II. Land Dispossession after the Post-Election Conflict After the crisis, the region has known complete disorder and anarchy in terms of land. —Burkinabé community leader in western Côte d’Ivoire, June 201371 In western Côte d’Ivoire, there are thousands of complaints by the native, mostly Guéré, population of alleged land dispossession linked to displacement caused by the 2010-2011 conflict. One sub-prefect, a local government official who oversees an administrative area comprising a number of villages, told Human Rights Watch that he alone had received more than 800 complaints related to land since the crisis.72 Another sub-prefect said he deals with between four to eight cases a day, four days a week.73 In the area examined by Human Rights Watch, there are seven different sub-prefectures dealing with at least scores, and often hundreds, of these cases.74 And cases that reach the sub-prefect are generally those that village chiefs feel unable to resolve or have tried to resolve but one party refuses to accept the ruling. The chief of a village between Guiglo and Bloléquin told Human Rights Watch that he had over 40 remaining unresolved cases.75 Another village chief, when asked how many cases he had, picked up his notebook and showed page after page of registered complaints. “We’re overwhelmed,” he said.76 While land dispossession linked to the post-election crisis exists throughout the regions of Guémon and Cavally, the areas with the most acute problems appear to be in the department of Bloléquin.77 The dominant story told by Gbagbo supporters in Liberia and Abidjan is that armed Burkinabés, aided by the Ivorian security forces, have forcibly seized land belonging to the Guérés and other typically pro-Gbagbo ethnic groups.78 In the locations investigated, Human Rights Watch found little evidence of such acts on a widespread scale. However, the less hostile forms of land dispossession that have occurred on a large scale in western Côte d’Ivoire 71 Human Rights Watch interview with Burkinabé community leader, Guiglo, June 1, 2013. 72 Human Rights Watch interview with sub-prefect in western Côte d’Ivoire, location withheld, June 2013. 73 Human Rights Watch interview with sub-prefect in western Côte d’Ivoire, location withheld, February 2013. 74 The seven sub-prefectures are: Duékoué, Guiglo, Bloléquin, Bagohouo, Doké, Zéaglo, and Péhé. 75 Human Rights Watch interview with village chief, village between Guiglo and Bloléquin, June 2, 2013. 76 Human Rights Watch interview with village chief, village between Bloléquin and Péhé, February 11, 2013. 77 For a description of the different types of administrative areas in Côte d’Ivoire, including departments, see footnote 38, supra. 78 Human Rights Watch interviews, Abidjan, February 2013; and with Ivorian refugees, Grand Gedeh, Liberia, December 2012. “THAT LAND IS MY FAMILY’S WEALTH” 28