“They Killed Them Like It Was Nothing” the Need for Justice for Côte D’Ivoire’S Post-Election Crimes

Cote d’Ivoire “They Killed Them HUMAN Like It Was Nothing” RIGHTS WATCH The Need for Justice for Côte d’Ivoire’s Post-Election Crimes “They Killed Them Like It Was Nothing” The Need for Justice for Côte d’Ivoire’s Post-Election Crimes Copyright © 2011 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-56432-819-8 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 51, Avenue Blanc 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] 2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd Floor London N1 9HF, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org OCTOBER 2011 ISBN: 1-56432-819-8 “They Killed Them Like It Was Nothing” The Need for Justice for Côte d’Ivoire’s Post-Election Crimes Maps ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 10 Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 14 Background ..................................................................................................................................... 16 From Independence to the 2000 Elections .............................................................................. 16 Armed conflict and political-military stalemate ....................................................................... 19 Peace Agreements and Peacekeepers ..................................................................................... 21 2010 Elections and Immediate Aftermath ................................................................................ 23 I. Initial Post-Election Violence: November 2010-January 2011 ......................................................... 26 Pro-Gbagbo Forces ................................................................................................................ 26 Excessive Use of Force against Demonstrators ................................................................. 26 Targeted Killings and Enforced Disappearances of Pro-Ouattara Activists .......................... 31 Killings of Perceived Opponents by Pro-Gbagbo Militia ..................................................... 33 Sexual Violence ............................................................................................................... 36 Pro-Ouattara Forces in the North ............................................................................................. 37 II. Toward Active Conflict: February to mid-March 2010 .................................................................... 41 Pro-Gbagbo Forces ................................................................................................................. 41 Incitement to Violence by the Gbagbo Camp ..................................................................... 41 Targeted Violence against West African Immigrants in Abidjan .......................................... 44 Attacks on Mosques, Muslims, and Imams ...................................................................... 48 Targeted Rape and Enforced Disappearances of Ouattara Supporters ............................... 51 Violent Suppression of Demonstrations ............................................................................ 53 Pro-Ouattara Forces ................................................................................................................ 56 Civilian Killings in Anonkoua Village ................................................................................. 56 Summary Executions of Detained Gbagbo Fighters ............................................................ 57 III. Full-Scale Armed Conflict: mid-March-May 2011 .......................................................................... 59 Pro-Gbagbo Forces ................................................................................................................. 59 Killings, Massacres in Far West ......................................................................................... 59 Indiscriminate Shelling in Abidjan ................................................................................... 64 Widespread Ethnic Killings and Rapes in Abidjan .............................................................. 67 Republican Forces Military Offensive ....................................................................................... 74 Killings, Rape, and Pillage in the Far West ......................................................................... 75 Summary Executions of Detained Civilians, Primarily the Elderly ...................................... 80 Rape and other Sexual Violence ...................................................................................... 82 Duékoué Massacre Involving Republican Forces ............................................................... 87 Final Battle for Abidjan and Subsequent Weeks ............................................................... 90 IV. Key Leaders Implicated ............................................................................................................. 103 Gbagbo Camp ....................................................................................................................... 103 Ouattara Camp ..................................................................................................................... 106 Not Formally Aligned ............................................................................................................. 108 V. Accountability ............................................................................................................................ 109 Commissions of Inquiry ........................................................................................................ 109 Domestic Prosecutions against Gbagbo Camp....................................................................... 112 No Domestic Procedures against Republican Forces Soldiers ................................................ 114 International Criminal Court .................................................................................................. 116 Dialogue, Truth, and Reconciliation Commission ................................................................... 118 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 120 Annex: Letters to the International Criminal Court .......................................................................... 123 Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ 128 Glossary of Acronyms .................................................................................................................... 129 Maps Côte d’Ivoire. © 2010 Human Rights Watch 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | OCTOBER 2011 Côte d’Ivoire’s Far West. © 2011 Human Rights Watch “THEY KILLED THEM LIKE IT WAS NOTHING” 2 Abidjan. © 2011 John Emerson/Human Rights Watch. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA 3 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | OCTOBER 2011 Summary On November 28, 2010, Ivorians went to the polls to elect a president, hoping to end a decade-long crisis during which the country was divided politically and militarily between the north and south. In the week that followed this run-off election, despite clear international consensus that Alassane Ouattara had won, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down. The post-election crisis then evolved from a targeted campaign of violence by Gbagbo forces to an armed conflict in which armed forces from both sides committed grave crimes. Six months later, at least 3,000 civilians were killed and more than 150 women were raped in a conflict that was often waged along political, ethnic, and religious lines. Elite security force units closely linked to Gbagbo dragged neighborhood political leaders from Ouattara’s coalition away from restaurants or out of their homes into waiting vehicles; family members later found the victims’ bodies in morgues, riddled with bullets. Women who were active in mobilizing voters—or who merely wore pro-Ouattara t-shirts—were targeted and often gang raped by armed forces and militia groups under Gbagbo’s control, after which the attackers told the women to “go tell Alassane” their problems. Pro-Gbagbo militiamen stopped hundreds of real and perceived supporters of Ouattara at checkpoints or attacked them in their neighborhoods and then beat them to death with bricks, executed them by gunshot at point-blank range, or burned them alive. Abuses by

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