http://tinyurl.com/44bvvjz
May 25, 2011 Amnesty: Ivory Coasts Ouattara Giving 'Green Light' to Violence 25 May 2011 VOA News A new Amnesty International <http://www.amnesty.org/> report says war crimes have been committed on both sides of the political divide during Ivory Coast's violent post-election standoff. A group from Amnesty International spent about two months in Ivory Coast, speaking to witnesses of a power struggle that erupted after last Novembers disputed presidential election. Amnesty International deputy director for Africa Véronique Aubert says forces loyal to former leader Laurent Gbagbo have carried out war crimes. That is also true, she says, of forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the incumbent president. "We know that they have executed hundreds of men of all age on political and ethnic grounds," said Aubert. "We know that women have been raped. There are quite a lot of testimonies in the report, including on sexual violence." Amnestys investigations focused on crimes carried out in and around Duékoué, a town about 500 kilometers from the capital, Abidjan. She says the U.N. Operations in Ivory Coast, or UNOCI, failed to protect the population from the mass killings and rape that took place there in March. "We all know that a lot of this happened when the United Nations operation was very close by, just a kilometer away from the killings in Duékoué," she said. "The UNOCI was not acting and was not protecting the population the way it had to." And Aubert says the violence is continuing. The Amnesty report says in the first weeks of May attacks were carried out against villages inhabited by people believed to be sympathetic to Gbagbo. Ouattara has promised to reconcile the two sides of the divide and has asked the International Criminal Court to probe allegations of serious crimes during the crisis. But Aubert says Ouattara needs to do more by publicly condemning violence carried out by the force he set up in March, the Ivory Coast Republican Forces. "It is his responsibility to exercise strict control over the armed forces and to call for an immediate end to the reprisals," she said. "He is the president and that is why we are asking him to publicly condemn those violations and control his forces. The crisis in Ivory Coast was partially quelled last month when Gbagbo, who had refused to step down following the disputed election, was captured. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
