A crackdown on an anti-government protest in Ivory Coast in March
claimed at least 120 lives and was "carefully planned and executed"
by security forces under orders from "the highest state
authorities", said a UN report obtained by AFP Monday.
"What happened on March 25 and 26 was the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians and the committing of massive human rights violations," said the report, the contents of which were first made public by Radio France Internationale (RFI).
"At least 120 people were killed, 274 wounded and 20 disappeared," it said, adding that there were still 81 bodies in the morgue of one hospital in Abidjan.
"These figures are by no means final," said the report.
"There is overwhelming evidence which suggests that these killings were mostly unprovoked and unnecessary to deal with the demonstrators.
"Certain community groups were specially targeted – individuals from the north of the country or from neighbouring countries," said the report.
Nationals of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali in Abidjan were "subjected to major violations of human rights, including summary and extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detention and disappearance that had little or nothing to do with the march," said the report.
The opposition and rights groups have said up to 500 people were killed but the Ivory Coast government has stuck to a figure of 37 dead.
Many of the victims were killed "not in the street" during the demonstration, which the opposition had called in spite of a presidential ban on public protests, "but in the dwellings of would-be demonstrators or even innocent civilians targeted by the security forces simply because of their name, origin or community group."
The UN commission, which conducted its investigations in Abidjan from April 15 to 28, said the crackdown began as "indiscriminate killings (by security forces) in the morning of March 25." The violence continued "for two days, and probably longer," said the report.
"Thousands of members of the security forces may have been in action on those days in Abidjan," it said, saying the crackdown was disproportionate and could not be justified by the situation.
"There were tanks, armed personnel carriers, rocket-propelled launchers pre-positioned in certain areas of Abidjan.
There were helicopters and units of the navy mobilised.
There were thousands of men in uniform and so-called parallel forces..."
The violence came "against a particularly volatile political situation" fueled by "a continuous power struggle" between the backers of President Laurent Gbagbo and opposition groups, including ex-rebels who rose up against him in September 2002, plunging Ivory Coast into civil war.
The opposition groups were incorporated into a reconciliation government under a pact signed in January last year to end that war.
It was in protest at Gbagbo's reluctance to fully implement the January 2003 peace accord, which called, among other issues, for him to cede power to a prime minister, that seven opposition parties called for what was supposed to be a peaceful anti-government demonstration.
But Gbagbo's government saw the planned protest as "a serious challenge to the president", and days after the opposition announced it, Gbagbo put the armed forces on alert, without consulting or advising Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, the report said.
The ministers of defence and of internal security, "as well as the relevant chiefs of the security forces (were instructed) to take every measure deemed necessary to suppress the demonstration."
The organisers of the thwarted demonstration bore some responsibility for the high death toll, although it was "not comparable" to the actions of the security forces and the "massive rights violations they committed," the report said.
The security services and the parallel forces knew "that people would be killed" and "it cannot be excluded that this information managed to reach the other side of the political divide, including those who wanted to maintain the march," said the report.
They "must have realised that it would be too risky and they did not participate", but their responsibility was far less than that of the state-commanded security forces.
The UN commission calls for an independent court to conduct criminal investigations into the violence, and urges the international community to quickly set up and fund an international commission to investigate allegations of grave rights abuses in Ivory Coast since the start of the civil war in 2002. - Sapa-AFP
"What happened on March 25 and 26 was the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians and the committing of massive human rights violations," said the report, the contents of which were first made public by Radio France Internationale (RFI).
"At least 120 people were killed, 274 wounded and 20 disappeared," it said, adding that there were still 81 bodies in the morgue of one hospital in Abidjan.
"These figures are by no means final," said the report.
"There is overwhelming evidence which suggests that these killings were mostly unprovoked and unnecessary to deal with the demonstrators.
"Certain community groups were specially targeted – individuals from the north of the country or from neighbouring countries," said the report.
Nationals of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali in Abidjan were "subjected to major violations of human rights, including summary and extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detention and disappearance that had little or nothing to do with the march," said the report.
The opposition and rights groups have said up to 500 people were killed but the Ivory Coast government has stuck to a figure of 37 dead.
Many of the victims were killed "not in the street" during the demonstration, which the opposition had called in spite of a presidential ban on public protests, "but in the dwellings of would-be demonstrators or even innocent civilians targeted by the security forces simply because of their name, origin or community group."
The UN commission, which conducted its investigations in Abidjan from April 15 to 28, said the crackdown began as "indiscriminate killings (by security forces) in the morning of March 25." The violence continued "for two days, and probably longer," said the report.
"Thousands of members of the security forces may have been in action on those days in Abidjan," it said, saying the crackdown was disproportionate and could not be justified by the situation.
"There were tanks, armed personnel carriers, rocket-propelled launchers pre-positioned in certain areas of Abidjan.
There were helicopters and units of the navy mobilised.
There were thousands of men in uniform and so-called parallel forces..."
The violence came "against a particularly volatile political situation" fueled by "a continuous power struggle" between the backers of President Laurent Gbagbo and opposition groups, including ex-rebels who rose up against him in September 2002, plunging Ivory Coast into civil war.
The opposition groups were incorporated into a reconciliation government under a pact signed in January last year to end that war.
It was in protest at Gbagbo's reluctance to fully implement the January 2003 peace accord, which called, among other issues, for him to cede power to a prime minister, that seven opposition parties called for what was supposed to be a peaceful anti-government demonstration.
But Gbagbo's government saw the planned protest as "a serious challenge to the president", and days after the opposition announced it, Gbagbo put the armed forces on alert, without consulting or advising Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, the report said.
The ministers of defence and of internal security, "as well as the relevant chiefs of the security forces (were instructed) to take every measure deemed necessary to suppress the demonstration."
The organisers of the thwarted demonstration bore some responsibility for the high death toll, although it was "not comparable" to the actions of the security forces and the "massive rights violations they committed," the report said.
The security services and the parallel forces knew "that people would be killed" and "it cannot be excluded that this information managed to reach the other side of the political divide, including those who wanted to maintain the march," said the report.
They "must have realised that it would be too risky and they did not participate", but their responsibility was far less than that of the state-commanded security forces.
The UN commission calls for an independent court to conduct criminal investigations into the violence, and urges the international community to quickly set up and fund an international commission to investigate allegations of grave rights abuses in Ivory Coast since the start of the civil war in 2002. - Sapa-AFP
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