Ivory Coast: Gbagbo fighters to return from Togo

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — About 200 fighters loyal to former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo will be repatriated from Togo after two years of exile following their country's 2010-11 postelection conflict, government spokesman Bruno Kone said.

Kone said the fighters include members of Gbagbo's Defense and Security Forces army and pro-Gbagbo militiamen who fled to Togo toward the end of the conflict, which began after Gbagbo refused to leave office despite losing the November 2010 vote to current President Alassane Ouattara. More than 3,000 people were killed in five months of fighting, according to United Nations estimates.

"This operation will be taking into account 200 of the ex-combatants," Kone said. "Since all of these armed people are not part of our regular armed forces, they will be disarmed."

The former fighters will now be civilians in Ivory Coast and some will receive a small amount of compensation to help them get started, said Kone. He did not provide a date for the repatriation, saying it could start "at any time."

Ouattara first mentioned the operation publicly last weekend during a trip to western Ivory Coast, a region that generally supported Gbagbo and has remained volatile in the two years since the conflict ended.

The U.N. refugee agency said it has registered around 400 Ivorian ex-combatants in Togo, though they are not staying in refugee camps.

During a March meeting in the Togolese capital Lome, the U.N. agency provided a list of these fighters to Fidele Sarassoro, director general of Ivory Coast's Authority for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, said Ann Encontre, Ivory Coast country representative for the U.N. refugee agency. The decision to repatriate them is the result of a bilateral agreement between the two countries, she said.

Pro-Gbagbo fighters scattered throughout West Africa, notably in Liberia and Ghana, have been accused of staging attacks on villages and security installations in Ivory Coast. The most recent attacks occurred in March, when thousands were displaced by three raids in western Ivory Coast that were suspected to have originated in Liberia.

In addition to ex-combatants, there are about 5,000 Ivorian refugees in Togo, Encontre said.

Tension between the refugees and local security forces has risen in recent weeks. Last Friday, five refugees were arrested after a demonstration at the Avepozo camp outside Lome, said Security Minister Col. Yark Damehane.

Damehane said the demonstration resulted in multiple tents being burned to the ground, and blamed some of the residents for the disturbance.

"It is true that some Ivorian refugees who were trying to provoke havoc through some criminal acts, like the burning of the tents of some of their brothers, were arrested on Friday. In all, five of them were arrested and sent to Lome prison," he said. "We are worried about the agitations of some Ivorian refugees at Avepozo camp for some weeks now. They are intended to provoke havoc by organizing demonstrations and sit-ins every day."

Elisabeth Gogoua, a spokeswoman for the refugees who was among those arrested, said conditions at the camp are unacceptable. "We are not treated well here in Togo by the U.N.," she said. "So we are just asking the institution to relocate some of the women to another country. We eat only rice with oil and pepper. Some of our tents are torn apart. We want them to increase our monthly financial assistance."

But Theophilus Vodounou, a local representative for the U.N. refugee agency, said the protests were an attempt by some refugees to be transferred to the United States or Canada, something he said was "not possible."

"The behavior of the refugees shows that they are not concerned by food as they were saying at first," he said.

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Ekoue reported from Lome, Togo

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Ivory Coast begins exhuming mass graves

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast officials are exhuming dozens of mass graves dating back to the country's 2010-11 postelection violence.

Justice Minister Gnenema Coulibaly on Thursday observed a moment of silence during a ceremony at the site of the first grave on the grounds of a mosque in Abidjan's Yopougon district.

The grave contained the bodies of four men aged 17 to 35 who were killed at the height of the violence in April 2011 while defending the mosque against militant supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo.

More than 3,000 people died over five months after Gbagbo refused to concede defeat in the November 2010 election against current President Alassane Ouattara.

A government investigation found 57 hastily dug graves in Abidjan dating back to the conflict. Many contain multiple bodies

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Notorious Ivory Coast militia leader killed

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — A regional official says a notorious militia leader accused of enlisting child soldiers for cross-border raids from Liberia into western Ivory Coast was killed during fighting Saturday.

Claude Koffi Yao Kan, sub-prefect for the western town of Blolequin, said Sunday that Oulaï Tako, known as "Tarzan of the West," was among three assailants killed by soldiers responding to the attack. Ivory Coast's United Nations mission says two civilians and a traditional hunter were also killed in the attack on a village 15 miles (25 kilometers) outside Blolequin.

A report last year from Human Rights Watch implicated Tako in a series of raids on villages in western Ivory Coast dating back to July 2011, with witnesses saying he had been involved in the recruitment and training of child soldiers.

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Ivory Coast troubled by one-sided justice

NIAMBLY, Ivory Coast (AP) — One day in late March 2011, at the height of Ivory Coast's postelection violence, a 23-year-old cocoa farmer was shot in the back by unknown gunmen and left for dead on the outskirts of Niambly, a village of 400 mud-brick houses three kilometers outside the western town of Duekoue.

In response, the village's roughly 3,000 residents decided it was no longer safe and began to flee. According to village chief Gabriel Tahe, nearly all of them ended up in Duekoue's Carrefour neighborhood, inhabited mainly by fellow members of the Guere ethnic group.

With this move, Niambly's residents unwittingly placed themselves at the center of the deadliest episode of the conflict, which erupted after former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down despite losing the November 2010 runoff vote to current President Alassane Ouattara.

Days later, on March 29, pro-Ouattara fighters including soldiers, militiamen and traditional hunters tore through Carrefour, killing hundreds. Many of the victims were men from the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported Gbagbo in the disputed vote. At least 30 were confirmed Niambly residents, said Chief Tahe.

The trouble for Niambly did not stop there. After the conflict ended and Ouattara took office in May 2011, 800 residents of the village were settled in a United Nations-guarded camp for people displaced by the fighting. In an attack last July that underscored persistent tensions in the region, the camp was overrun by a mob assisted by traditional hunters, known as dozos, and soldiers from Ouattara's army, the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast. Nearly the entire camp was burned to the ground and at least eight people were killed, including two from Niambly, according to Chief Tahe. Rights groups suspect the total was higher.

Today, around two-thirds of Niambly's residents have returned to the village, rebuilding homes that were still salvageable after the fighting ended; some homes remain little more than rubble. But while many residents said they were ready to move on from the conflict, which claimed more than 3,000 lives nationwide, they described lingering fears about the pro-Ouattara forces that took part in the attacks against them.

The violence inflicted on Niambly residents, apparently with impunity, shows the problem of one-sided justice that is troubling Ivory Coast. Two years after the postelection violence, only supporters of former president Gbagbo have been charged for crimes, although it is widely acknowledged that abuses were committed on both sides. The Ivorian judiciary has charged and detained 55 Gbagbo loyalists for violent crimes.

Meanwhile, violence continues to be inflicted on some Gbagbo supporters with impunity, according to human rights groups who say the situation is preventing reconciliation in the country.

Amnesty International issued a report Tuesday criticizing Ouattara's government for not enforcing the rule of law even-handedly.

The International Criminal Court took Laurent Gbagbo into custody in November 2011 and has also unsealed an arrest warrant for his wife, Simone, who remains in Ivorian custody. For the past two weeks the ICC heard arguments over whether or not to confirm charges against Laurent Gbagbo.

Tahe, 83, said the one-sided nature of the justice process so far was stoking resentment in Niambly and other pro-Gbagbo villages in the area that suffered similar traumas.

"If two people get into a fight and damage someone's property, then normally they both should pay," Tahe said. "If just one pays, this can create some problems between them later. It's the same thing for Ivory Coast. If one side does not pay its bill, this will eventually create more trouble for the country."

Ouattara has repeatedly vowed that all perpetrators of crimes committed during the postelection conflict will be punished, regardless of affiliation. But for residents of Niambly, the president's words do not square with the lack of prosecutions.

In addition, soldiers and dozo hunters still operate both official and illegal checkpoints in and around Duekoue, meaning that each day Niambly's residents must present identity papers — and often pay bribes — to pro-Ouattara fighters in order to go to their cocoa farms or venture into town.

Some analysts have speculated that Ouattara believes the security risks are too great to allow charges to be filed against his military backers. In a briefing prepared this month for the U.S. Institute of Peace, researcher Tobias Koepf suggested these concerns were legitimate.

"If Ouattara tries to strip them of their positions and power too quickly, there is a risk that they will turn their back against him, which could worsen the security situation instead of improving it," Koepf said.

Julien Kpahi, a Niambly resident, says the government's response to the July attack on the U.N.-guarded camp suggested that impunity for Ouattara fighters had extended well beyond the postelection conflict. Kpahi managed to flee the camp on the day of the attack, but his younger brother, Amede Bonde, did not, and Kpahi later heard that he had been taken into military custody.

On Oct. 11, officials discovered a mass grave in Duekoue containing six bodies. The bodies were men who had been shot by the military after the raid on the camp, said The International Federation for Human Rights, which had representatives at the scene, citing the preliminary results of autopsies and other evidence.

Kpahi said he believes one of the men in the well was his younger brother, saying clothing worn by Bonde the day of the attack had been found nearby. Although Kpahi submitted statements to local officials, he said he has received no update on the investigation.

The local prosecutor originally in charge of the investigation told The Associated Press that it had been transferred and that he could not provide an update. Justice Ministry officials did not respond to several requests for comment.

Kpahi said he was worried he might never learn what became of his brother. "Our executioners are still with us here," he said. "If their actions are protected by the authorities, it will be difficult for us to know anything about what happened."

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