Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast )----A dictator ruling by repression.



A brutal repressive cycle of widespread human rights violations by President Ouattara's regime pursuing former President Gbagbo’s supporters is making reconciliation in Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) ever more elusive. Ouattara's tribalistic army is carrying daily politically motivated arrests and torture under the pretence of ensuring security. Militants largely held for their political, ethnic and religious affiliations, are being held for months and years at a time, with no access to their families, lawyers or doctors.

 Detainees from the hard-line Ivorian Popular Front ( FPI ) explained how they are tortured with electricity or with molten plastic in order to extract confessions about their alleged participation in a fictitious rebellion against Ouattara's regime. They have been subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment. Many told the human rights groups how they have been detained along with 27 other people in a 4 metre square cell with no sanitation for 49 days. “We have to go to the toilet in bags. And we only have one meal a day which we are given at 2 or 3 pm. And we are only given one litre of water for 48 hours.”

Local human rights groups noted serious irregularities in the investigation of cases; Ouattara's government has done very little to ensure fair hearings and have seriously undermined the right to a defence. Michel Gbagbo, the son of the former President and head of his FPI party's prisoner affairs committee, said many including prominent opposition figures such as Dano Djedje, Lida Kouassi, Assoa Adou, Hubert Oulaye, Dogo Raphael and Koua Justin have seen a worsening of health problems linked to their treatment since their arrests. " Since 2011," he said "Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) is added to the dark list of countries in which the crime of opinion is subject to imprisonment. Ouattara is forcibly confining anyone who criticizes his authoritarian regime." 

The report also documents the attack and destruction in July 2012 of a camp of internally displaced people largely from the Guéré ethic group, generally regarded as Gbagbo supporters, which led to the death of at least 14 people - although many more bodies are believed to have been dumped in wells.

The attack took place in Nahibly (near the town of Duékoué) in western Côte d'Ivoire, a region which has experienced some of the most serious human rights violations in the country. It was led by the Dozos - who are particularly active in the west - along with armed members of the local population and elements of the army.

“Some of the worst human rights violations of the 2011 conflict were carried out in Duékoué and it is appalling to see that the same perpetrators are committing the same violations and abuses against the same population, two years later,” said Mootoo.  “Where is the justice in that?”

Noting the general failure of the authorities to ensure justice and reparation, Amnesty International is calling for an international commission of enquiry into this attack.

The organization is also calling on the Ivorian authorities to halt the human rights violations and abuses which continue to be committed with impunity by state agents or militias supported by the state.

“Justice is already long overdue for the people of Côte d’Ivoire, said Mootoo. “If measures are not put in place immediately to control the security forces, Côte d’Ivoire risks successive political crises, where national reconciliation becomes a long lost hope.”

Is Ivory Coast a democracy?

Is Ivory Coast a democracy?

Ivory Coast is officially a multiparty democracy. Its President, Alassane Ouattara, has been in power since April 2011. Ouattara’s refusal to concede defeat in November 2010 election, followed a bloody and brief civil war opposing Ouattara’s Northern rebels backed by French Special Forces to soldiers in the South loyal to President Gbagbo. As many as 10,000 civilians were killed in Ouattara’s standoff.

Ouattara’s regime has since seen the opposition and the civil society as anti-progress and enemies of development.  As an Ivorian blogger points out in one of his publications, Amadou Soumahoro, the leader of the RDR (Ouattara's party) had unequivocally warned journalists and opposition actors on several occasions that whoever criticizes the policy of President Ouattara is flirting with death. Ouattara's regime confirmed Soumahoro's doctrine by killing Désiré Oué, chief editor of Tomorrow Magazine, before confiscating his computer and some important documents. The journalist's wife and colleagues, as reported by the blogger, are deeply convinced that Oué was targeted for his articles against Ouattara's dictatorship. 

300 activists including influential opposition militants from the Ivorian Popular Front ( FPI ), identified by Ouattara's government as the most critics of Ouattara's culture of corruption and impunity, and questioned the reality of democracy in Ivory Coast, were arrested and are currently detained in torture centers."The arrest and arbitrary detention of the prominent figures of the main opposition party ( FPI ) five months before the presidential election, send a worrying signal" denounced Amnesty International.  "I am pessimistic and amazed by the attitude of France and the United States who ensure that everything is settled in IvoryCoast" said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. 

Ouattara's regime often carries out these political motivated arrests and torture in order to intimidate the opposition. Since President Ouattara came to power through the barrel of a gun in April 2011, he cannot accept being criticized for his flawed politics. "Ouattara has both feet in the multi-party derision and head into the authoritarian era. He has a phobia of a fair and independent election" said Kouadio Konan Bertin ( KKB ), a legislator of RHDP, a coalition of political parties including Ouattara's party ( RDR ) . "We cannot expect loyalty to an unjust regime. Democracy under President Ouattara is simply a mirage" he complained.

Alain Werner, a Swiss lawyer who investigated cases of rapes in Ivory Coast , said heinous acts of sexual violence are taking place  after the country's recent conflict, but identified a lack of "impartial willingness from the Ivorian [government] to try or investigate these crimes". In Ivory Coast, he said , the chances of getting the cases of rape by Ouattara's soldiers to court are slim, even with documented evidence. "Rather than create an army likely to respect the rule of law, Ouattara has promoted commanders who were in command when atrocities took place and should be investigated, not rewarded”,  said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Adou Gnapi, the police captain, when asked why women frequently suffer sexual violence, answered. "It's complicated," he said. "Nowadays women look too good."

France’s colonial empire covered much of North and West Africa, from Algeria to Ivory Coast. The colonies were gradually granted independence in the 1960s, but France still has troops based in Africa and close business, political, linguistic and personal ties to its former colonies, which as a whole give France more importance in the world.
 French African policy, sometimes known as Françafrique, gives the right to Paris and its army to dictate politics in its former colonies and reap economic rewards.

Accusations persist of France taking sides to make new presidents or overthrow old ones, of illegal political contributions and payoffs, of parallel but separate policies run by the Élysée and the Quai d’Orsay. The newspapers, for instance, have depicted the friendship of Mr. Sarkozy’s former wife, Cécilia, with the French wife of Gbagbo rival Alassane Ouattara, and Mr. Gbagbo played heavily on anti-French sentiment in his effort to retain power when he fought the fraudulent results of a staged election by France in favor of Alassane Ouattara in November 2010. Achille Mbembé, a Cameroonian-born historian and critic of French involvement in Ivory Coast, said that France continued to support African dictators like Alassane Ouattara. "I saw a continuity in the management of Françafrique — this system of reciprocal corruption, which, since the end of colonial occupation, ties France to its African henchmen"he said.

Antoine Glaser, former editor in chief of Lettre du Continent, an African newsletter, and co-author of “How France Lost Africa”  added: "With presence of the French troops in Ivory Coast, there’s always the phantasmagoria of Françafrique,  all the colonial past. France has not yet been able to turn the page completely.”

Three prominent figures of the main opposition party ( FPI ) were arrested on Monday after their participation last week in the party convention which designated the former Ivorian Head of the Country Laurent Gbagbo, President of the Ivorian Popular Front ( FPI ).

 Sebastien Dano Djedje and Hubert Oulaye, were "kidnapped at their home early Monday morning by government militias and  taken to President Ouattara's secret agents headquarters," Mr. Toussaint Dako, their lawyer, told the international media.

Justin Koua, a youth leader of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), was also arrested at his workplace."In Africa, dictatorial regimes kidnap and charge political opponents of "breach of security of the state" when these African regimes want to get rid of the non-friendly opponents. None of these arrested had weapons, none of them was violent, as we learned from past experiences.These people should not have been arrested" observes an African expert on human rights, who is critical, as any Ivorian of President Ouattara's "tyrannical-drift" in vogue in Ivory Coast, where opposition militants are accused of "disturbing public order". Since President Ouattara seized power in a reign of terror in April 2011 in Ivory Coast, he cannot stand being criticized for his flawed politics." Ouattara's regime suffers atavistic defects reminiscent of the authoritarian era." said Kouadio Konan Bertin, a legislator of RHDP, a coalition of political parties including Ouattara's party ( RDR ). "I can tell you that Ouattara has both feet in the multi-party derision and head into the authoritarian era. He has a phobia of a fair and independent election" he added.