Revue de la B.P.C THÈMES
II/2011
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Article figurant dans la revue on-line :
publié avec l’autorisation de HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
http://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2011/06/02/c-te-d-ivoire-des-partisans-de-gbagbo-tortur-s-et-tu-s-abidjan
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Côte d’Ivoire: Gbagbo Supporters
Tortured, Killed in Abidjan
Rampant Reprisals by Pro-Ouattara Forces Mar
New Presidency
2 juin 2011
(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.
Pro-Gbagbo 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 Chérif 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 post-election 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."
Killings and Other Abuses by
Republican Forces During Patrols and Search Operations
Human Rights Watch
documented 95 killings by Republican Forces soldiers against unarmed residents
during cordon and search operations following the end of active fighting with
pro-Gbagbo forces. Two were on May 23 and 24, following Ouattara's inauguration
on May 21. Human Rights Watch believes the total number of non-combatants
killed to be much higher, as many witnesses, largely from ethnic groups linked
to former President Gbagbo, were too terrified to talk or had fled Abidjan
during or following the violence.
The vast majority of documented
killings were in the Yopougon, a neighborhood with a large number of Gbagbo
supporters and many former informal bases of militia groups that actively
backed him. Yopougon appears to have been disproportionately targeted for
reprisal killings by the Republican Forces, who meted out deadly collective
punishment against young men from the Bété, Attié, Guéré, and Goro ethnic
groups, which largely supported Gbagbo in the 2010 presidential elections.
Witnesses described how many youth
were dragged out of their homes and executed, or shot while fleeing; others
were taken into detention centers, formal and informal, where they were
tortured and sometimes killed. The Republican Forces also killed older men
accused of housing or assisting the militia. Numerous neighborhood residents
told Human Rights Watch that the militia and mercenaries, who had for months
targeted and killed pro-Ouattara groups, had largely fled prior to the
Republican Forces' takeover, so that those who remained were civilians,
presumed to be Gbagbo supporters.
Yopougon, with a population of
around 1 million, is divided into dozens of smaller sub-neighborhoods, or
"quartiers." While the Republican Forces committed
violence throughout Yopougon - and to a lesser extent in Koumassi and Port
Bouët - more than 70 of the killings documented by Human Rights Watch occurred
in the sub-neighborhoods of Koweit and Yaosseh.
Koweit
Koweit was one
of the last areas of Abidjan to fall, with fighting ending around May 3. In the
days and weeks that followed, the Republican Forces conducted house-to-house
searches in which males from pro-Gbagbo groups appear to have been targeted for
abuse. Human Rights Watch also documented one case of rape. A 34-year-old woman
from Yopougon Koweit described how she was brutally raped by a Republican
Forces soldier on May 8, then saw the Republican Forces kill 18 youth:
Guys in military uniform arrived
that morning at 9 and said that they were searching for weapons. Eight of them
entered my house. They yelled, "Give us your money or we'll kill you. It's
you who took care of the militias here." They took 50,000 CFA (US $115),
my mattress, my tank of gas - everything of value, they took.
The guys were big, these were FRCI military men with clean uniforms. They had a
clear leader among them. He said, "You the Bété, the Guéré, the Attié,
it's you who made this war. Where are the youth [males], we're going to kill
them all."
They went door to door and pillaged all of value. They stayed for hours. When
the goods started piling up, they forced me to load their cars - to load
televisions, refrigerators... I'd have a big can of cooking gas on my head and
another in my hand. It went on and on. I loaded up a pickup truck, a sedan,
then another sedan, all stuffed full of everyone's valuables. They left
nothing.
As I was making my seventh trip, their leader, a large man, grabbed me and
pulled me into where one of my neighbors slept. The neighbor had left Abidjan,
but the FRCI had broken down his door. He threw me on a mattress and told me to
open my legs. I said, "Mister, please, not like this." I begged him
to let me go, but he struck me and told me to shut up. He forced himself on me,
and he raped me. He kept me there, raping me, for more than an hour. He was
violent the whole time, by the time he finished I was bleeding from between my
legs. The whole time, the other FRCI were still pillaging. They knew what he
was doing, they walked by. He was their leader though. I heard them call him
Commander Téo.
After he finished abusing me, he had his Kalash [rifle] on him and he tried to
ram it into me. I closed my legs and it smashed into my thigh, a mark is still
there. He laughed and said "well done" and walked out of the room.
As I finished loading their vehicles after I was abused, they were still
searching house to house. Several houses down, they found a bunch of young men
hiding. As I was going back and forth to their cars, I saw the men had been
stripped and made to lie down on my street. I counted them, they were 18. A few
of the FRCI stayed with them, yelling at them about being militia - they
weren't militia, they were just youth from the neighborhood. All the militia
had fled by then.
I finished loading the cars around 2 p.m.; there was no room left in any of
them. The soldiers talked about what to do with the prisoners, as I was
finishing with the last stolen goods. One of them said, "We didn't come to
waste time, we came to kill" and another agreed, "We can't lose time,
we don't have space to take them, let's finish the job and go." Then they
opened fire - the youth were lying down on the ground, naked except for
underwear. They fired back and forth across them, killing them all right there.
Then they drove off.
I couldn't stay there anymore. As I was leaving Koweit, all around there were
bodies. I saw dozens. It was 3 in the afternoon when I got out of there. I came
across an old man and asked him if I could clean myself in his house. Soon
after, another group of FRCI came to his house. One said, "Hand over your
money or you're dead." I said, "They've just come from taking
everything I have. All my money, all my valuables. I have nothing left to give
you." He slapped me, but let me go. The old man handed over his money, and
then that group of FRCI pillaged his house as well.
Human Rights Watch documented six
more killings in Koweit by the Republican Forces on the same day. A witness
described five men being stripped, lined up, and machine gunned by a soldier.
Four victims died instantly; the fifth, shot in the thigh, pretended to be dead
and later crawled to a nearby house. The witness, a friend who lived nearby,
went to him, and the man asked for water. As the witness went for water, he
heard several gunshots. He found his friend dead - with a gunshot to the arm
that had left bone fragments on the ground and another to the chest that had
exited through the victim's back.
The killings in Koweit began
immediately after the Republican Forces took control of the neighborhood. On
May 3, a witness watched as soldiers executed a 63-year-old man at point-blank
range after accusing him of renting a room to a pro-Gbagbo militia. One man
described his brother's killing:
They searched house by house on the
day the FRCI were trying to take the Marine Base [May 4 and 5]. They arrived in
4x4s, pickup trucks, Kias, many had "FRCI" written on the side. There
were dozens of soldiers. They thought all of us, the Bété, Guéré, or Goro
youth, were militia. They seized three of us from the house I was hiding in,
myself and two of my brothers. They took my youngest brother, who is 21, and
demanded his ethnic group. He said he was Bété. Two of them grabbed his legs,
another two held his arms behind him, and a fifth one held his head. Then a guy
pulled out a knife, said his mystical prayer, and slit my brother's throat. He
was screaming. I saw his legs shaking after they'd slit his throat, the blood
streaming down his body. It was worse than you'd kill an animal. I couldn't
turn away. It was my brother. As they were doing it, they said that they had to
eliminate all of the Patriots that had caused all the problems in the country.
Then they turned to me and asked my ethnic group. I said Dioula, because I can
speak Dioula. They knew I wasn't, but it was enough to not kill me. My other
brother was scared; he knew he was next, so he started to run. One of them
fired his Kalash; he fell down dead immediately. They then came back to me and
said I was militia. They beat me with their guns, with their fists. They kept
demanding that I say that I was militia, that they'd only stop if I said so.
Eventually I relented and said I was. They loaded me up in a cargo truck and
took me to the 16th precinct (police station). They had killed other
youth right then in the neighborhood. It didn't seem to make sense who they
killed and who they took.
Another witness described seeing the
Republican Forces slit the throat of a youth in front of his father after
finding a Kalashnikov and grenade in his bedroom during a 4 a.m. house-to-house
search. The witness was stripped and forced to hand over his laptop computer,
cell phones, and money. Human Rights Watch documented similar pillaging of
scores of houses in Koweit. The witness, like many others interviewed by Human
Rights Watch, wanted to flee Abidjan to his family village, but had no money
for transportation since the Republican Forces had taken everything.
One member of the Republican Forces
in Yopougon told Human Rights Watch that men under the control of Ousmane
Coulibaly - a Forces Nouvelles zone commander in Odiénné more
commonly referred to by the nom de guerre "Ben Laden" - were in
charge of the offensive and the "clean-up" operation in Yopougon
Koweit.
Yaosseh
A Republican
Forces commander told Human Rights Watch that, after heavy fighting from April
12 to 19, his forces consolidated control of Yaosseh around April 20. After
taking the area, many of the soldiers based themselves in the local police
station - the 16th precinct - which had formerly housed militiamen
loyal to Gbagbo.
Several days later, the Republican
Forces began search operations in Yaosseh, where many of the area's militiamen
had previously lived. Eleven witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch
described how, between April 25 and 26, the soldiers killed at least 30 unarmed
men, mostly youth from pro-Gbagbo ethnic groups. Most witnesses said the
majority of victims had not been active members of the militia, who had fled
around April 19.
A 16-year-old boy saw his
25-year-old cousin shot and killed by soldiers as the two sat outside a health
center at 2 p.m. on April 25. The witness was spared because of a serious
medical condition which the soldiers said made clear he had never been a
militiaman. A 42-year-old woman saw Republican Forces kill her younger brother
along with several others that same night:
They got to Yaosseh around 1 or 2 in
the afternoon; there was shooting everywhere. It lasted for a couple hours, and
then there was calm. When it picked up a second time, I decided to leave. The
whole neighborhood was fleeing. As I passed by the Parliament [an assembly
point of the Young Patriots], there were lots of bodies outside. I don't know
if they were killed in battle or executed.
We stayed away for several hours, but I had nowhere to sleep so I decided to go
back home. I was with my younger brother, who was 22. I was ahead of him when I
heard a gunshot. I turned around and he'd been hit in the leg, he'd fallen
down. Then four of the FRCI came out and grabbed him. They were all in military
uniform. One of them said, "Slit his throat." And they did, right in
front of me. I cried, and one of them said, "Lady, we have no business
with you. It's the militia we're after." I kept crying, saying that my
brother was no militiaman. Then one of the others said, "You're the women
guarding the militia. Show us where the others are, or we'll kill you,"
and he slapped me and then showed a knife that was still dripping with my
brother's blood. I said I don't know any militia, I'm just trying to go home,
and the other soldier told him to leave me.
I hid at a neighbor's house. The 16th precinct where they were based
is right by where we are. I saw them coming into the neighborhood that night,
shooting. I saw them kill two more young men they'd caught that night. They
shot them at point-blank range. I left the neighborhood the next morning.
Two days later, I went to see my house. It had been completely pillaged,
nothing was left. That day, our neighborhood buried four more youth right in
front of me. Another five bodies were strewn on the street.
I still don't know where my husband is. My brother was killed in front of me,
and my husband has been missing since the day they attacked Yaosseh. His phone
is off. I assume he, too, is dead. I have nothing.
Another witness described how FRCI soldiers
entered and opened fire into a neighborhood restaurant, killing eight males
inside.
A 34-year-old woman witnessed three
more executions on April 26, including her sister's husband, following a
Republican Forces clash with Liberian mercenaries:
When they entered, they said,
"We're only here for the boys." They were all in military fatigues.
They were many, scores of them. I could see FRCI written on some of the cars,
pickups, and 4x4s that they'd arrived in. They came from the 16th
precinct that is nearby. I know lots of people who saw killings, but in front
of me they killed three - two by gunshot at point-blank range and a third, my
sister's husband, by slitting his throat....
As they were killing, they said, "You who killed our relatives, we're
going to kill you also." But it wasn't our boys who are still there that
did the killing. All of those guys have left, they fled.... After that day, we
knew the neighborhood wasn't safe for the males, so we fled. We can't go home.
As in Koweit, houses in Yaosseh were
systematically pillaged, said residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch who
had both witnessed the pillaging and who had returned to find their houses
emptied of nearly all valuables.
Witnesses described a few instances
in which senior officers intervened to stop the extrajudicial killings,
including a case in the Gesco neighborhood of Yopougon in late April. After one
soldier appeared to be at the point of executing a youth he had detained on the
basis of being from an ethnic group believed to have supported Gbagbo -
"because all Guéré, Bété, and Goro must be eliminated" - a
higher-ranking soldier intervened and told them to leave the youth if they had
no evidence that they were militia.
More often, however, soldiers who
opposed executing civilians were unable to convince fellow soldiers who were
intent on inflicting collective punishment against men from pro-Gbagbo groups.
A 38-year-old woman described what happened on April 26:
My neighbor who was a medicine
vendor was killed in front of me. They trapped him in his house and pulled him
out into the street. They argued a little over whether they should kill him and
one of the FRCI was against killing him. He said the guy had nothing to do with
the fighting; there was no reason to kill him. But his comrade shot him first
in both arms and then in the head.
Extrajudicial Executions of
Detainees
The extrajudicial
execution of 54 detainees by the Republican Forces documented by Human Rights
Watch took place in three Republican Forces bases also used as detention sites
in Yopougon - the 16th and 37th precinct police stations
and the GESCO oil and gas company building - as well as in Koumassi and Port
Bouët neighborhoods. Some of those captured had been identified by local
residents as pro-Gbagbo militiamen who had committed crimes against members of
their own communities, but the soldiers did not appear to have any information
in most cases that linked those executed to any crime.
A member of the Republican Forces
under the command of Chérif Ousmane described the execution in early May of 29
of detainees outside the GESCO building:
It shocked me when we executed 29
people that we had arrested during the search of the neighborhood Millionaire
[Yopougon]. That day, Commander Chérif was really angry because he had lost six
men during combat with the militia in Abobo-Doumé [the neighborhood near
Youpougon where the Marine Base is located] The head of our unit asked Chérif
by phone what we were to do with the prisoners, and the order came to us, with
Chérif directly mentioned, "You haven't arrested anyone, I don't want to
see a single prisoner." Ben Laden [the nom de guerre of Ousmane Coulibaly]
was there at GESCO at the time, but he didn't watch the execution, he left the
place just before.
We brought them to GESCO and executed them several meters away on the side of
the road. We killed some five at a time, some four at a time, after lining them
up. We didn't even put blindfolds over their eyes, they watched it all. They
cried and begged us to let them live, saying they had nothing to do with the
militias. Some were killed by machine gunning across them; others were killed
by automatic pistols at point-blank range. They were all youth, in their 30s
and in civilian dress. I promise you that no one can say what crime these men
had committed. They were arrested simply because they had an appearance that
showed them as suspects of either being militiamen or those that tell the
militia about our movements. I wasn't happy about [being part of this], but I was
only executing orders.
I think the bodies were thrown into the Banco forest. I have a comrade who was
part of those that threw out the bodies. The military heads told us after to
never tell this story and that all of the civilian deaths would be identified
with the militias.
I killed men before in Yopougon, but it was men armed and shooting at us as
well. When one fires on unarmed men that are begging for their life, it's
difficult to forget. In Yopougon, we speak often of a lot of
"disappeared," these are for the most part executions like those that
I've described. The FRCI arrested a lot of militiamen and executed them. We've
also dug mass graves in order to bury certain bodies in Yopougon at night.
There have been too many civilian and military deaths here in Yopougon.
Two former detainees in the 16th
precinct police station similarly described the execution of at least four
young men during the first night of their detention, around May 5. A
25-year-old who was picked up after fleeing the combat in Koweit told Human
Rights Watch:
As we were coming out of the bush
onto the main road, there were five FRCI waiting. One of them had an RPG
[rocket-propelled grenade] that he pointed at us, and he told us not to move,
to lay down immediately. We all lay down. This was around 2 or 3 p.m. They
forced us to walk to the 16th precinct. A few had on FRCI T-shirts with
military pants; others were in full military uniform.
At the station, Koné, an FRCI soldier, was the person you met upon arrival. He
asked each person whether he was a militia. We were surrounded by people with
guns. As we responded, they inspected our hands and elbows, saying they could
tell if you'd ever picked up a weapon. I said no, and I guess my answer
satisfied them. Four others, though, were executed in front of us that night.
They said their fingers were calloused, so they were militia. There was one guy
that did the executions. He put on a balaclava and shot them at point-blank
range, it was done one-by-one in front of everyone. The people were begging for
forgiveness, saying that they weren't militia, but the guy shot them anyway ...
a bullet each time in the person's chest.
They told us to move the bodies outside by the bridge, then Koné poured gas on
the bodies and set them on fire. I was there for a week. They didn't kill
anyone after the first day.
On May 15, a Human Rights Watch
researcher saw a burning body less than 30 meters from the 16th
precinct, still controlled by the FRCI, and was told by numerous witnesses at
the scene that it was a pro-Gbagbo militiaman who had been caught and killed.
The following day, two people who participated in the capture and witnessed the
execution described the events. The account describes a relationship between
the FRCI and local pro-Ouattara youth that Human Rights Watch observed and that
was repeatedly described by witnesses. One witness said:
The guy that you saw burning the
other day was one of the militia involved in burning alive two people on
February 25. Yesterday, we spotted him walking in Yaosseh. When he saw us, he
started running. We chased and caught him around 9 a.m., then handed him to a
group of FRCI from the 16th who were on patrol.
We went with them to the station, and the FRCI did their work. They executed
him. When we first arrived with him, I said that I knew he was militia, that he
had taken part in burning alive two of our comrades on February 25. The FRCI
asked him if this was true, and he denied it. So they tortured and beat him,
asking again and again whether he had raised a gun during the crisis, whether
he had killed. Eventually he said it was true. They kept beating him and asking
for him to give the phone number of his accomplices. Eventually he did. The
FRCI guys called another militiaman and tried to set a trap. But the guy never
came. The militiaman begged for forgiveness after they'd finished torturing him
but an FRCI guy said, "Those that kill, those that burn, they can't
live." Then the FRCI finished their work, they did justice, executed him
with two shots. We were there for all of it. After he was killed, his body was
set on fire across the street.
Since the end of April, after the FRCI liberated the area, I've been involved
in the capture of five militiamen. Two at one time, then one three different
times. The FRCI executed them all. Two were thrown over the bridge, one body
was left in the neighborhood, and the other two were killed in the 16th
precinct.
Some of the militiamen are coming back, testing whether they can live with the
people. But we haven't forgotten what they did. If you're [a Gbagbo supporter]
that never picked up a gun, you can live here. But those who picked up
guns, they will pay if they return.
A Human Rights Watch researcher
presented evidence about summary executions in and around the 16th
precinct, an area used by republican forces as a base and detention center, to
Commissioner Lezou - a member of the Republican Forces currently in charge of
the precinct despite the gradual return of police officers to their post. Lezou
adamantly denied that such executions took place.
He said that any bodies found on the
streets were from the fierce combat in the area between April 14 and 18 and
that witnesses may have been "mistaken." He also flatly denied that a
body was burned across the street from the precinct on May 15, even though the
Human Rights Watch researcher said he had seen it himself.
Human Rights Watch also documented
five extrajudicial executions of people detained in the 37th
precinct of Yopougon between May 12 and 19. Victims were taken out of the
station at night over two days and executed on grounds nearby, said several
detainees and neighborhood residents.
Among those executed were several
neighborhood-level leaders from pro-Gbagbo militia groups, including well-known
Young Patriot leaders "Andy" and "Constant" in Koweit
between May 5 and 6. A witness to Constant's death described how relatives of
local people killed by Constant and his militia described crimes he was
involved in to the Republican Forces, after which four soldiers killed him.
Human Rights Watch documented six killings by Andy and Constant in early March
that targeted pro-Ouattara groups, as well as a gruesome gang rape and killing
of an 18-year-old woman. Witnesses said that, before the soldiers executed
Constant, he showed them a cache of arms in his house.
Two witnesses said they saw Chérif
Ousmane in a convoy of six 4x4s that disposed of Andy's body on the side of the
road on May 6. A witness who helped move the body said that it had been
mutilated, with numerous knife and bullet wounds, likely indicating he had been
tortured.
While the killings were not on the
same scale as in Yopougon, Human Rights Watch also documented extrajudicial
executions in Koumassi and Port Bouët between April 13 and April 15, just after
the Republican Forces took over those areas. Several of those executed were
militia alleged to be implicated in dozens of killings and area residents said
in possession of large caches of arms. As in Yopougon, neighborhood youth
played a role in many of the documented cases in identifying, denouncing, and
trapping the alleged militiamen, before bringing them to the Republican Forces,
in the words of one such youth, "to do their work."
Many former Yopougon residents from
real or perceived pro-Gbagbo groups have fled, telling Human Rights Watch they
were terrified of returning home when the Republican Forces still tightly
control the neighborhood and killings continue.
Torture, Inhumane Treatment in
Detention
Human Rights Watch
documented dozens of cases of torture and inhumane treatment of detainees by
the Republican Forces. During and after the military offensive in Abidjan,
hundreds of youth from pro-Gbagbo ethnic groups were arrested and detained -
often at abandoned police stations and military bases as well as in makeshift
detention facilities like gas stations and the GESCO complex.
Almost all former detainees
interviewed by Human Rights Watch described being routinely beaten, most often
with some combination of guns, belts, clubs, fists, and boots, as Republican
Forces soldiers ordered them to reveal the location of weapons or militia
leaders.
Most had been arrested and detained
simply because of their age and ethnic group - particularly the Guéré, Bété,
Goro, and Attié, all strongly linked to former President Gbagbo - or the
neighborhood they were from. A university student in Port Bouët described being
arrested, detained, and beaten on April 21 because he had lived at one of the
university housing complexes in the neighborhood - sites that had long been
bastions of the Student Federation of Côte d'Ivoire (Fédération
estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d'Ivoire, commonly known by its acronym
FESCI), a violent pro-Gbagbo student group:
I lived in the university housing
because I'm a student from out of town, without family in Abidjan. I was never
among FESCI. The Republican Forces arrested me and took me in a cargo truck
from the 2nd precinct in Port Bouët. There were 10 of them, two of
us students. Four of them beat me repeatedly over three hours, and one took out
a knife and cut down my shoulder and back [wound seen by Human Rights Watch].
As they beat me, they kept demanding where the guns were. I told them I'd never
taken part in FESCI, but they didn't believe me. They threatened to kill me
several times.
It was only when someone else from the community came later that night and said
I wasn't part of FESCI that they relented. The commander told me to forget what
happened, to let it go, and gave me back my two cell phones. We're still
threatened though, just because we're students. We can't go back to school, we
can't go back to living in the university housing - they were mostly destroyed
by the community because of their link to FESCI.
In several cases, the Republican
Forces' treatment clearly reached the level of torture, defined under the
Convention Against Torture as " any act by which severe pain or suffering,
whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person" by a
state actor for purposes including obtaining information or punishing the
person for an act committed or suspected of being committed. A 20-year-old who
was detained for one week in the 37th police precinct in Abobo-Doumé
[a sub-neighborhood where the Marine Base is located] described being tortured:
Each day the FRCI pulled us out of
the small cell to beat us with their Kalashnikovs. Generally it was two of
them; they'd strike you over and over with either their guns or their boots. It
would last about five, ten minutes, then they'd leave and come back a couple
hours later to do it again. As they hit me they'd say, "Are you going to
answer our questions truthfully next time? Are you going to give us
information?" Every time I told them that I'd never raised a weapon, but
the beatings continued.
On the second day, they put a knife into a fire until it was scorching hot.
Then they placed it on my left shoulder, making a cut as well. They demanded,
"Are you militia? Where are the arms that have been hidden?" It was
the burning that hurt more than the cut - it was the worst pain I've ever felt
[wounds, including charred, discolored skin and a long scar on the victim's
shoulder, seen by Human Rights Watch].
Another detainee described how the
Republican Forces forcibly removed several of his teeth during questioning
after cornering him on a small road in Yopougon Wassakara in mid-April:
As I was walking to work [as a
security guard] in Wassakara, the FRCI ambushed me, encircling me from all
around. They were all in uniforms and wore military boots. They pulled me into
an alleyway near Pharmacy Keneya saying that I was Gbagbo militia. I said,
"No, no, I'm just going to my job. I'm a guard." They said, "No,
you're militia."
They beat me with their Kalashnikovs until I was bleeding from my head. I'm
still not right in the head, I constantly have headaches. Then they held me
down, two of them grabbed me by my shoulders, two by my legs, and one held open
my mouth. One of their guys had pliers, and he ripped out one of my teeth up
top. Then he ripped out a second one, but it broke and only part of it came
out. They kept demanding, "Where are the weapons you've hidden?" The
pain was so much, I couldn't even respond. So they kept going. They took out
four from up top and one from below in total. After the first couple, they stopped
even asking questions. They yelled, "We're going to kill all of you
militia that caused these problems. You're one of Gbagbo's Patriots, we're
going to kill you all."
I still can't really eat from all the pain. At night [a month later], blood
still comes into my mouth from these wounds.
Killings by Pro-Gbagbo Militia in
Retreat From Abidjan
Human Rights Watch
documented more than 220 killings by pro-Gbagbo 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.
Yopougon
As the longtime
base of Gbagbo's militia and the final battle zone in the fight for Abidjan,
the Yopougon neighborhood was the site of particularly intense killings of
perceived pro-Ouattara groups. Many killings were in the days after Gbagbo's
arrest, as militias overtly sought retribution.
In the largely Muslim Mami-Faitai
section of Yopougon, Human Rights Watch saw what appeared to be eight
recently-dug common graves, which people involved in the burials said each
contained between two and 18 bodies. At least 46 people were killed in the area
between April 11 and 13.
The residents of Mami-Faitai had
created a checkpoint at the entrance to their neighborhood, where, according to
several involved who were interviewed, unarmed youth signaled if attackers were
coming by banging pots and pans. Residents described how seven attackers in BAE
(an elite police unit) uniforms descended on the checkpoint just after midnight
and, within 10 minutes, killed 18 people. A survivor who pretended to be dead
after being shot told Human Rights Watch:
When they descended upon us, they
yelled, "Everyone lay down." Since they had Kalashes, all of them, we
had no choice. There were 18 of us there who lay down, 16 of whom were killed.
They took our cell phones; one of them said, "Now you won't be able to
call ONUCI [UN peacekeepers] anymore." They demanded our names; the first
two were Ibrahima and Boubakar. They charged their weapons and one said,
"It's you that caught President Gbagbo, you're going to pay. We're going
to make a mass grave in your neighborhood today." I was the leader of the
group, so I said, "We're youth from the neighborhood; we're unarmed. We're
not rebels, we're not politicians, we're just protecting our neighborhood, our
women."
One of them put his foot down on me and shot into my back [wound seen by HRW].
It didn't kill me though. I lay there like I was dead, hoping they wouldn't
notice and shoot me again. He kicked me, and I didn't respond. I tried to lay
like life was completely out of me. After a second kick, he moved to the next
person. All seven of them were shooting by this time - killing one after
another of us.
When the people in our neighborhood heard the gunshots, many came out to defend
us. But the Gbagbo guys fired to push back the crowd. Two more bodies were
found by the mosque nearby, people who had tried to come toward us. All of this
happened in about 10 to 15 minutes. We were mostly youth, but there were
several older men there too.
A 65-year-old man who lived in the
same neighborhood lost five sons when the militia climbed into his compound
around 9 a.m. on April 12:
They were going house by house to
kill. They were more than 10 that jumped the fence into my compound. Most were
in civilian clothes - all black, a few of them masking their faces with
charcoal - but others wore military pants. All had Kalashes. They broke the
first door, in which three of my sons were hiding. I was inside the main door,
the metal one, which is what saved me. They couldn't break it down like the two
wood doors outside in the courtyard. They fired their guns after they jumped
over the fence; we all heard and ran to listen and look through a hole in the
door.
I watched as they pulled out three of my boys from the first room. They forced
them to lay down on their stomachs in the hall here, and then they shot them at
point-blank range. First they took everything of value of them, then one opened
fire, "pop-pop," on each son. They demanded money, and my sons gave
it to them; they demanded clothes, my sons gave it to them; they demanded the
TV, cell phones. Everything was given, and yet the militiamen killed them. They
yelled that we, the Dioula, were the rebels that had taken over the country.
Another said, "It's your brothers that captured Gbagbo yesterday."
They pillaged that bedroom, then went to the second door where two more of my
boys were sleeping. They broke down that door as well. They immediately shot
one who was standing up, right in the chest. One of the attackers then said,
"We've taken care of four of them, that's enough, let's go." But
another said no. The fifth son was hiding under his bed. They pulled him out
and shot him.
Several stayed for more than an hour, while the others continued their killing
elsewhere. One of them broke open the fridge and, with the five bodies on the
ground, took out couscous, bissap [juice], and ate right there. Crumbs were
left on the ground right by the bodies.
Around 2 p.m., we stopped hearing gunfire and we went out. When I saw the
bodies, I was in shock, I couldn't even cry. We marched through blood to get
out of the compound, the five bodies just laying there. Bullet holes had gone
into the concrete floor. We couldn't take the time to bury them, as we didn't
know when the militia would return.
When we came back, we were told by a few who had hidden in the neighborhood
that the militia had packed the bodies together and then set them on fire. Burn
marks were out in front of our compound. We found some remains of bones, but
nothing more.
In the Doukouré sub-neighborhood of
Yopougon, 29 people lie in a single mass grave from the killings of April 12,
according to several residents who helped bury the bodies on April 13. At least
seven more graves are nearby in the same dusty parking lot for the neighborhood
mosque, with body counts between one and twelve, according to others who
assisted in the burial. As they went from house to house killing, the militia
also raped several women, including a 23-year-old:
Around 2:30 in the afternoon the
militia knocked on the door to the courtyard. Before we could even come to open
it, they'd broken it down. My husband raised his hands. They demanded his
ethnicity, his identity card. He said, "I'm Dioula," and they said,
"Ah, it's you that supports Alassane." He didn't respond, but as they
grabbed his identity papers, they shot him in the arm and then his ribs.
Then they told the women to take off their clothes and lay down or they would
shoot us. I begged for forgiveness, but one of them called in the others who
had remained outside. First, five more came in, then one went out to call in
more, and three more came. They all had weapons. The first who entered wore
military fatigues and carried a Kalash. The others were in civilian dress and
had knives and machetes.
There were three women in the rooms that share the courtyard, and they raped
all three of us. One militia raped each woman. They forced us to turn around
and then raped us. After they finished, they took everything we owned, left us
with nothing.
Killings within the
sub-neighborhoods controlled by the militia continued through the final days of
the battle for Yopougon. On April 25, pro-Gbagbo militia took advantage of a
brief movement by the Republican Forces out of Yopougon Andokoi to set up a
roadblock. Two Malian brothers came into the neighborhood around noon, thinking
it was safe, and were stopped at the militia checkpoint. The older brother,
interviewed by Human Rights Watch, escaped but looked back to see that his
26-year-old brother been stopped. After the Republican Forces took back the
area that night, the older brother returned to find his brother's half-charred
body stacked next to five more victims who had also been burned almost beyond
recognition.
On April 27, the sub-neighborhood of
Locodjoro, one of the last areas to fall to the Republican Forces, was burned
to the ground by retreating militiamen. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, and
according to witnesses, two Malians were detained, bound, and executed. One was
on his way into the area to save his mother who had been unable to flee earlier
violence.
Yopougon residents from both
political parties said they had seen a few well-known militia leaders in and
around the sub-neighborhoods of Yopougon where large numbers of killings
occurred. Witnesses described repeatedly seeing militia leader Bah Dora in the
area of Toit Rouge, another of the final bastions of the
militia. Witnesses there also described the involvement of militia members
under Bah's command in multiple killings of civilians from alleged pro-Ouattara
groups. Several neighborhood residents told Human Rights Watch that Bah Dora
had been captured by the Republican Forces and was being held at the 19th
precinct police station.
Two witnesses also said they saw
Maho Glofiei, a longtime militia leader from the far western region of Côte
d'Ivoire, in Yopougon just before Gbagbo's arrest.
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, Kouté, and
Abobo-Doumé.
Visit detention centers daily,
particularly in Yopougon, and demand access to prisoners without interference
by the Republican Forces.
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© Copyright HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 2011-06-09