April 8, 11

NEWS / UN human rights team finds over 100 bodies over past day in Cote d Ivoire

8 April 2011 – The United Nations human rights office said today that its investigators have found more than 100 bodies over the past 24 hours in three different towns in strife-torn Côte d’Ivoire, with some of them appearing to be ethnic killings.

Staff from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) saw 15 new bodies in Duékoué yesterday, in addition to the 229 already found and buried, bringing the total number to 244 known for sure to have been killed during an incident that took place between 28 and 29 March.

Rupert Colville, OHCHR’s spokesperson in Geneva, told reporters that the victims are believed to have been mostly or all of Guerre ethnicity. The Guerre have traditionally been supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power despite the UN-certified victory of Alassane Ouattara in November’s presidential run-off poll.

“The killings took place when fighters who support President Ouattara took control of Duékoué,” he stated. “Some of the victims seem to have been burnt alive, and some corpses were thrown down a well.”

This incident followed an earlier one in mid-March when another 100 people of the Dioula ethnicity, including some women, were reportedly killed by pro-Gbagbo forces who were in control of Duékoué at that time.

The human rights team also found around 40 corpses in the small town of Blolequin, to the west of Duékoué.

“The perpetrators are said to have been Liberian militias, who spared the Guerre from other groups after separating them out,” said Mr. Colville, adding that the town’s population has all fled, and there has clearly been a lot of looting.

In the nearby town of Guiglo, investigators saw more than 60 corpses, including a number of West Africans.

Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic, who has been in the country for several days now, met yesterday with Mr. Ouattara and two of his ministers and discussed the killing of civilians at length. He also spoke by phone with a senior aide of Mr. Gbagbo.

OHCHR has also been receiving reports of smaller-scale killings in other towns and villages which are still to be investigated.

In a related development, the five-member UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries discussed recent events in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya and warned today that mercenaries are still very active in Africa where they have been recruited to attack civilians.

“The issue of mercenaries is still alive,” said the Group’s Chair-Rapporteur, José Luis Gómez del Prado, at the end of the group’s 12th session in Geneva, where it examined country situations involving the use of mercenaries. “We are especially concerned about the reported involvement of mercenaries in serious human rights violations,” he stressed.

Yesterday UN relief chief Valerie Amos sounded the alarm about the humanitarian situation inside Côte d’Ivoire, saying emergency aid is needed now to help hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the deadly violence that has engulfed the West African country.

The heaviest fighting is now focused on the commercial capital, Abidjan, where pro-Gbagbo forces are concentrated. The UN peacekeeping mission (UNOCI) is carrying out ground and air patrols to try to protect civilians and to respond to requests for assistance from journalists and foreign nationals.

UN aid officials have estimated that up to 1 million Ivorians have been displaced by the violence, with some internally displaced and others forced to flee into neighbouring countries, particularly Liberia which is hosting 135,000 Ivorians.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that thousands of refugees continue to pour into neighbouring countries, with close to 150,000 Ivorian refugees now spread across 12 countries in West Africa.

The agency noted that the ongoing fighting in Abidjan is driving more civilians into exile in Ghana. Some 2,000 Ivorians have crossed into Ghana in the last week, bringing the total there to 7,200. Further east of Côte d’Ivoire, some 200 Ivorians have been arriving daily in Togo in recent days, bringing the total there to 2,300.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38051&Cr=Ivoire&Cr1=