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.”