HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY PRO-OUATTARA FORCES

 By Human Rights Watch (HRW)


Human Rights Watch documented serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law in recent weeks by armed forces fighting for Ouattara in Abidjan, including reprisal killings of civilians and extrajudicial executions against detained pro-Gbagbo forces. While Ouattara and Guillaume Soro, the former head of the Forces Nouvelles who is now Ouattara's prime minister, have officially denied a connection to the fighting forces in Abobo, sources in Abobo and inside the Ouattara camp acknowledged the strong presence and role in Abobo of Forces Nouvelles soldiers under the Ouattara side's control. 

Pro-Ouattara forces now exercise complete authority in large sections of Abobo and the town of Anyama, operating dozens of checkpoints in the area. That level of control, combined with the Ouattara government's declaration of being the legitimate state power, means that such forces - and the Ouattara government to the degree it controls the forces - should be held accountable for violations of human rights and humanitarian law in these zones. The past week gives disturbing indications of human rights violations and war crimes being committed there, Human Rights Watch said.

Civilian Killings in Anonkoua Village

Around 2 a.m. on March 7, more than 60 pro-Ouattara fighters attacked the village of Anonkoua-Kouté, located just outside their Abidjan military stronghold in Abobo. Anonkoua is a village of predominantly Ebrié people, who largely support Gbagbo. The previous day, there had been combat in the area between armed forces on the two sides. Victims of the March 7 attack as well as a fighter from the Ouattara side told Human Rights Watch that pro-Ouattara forces believed that weapons had been left in the village. However, the attackers appear to have killed civilians at random and burned down much of the village. 

Human Rights Watch interviewed four victims from Anonkoua-Kouté and confirmed the death of nine civilians, including two women who were burned. One victim told Human Rights Watch: 

I could hear heavy firing of machine guns, and people from the village started crying out. I went out to see what was happening, and I came across someone who grabbed me and demanded a password. I didn't know it, so he pointed his sawed-off shotgun at me from two meters away and fired. I swung my arm at the gun right as he was firing, and buckshot sprayed into my arm and my neck. I fell to the ground, and lay there as if I was dead, barely breathing. I watched them massacre the village as I lay there.

The rebels were dressed in all black. Some of them wore Balaclavas, others had on bandannas. They pounded on people's doors and kept saying, "We're here for war, we're not here to play," and demanded where people were hiding arms as they beat and killed them.

At one house close to mine, a woman refused to open the door. They threw in lit bottles that had been soaked in gas, and the house went up in flames. The woman came running out on fire, screaming. She died later that day. I watched as they grabbed another of my neighbors and shot him at point-blank range. It was all barbaric.  Another witness described watching attackers slit the throat of his 72-year-old father. At least 15 houses were burned, and the entire village is now abandoned. He said that the pro-Ouattara forces now control the area.
"Committing atrocities against civilians is no way for Ouattara to take power," Bekele said. "Ouattara should immediately call for an investigation into these deplorable acts of violence and hold accountable those who ordered and conducted them." 

Human Rights Watch expressed deep concern about the treatment of real or perceived Gbagbo supporters who remain in Forces-Nouvelles-controlled parts of Abidjan. On March 8, a member of the Bété ethnic group said pro-Ouattara soldiers broke down his door in Abobo and ransacked his house. They pointed their guns at him and said he was a "Patriot," threatening to kill him. Neighbors intervened on his behalf, which the victim believed saved his life, but the attackers still stole all of his possessions. The victim left for an area under Gbagbo's control immediately. 

A victim from another part of Abobo described a similar attack on March 7 at his house by pro-Ouattara soldiers. The vast majority of people from pro-Gbagbo groups have left areas of Abobo that are under Ouattara forces' control. 

Summary Execution of pro-Gbagbo Forces

Human Rights Watch documented the summary execution of 11 armed forces and militia members loyal to Gbagbo since March 1. In seven of the cases, witnesses described how vehicles or individuals on foot were stopped at Forces Nouvelles checkpoints in Abobo and weapons were found. When pro-Ouattara combatants "judged" the person to be pro-Gbagbo fighter, they killed the disarmed detainee. 

One pro-Ouattara combatant in Abobo described four cases to Human Rights Watch in which he had been part of the operation. On March 2, an ambulance was stopped and his fellow-combatants said they had discovered Kalashnikovs during the search and its driver was then detained. On March 5, the pro-Ouattara fighter said he found three people with arms passing a checkpoint on foot near the Abobo sub-neighborhood of Anonkoua. In both cases, the pro-Ouattara fighter related bringing the detainees to a higher-level commander, indicating organization and a clear chain of command among the fighters. After being detained, the person was subject to an "intense interrogation," then "neutralized," the fighter said. The ambulance was also burned, several witnesses who saw it later said.

A witness to the execution of another three people believed to be forces loyal to Gbagbo described to Human Rights Watch: 

On Monday, March 6, I was walking through Abobo when a black 4x4 came across a checkpoint. The Forces Nouvelles there stopped the car and searched it. They found three Kalashnikovs as well as security force uniforms - I could see the camouflage, but I was about 50 meters away, so couldn't tell exactly what type of security force.

The FN guys held up the Kalashnikovs, and immediately ten more FN descended on the car. They grabbed the three people who were inside and threw them to the ground, beating them with long blocks of wood and the guns they'd just captured. They ripped off their clothes and as some of them were still beating them, others grabbed tires and lay them on top. The FN guys then poured gasoline from a container, and lit it all on fire. You could see the movement of the Gbagbo guys' legs as they burned, still being beaten by the FN soldiers. 

In another incident on March 7, pro-Ouattara forces detained four alleged Young Patriots leaders in Abobo and summarily executed them. Credible accounts, including from a pro-Ouattara fighter and a resident near where the detainees were killed who took video of the bodies soon after their killings, indicate that two people were captured and then used to lay a trap for higher-level leaders. The four Patriot leaders were then executed after being detained, the pro-Ouattara fighter said. Human Rights Watch was shown images of the body of "Lamté," a Young Patriots chief in the area implicated in post-election killings against real and perceived Ouattara supporters. His throat had been cut completely. In the video, another victim had been impaled with a stake, although it was not clear whether before or

after his death. Earlier in February, Human Rights Watch documented three unjustified killings in Abobo of persons believed to be members of pro-Gbagbo security forces, including one identified as Chief Dago Séri, who served with Gbagbo's Republican Guard. "The torture and execution of a captured enemy combatant is a war crime," Bekele said. "Ouattara-aligned forces immediately need to cease this behavior and ensure that anyone detained is treated humanely." 

Abobo residents and Human Rights Watch's investigations in Abobo also made clear that fighting forces loyal to Ouattara are generally failing to distinguish themselves from civilians, as required by international humanitarian law. By dressing in normal civilian attire and hiding among civilians, the forces are placing the people they claim to be fighting for at greater risk, Human Rights Watch said. Several Abobo residents attributed the Gbagbo security forces' daily strafing with machine guns at least in part to their inability to distinguish between Ouattara fighters and the civilian population. 

Human Rights Watch called on Ouattara and Soro to denounce these violations immediately and open an investigation that would hold the perpetrators accountable, particularly for the Anonkoua killings. The failure to exercise effective command over their fighters and ensure that they comply with human rights and humanitarian obligations threatens to deepen the crisis and fuel further abuses. Human Rights Watch has documented a long history of war crimes by Forces Nouvelles during the 2002-2003 conflict and its aftermath, including massacres, torture, and the use of child soldiers. 

The prohibitions of war crimes and crimes against humanity are among the most fundamental prohibitions in international criminal law. Under the Rome Statute of the ICC, crimes against humanity can be committed during peace or armed conflict and consist of specific acts committed on a widespread or systematic basis as part of an "attack on a civilian population," meaning that there is some degree of planning or policy on behalf of the authorities. Such acts include murder, rape, and persecution of a group on political, ethnic, or national grounds. War crimes in armed conflict not international in nature include murdering people not taking an active part in hostilities, including members of the armed forces who have been detained, and intentionally directing attacks against civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities. 

When crimes against humanity and war crimes are committed, people in command authority who should have been aware of the crime and failed to prevent the crime or submit it for investigation and prosecution can be held accountable.