UN recommends nation-building programme for Côte d'Ivoire

A United Nations report on deaths in Côte d'Ivoire during a banned demonstration in late March recommends investigating and persecuting those responsible, expanding the UN mission already in place, reforming and strengthening the judiciary and establishing a truth and reconciliation commission.

"Côte d'Ivoire is at a crossroads. In order for peace to prevail here, as well as elsewhere in the sub-region, it is absolutely necessary to establish the principle that violence can no longer yield political advantages and must never be rewarded," it says.

The report to the Security Council results from an investigation, requested by President Laurent Gbagbo, into the fatalities of 25 and 26 March by a three-member Commission of Inquiry appointed by Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan.

Respect for the rights of others, including political opponents, must be the key test for all those who aspire to lead Côte d'Ivoire towards stability, unity and prosperity, the report says.

What took place was "the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians and the committing of massive human rights violations," for which security forces had to take more blame than those who planned the demonstrations, the report says.

"The march became a pretext for what turned out to be a carefully planned and executed operation by the security forces, i.e., the police, the gendarmerie, the army, as well as the special units and the so-called parallel forces, under the direction and responsibility of the highest authorities of the State," the report says.

The level of violence unleashed was out of proportion to the threat from demonstrators and targeted supporters, or perceived supporters, of parties opposed to President Gbagbo's government, it says.

According to the figures gathered by the Commission so far, at least 120 people were killed, 274 wounded and 20 disappeared. The security forces sometimes went to the dwellings of people who were targeted because of their names, origins or community groups. Some 80 per cent of the victims were men, it says.

A "red zone" was demarcated in the periphery of the major economic city, Abidjan, within which unauthorized people could be shot on sight as enemy combatants. Security forces then blocked the entry and exit of residents "and carried out their action there for two days and probably longer."

"In one incident, in Yopougon, at 6:15 a.m., as demonstrators were trying to gather in the street, a jeep with English-speaking uniformed men, without insignias, threatened to kill them. A few minutes later, helicopters began to fly so low over the area that demonstrators could see the white pilots being assisted by black men. Tear gas canisters were dropped from the helicopters onto the crowd," the report says.

The problems of Côte d'Ivoire cannot be solved by violence, but through political dialogue, stability and economic and social development, the report says.