UN reports extrajudicial executions being carried out in Ivory Coast

[News_Editor]

UN reports extrajudicial executions being carried out in Ivory Coast

2011-08-12 07:24:43 GMT+7 (ICT)

ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (BNO NEWS) -- At least 26 extrajudicial executions and 100 other human rights abuses were perpetrated in Ivory Coast in the past month as the country recovers from post-election violence, a senior United Nations (UN) official said on Thursday.

Guillaume Ngefa, the acting human rights chief in the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), told a news conference that despite these violent incidents, the security situation in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan is improving.

Abidjan was a focal point of months of deadly violence when former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down after losing last year's UN-certified election to Alassane Ouattara, who was finally installed as president in April.

Ngefa explained to a news conference in Abidjan the human rights abuses which have been perpetrated in both north and south of the country. "Violations committed include proven cases of summary, extrajudicial executions, illegal arrests and detention, the freeing of people in return for cash, extortion, and criminal rackets against numerous drivers," Ngefa said of the abuses perpetrated in the southern region.

Ngefa voiced concern at violent clashes between the army and young villagers in several areas, denouncing "acts of intimidation, extortion and numerous obstacles to free movement committed by army elements." The UNOCI chief said cruel and inhuman treatment and violation of property rights have also been perpetrated against ethnic groups such as the Bété, Bakwé, Attié and Ebrié.

In the North, Ngefa cited routine rights abuses such as criminal rackets and arbitrary arrests as State functions like tax collection, mining and customs still remain in the hands of army elements who justifies "this kind of ransom" by claiming it is their sole source of revenue and they do not intend to end it.

Despite these human rights abuses, former president Gbabgo, his wife, and other regime members who are being held in detention centers in the North, did not complain of any torture, Nefgha said after visiting them.

He also observed improvement in the hygienic and physical conditions at the detention centers where the walls leak during the rains.

In another development, as part of its effort to disarm the warring factions outside the regular army, UNOCI collected on Wednesday the weapons and munitions of nearly 90 members of the Ouermi Amadé group some 540 kilometers (335 miles) northwest of Abidjan.

An armed rebellion in 2002 split the country into a Government-controlled south and a rebel-held north. The UN certified election won by Ouattara in 2010 reunited the country again. However, before Ouattara could be sworn in as legitimate president, violent tensions shook the country for five months as former president Gbadbo refused to step down. The fighting killed more than 1,000 people and left up to one million Ivoirians displaced.

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