IVORYCOAST'S GRIM PAST

Ivory Coast’s grim past

With allies like this....

WEARING green-and-blue pyjama bottoms, Amadé Ouérémi casually bantered with government soldiers and posed for mobile-phone pictures as he entertained them recently at his encampment in the Mount Peko national park, in the west-central part of Ivory Coast. Mr Ouérémi’s personal militia, believed to number at least 100, had occupied the protected forest for more than a decade. A few hours later, government soldiers arrested him, dragging him kicking and screaming into a blue van. “Why am I the only one accused of crimes?” he said. “They want to eat without me.”

Ever since Ivory Coast’s short but murderous crisis after a disputed election in 2010, Mr Ouérémi enjoyed close relations with the rebels who have now become the national army. Alongside bands of traditional hunters, called dozos, he helped to wrest the country’s west from forces loyal to the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, on behalf of Alassane Ouattara, who was internationally recognised to have won the election. In the process, they allegedly slaughtered hundreds in Duékoué, a town near Mount Peko.

Despite allegations that Mr Ouérémi was involved in the

massacre, he looks likely to be tried only for occupying the forest. This will invite yet more accusations of “victors’ justice”. To date, no supporter of Mr Ouattara has been prosecuted in connection with the post-election violence, whereas more than 150 of Mr Gbagbo’s partisans are facing trial.

A government-appointed commission last year concluded that both sides had committed atrocities. Still, the architect of the western offensive, whose forces have also been implicated in the Duékoué massacre, is now one of the army’s chief commanders. Another well-known pro-Ouattara commander who has been accused of overseeing soldiers implicated in extrajudicial killings now heads a department in the south-west. The list goes on.

It reflects the peculiar nature of Mr Ouattara’s ascent to power. Although he was freely and fairly elected in the eyes of the outside world, he entered office on the back of a rebellion led by warlords who ran the country’s north until the election. Most owe their first loyalty to Guillaume Soro, a former chief rebel commander who is now the national assembly’s Speaker. Mr Ouattara has eagerly courted their allegiance. As well as getting plum jobs in the security apparatus, they have held on to the vast smuggling networks and parallel taxation systems they established as rebel leaders. A recent UN report found that smuggling costs the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Mr Ouattara has emerged as a forceful president. The legislature granted him the power to enact economic policy by decree after he announced GDP growth of nearly 10% in 2012. Yet he often seems in thrall to armed men. After Mr Ouérémi’s arrest, some expressed cautious optimism that the president was at last prepared to remove some of the more unsavoury characters around him. The government did win convictions in May against two ordinary soldiers in the president’s camp for murders committed after the crisis. The big fish, however, have remained untouched.