As combat waged in and around these towns throughout March, the Republican Forces systematically targeted alleged pro-Gbagbo civilians, despite repeated public pronouncements by Soro and Ouattara spokespersons that their fight was only against Gbagbo's armed forces. Soro's visits to the Republican Forces in Toulepleu on March 9 and 10 do not appear to have reduced their abuses.
Human Rights Watch documented the killing of civilians by pro-Ouattara forces in at least a dozen villages in and around Toulepleu and Bloléquin, including summary executions, dismemberment, and immolation. While the majority of the region's ethnic Guéré residents fled in anticipation of the Republican Forces' attack, those who remained were subjected to collective punishment for the group's perceived support for Gbagbo.
A 57-year-old Guéré man from Zoguiné, a village between Toulepleu and the nearby official border crossing into Liberian, described to Human Rights Watch how the Republican Forces executed a farmer walking home, set fire to his mother's house, burning her alive, and destroyed his village:
The rebels[1] arrived at my village on Monday, March 7, at 10 in the morning. The women in the village had already fled once we heard Toulepleu had been attacked. But my mother remained because she couldn't flee, and then there were 14 men who stayed as well. Most of us were in the village, but one was in his fields outside the village.
Seven of the rebels entered. When we heard the firing we all fled to the bush to hide. But the guy at his plantation didn't know they'd come. He came back to his house and when he did, they fired on him and hit him in his knee so he couldn't walk. They were in military fatigues, all of them, and they had white bandanas on their heads. Some of them had charcoal on their faces; others had put red paint on.
The rest of us were hidden in the bush and watched it all from 100, maybe 200 meters away. They shot him with a Kalash [AK-47 "Kalashnikov" assault rifle] in his knee from about 10, 20 meters. They came to him after that first shot and aimed their guns at him. Then [our neighbor] yelled out to us, "Come back from the bush! It's not the rebels who've come. It's our protectors [the pro-Gbagbo troops]." They tried to trick us. But we could see them, we could see them with their guns pointed at him. So we didn't move. After a couple minutes, they must have realized that we weren't coming back. They set fire to his house, and then several of them grabbed him and dragged him along the ground. They must have dragged him 85 meters, bringing him toward the main road that runs through the village. Then they shot him at point-blank range and cut out his insides with a long knife. They left his body there.
Then they went back into the village and started breaking into all the houses. They searched those close to the road and took everything of value. They set fire to the houses that had straw roofs. My mother was old and sick and couldn't leave her bed. They burned her house with her still in it. I found her burned body later, after they left. I watched as they burned my house after stealing everything. Since they'd come to the village on foot, they amassed all of the belongings along the main road. And then they called in their companions who arrived with a military cargo truck to take it all away. They took TVs, radios, anything they could get their hands on. They slaughtered all of our animals - just opened fire on them with their Kalashes - before getting into the truck.
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