions of youth from ethnic groups
generally aligned with Gbagbo, in what appeared to be collective
punishment for these groups' participation in Gbagbo's militias.
One man described how Republican Forces soldiers killed his 21-
year-old brother: "Two of them grabbed his legs, another two
held his arms behind him, and a fifth one held his head," he
said. "Then a guy pulled out a knife and slit my brother's
throat. He was screaming. I saw his legs shaking after they'd
slit his throat, the blood streaming down. As they were doing
it, they said that they had to eliminate all of the [Young]
Patriots that had caused all the problems in the country."
Another woman who witnessed the May 8 killing of 18 youths found
hiding in Yopougon was brutally raped by a Republican Forces
soldier after being forced to load their vehicles with pillaged
goods. On May 23, an elderly man in the same neighborhood saw
Republican Forces execute his son, whom they accused of being a
member of pro-Gbagbo militia.
Human Rights Watch also documented 54 extrajudicial executions
in formal and informal detention sites, including the 16th and
37th Yopougon police stations and the GESCO oil and gas building
now used as a Republican Forces base. On May 15, Human Rights
Watch observed a body burning less than 30 meters from the 16th
precinct police station. Several witnesses told Human Rights
Watch the following day that it was the body of a captured
militiaman who had been executed inside the police station
grounds.
A Republican Forces soldier described the execution of 29
detainees in early May outside of the GESCO building. The
soldier said Ch´rif Ousmane, the close ally of Prime Minister
Guillaume Soro and longtime zone commander in the northern
capital of Bouaké for Soro's Forces Nouvelles rebel group that
now comprise the majority of the Republican Forces, gave the
execution order. Two other witnesses interviewed by Human Rights
Watch said they saw Ousmane in a vehicle that disposed of the
tortured and executed body of an infamous militia leader in the
Yopougon sub-neighborhood of Koweit around May 5. Ousmane
oversees the Republican Forces' operations in Yopougon.
In addition to killings, Human Rights Watch interviewed young
men who had been detained by the Republican Forces and then
released, and documented the arbitrary detention and inhumane
treatment of scores more young men - often arrested for no other
apparent reason than their age and ethnic group. Nearly every
former detainee described being struck repeatedly with guns,
belts, rope, and fists to extract information on where weapons
were hidden or to punish them for alleged participation in the
Young Patriots, a pro-Gbagbo militia group. Several described
torture, including forcibly removing teeth from one victim and
placing a burning hot knife on another victim, then cutting him.
Human Rights Watch called on the Ouattara government to
immediately ensure the humane treatment of anyone detained and
to provide uninhibited access to detention sites for
international monitors and members of the human rights division
of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (Opération des
Nations Unies en Côte d'Ivoire, ONUCI).
Witnesses consistently identified the killers or abusers in
detention as Republican Forces who descended on Abidjan from
their northern bases, dressed in military uniforms and boots and
often arriving in vehicles marked FRCI. These forces are
overseen by Soro and Ouattara. Numerous witnesses and two
soldiers who had participated in the killings said mid- and
high-level commanders had been at or near the place where some
killings took place.
Human Rights Watch called on the Ouattara government to place on
immediate administrative leave, pending investigation,
commanders against whom there is credible evidence of
implication, either directly or by command responsibility, in
killings, torture, or other severe abuse. At a minimum, this
should include Chérif Ousmane and Ousmane Coulibaly for
potential abuses in Yopougon and Captain Eddy Médy for his role
in overseeing the western offensive that left hundreds of
civilians dead.
Retreating pro-Gbagbo militia also left a bloody trail during
the final battle for Abidjan, Human Rights Watch said. Human
Rights Watch documented more than 220 killings perpetrated by
pro-Gbagbo militia groups in the days and hours before being
forced to abandon Abidjan. The day after Republican Forces
seized Gbagbo, his militia went on a rampage in several areas of
Yopougon, killing more than 80 people from northern Côte
d'Ivoire and neighboring West African countries because of their
presumed support for Ouattara.
A 65-year-old man there described how militiamen murdered five
of his sons after breaking into his compound on April 12, the
day after Gbagbo's arrest. The bodies were buried in a small
mass grave, among 14 such sites identified by Human Rights Watch
in Yopougon alone. Human Rights Watch documented seven cases of
sexual violence by militia, particularly in Yopougon, often
accompanied by the execution of the woman's husband.
No fewer than 3,000 civilians have been killed during the postelection
crisis as a result of grave violations of international
law by armed forces on both sides, Human Rights Watch said.
On May 19, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
(ICC) declared his intention to open an investigation into
crimes committed in Côte d'Ivoire. An ICC investigation could
make an important contribution to ensuring accountability, but
Human Rights Watch also urged Ouattara's administration to hold
fair domestic trials to ensure justice for victims and promote
respect for the rule of law in the conflict-ravaged country.
Human Rights Watch presented its findings to Interior Minister
Hamed Bakayoko, who promised to convene an emergency meeting
with Soro and the principal Republican Forces commanders. He
also said that the Ouattara government would not shield military
and security forces from prosecutions for crimes they commit.
The minister's commitments were a positive sign and should be
fulfilled swiftly, Human Rights Watch said.
"If President Ouattara is serious about bringing this decade of
abuse to an end, he should immediately suspend and investigate
the commanders responsible for this horrific abuse," Dufka said.
"Those implicated in grave crimes on both sides should be
brought to justice."
...
[extensive additional details of specific incidents in full
report, available at
http://www.hrw.org/africa/cote-divoire]
Killings by Pro-Gbagbo Militia in Retreat From Abidjan
Human Rights Watch documented more than 220 killings by proGbagbo
militias and mercenaries against real and perceived
Ouattara supporters as the Republican Forces swept through
Abidjan between March 31 and the end of April, including in the
weeks after Gbagbo's arrest as fighting continued in Yopougon.
The killings documented by Human Rights Watch took place in
Yopougon, Koumassi, and Port Bouët. Credible sources, including
local human rights groups and neighborhood leaders of West
African nations, had information about similar killings in other
neighborhoods, like Treichville, Williamsville, and Plateau,
suggesting that the total number killed by pro-Gbagbo militias
during this period is probably higher. Bodies were often burned,
sometimes en masse, by pro-Gbagbo militia or by residents who
could no longer tolerate the smell - leaving no trace except for
small bone fragments still visible to a Human Rights Watch
researcher.
...
The militia, as documented by Human Rights Watch throughout the
post-election violence, erected scores of roadblocks at which
they frequently demanded identity cards from passers-by. Those
from northern Côte d'Ivoire or neighboring countries like
Burkina Faso or Mali were systematically killed, often in
gruesome ways.
Recommendations
To President Alassane Ouattara:
- Demonstrate that promises of impartial and credible
prosecutions of grave crimes are meaningful by ensuring
immediate investigations into killings, extrajudicial
executions, and torture committed by the Republican Forces in
Abidjan.
- Hold those responsible accountable, including commanders who
oversaw the crimes, regardless of their military rank.
- Put commanders implicated in serious abuse on administrative
leave, pending investigation.
- Make publicly clear that anyone detained - including former
Gbagbo militia implicated in grave crimes - is to be treated
humanely in accordance with Ivorian and international law.
- When cordon and search operations are conducted by the
Republican Forces, ensure that police, gendarmes, or UN and
French peacekeepers are included.
- Seek the assistance of key international donors in assessing
the capacity of the Ivorian justice system to prosecute grave
crimes and addressing the weaknesses identified.
- Provide complete access to all detention facilities to
international monitors and members of the human rights division
of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire, including
access that allows detainees to describe the conditions of their
treatment without the presence or interference of the Republican
Forces.
- Cooperate fully with the ICC, including arresting suspects, if
the court prosecutor opens an investigation of crimes committed
in Côte d'Ivoire.
To the UN Security Council:
- To bring light to atrocities committed in the past decade in
Côte d'Ivoire, publish the 2004 Commission of Inquiry report
when the 2011 Commission of Inquiry report is presented before
the Human Rights Council in June. Failure to do so continues to
send the signal that certain people deeply implicated in war
crimes and other grave abuses, are being shielded from justice.
To the United Nations Operations in Côte d'Ivoire:
- Increase significantly patrols, including joint patrols with
the Republican Forces, in Yopougon, particularly in vulnerable
pro-Gbagbo neighborhoods like Koweit, Yaosseh, Kout´, and AboboDoum
´.
- Visit detention centers daily, particularly in Yopougon, and
demand access to prisoners without interference by the
Republican Forces.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues,
with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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