would not be put to the side. On the contrary, the Government wants to consolidate the rule of law, of which justice is one of the foundations.279 Human Rights Watch welcomes the government’s commitment to the rule of law in the context of land conflict. Its statement is similar to what Human Rights Watch heard from several national government officials during meetings in Abidjan, in which they agreed that penal sanctions should be carried out for bad-faith illegal sellers.280 However, local authorities in western Côte d’Ivoire do not appear to be implementing this policy. They near unanimously told Human Rights Watch that they believed it was better to avoid involving gendarmes and the judicial system in land conflicts. As noted above, local government officials, victims of land dispossession, and others in western Côte d’Ivoire also could not point to a single case in which a person had suffered penal sanctions for engaging in a fraudulent land transaction. 279 Letter from Gnénéma Mamadou Coulibaly, minister of justice, human rights, and public liberties, to Human Rights Watch, September 13, 2013, p. 8. 280 Human Rights Watch interviews with government officials, Abidjan, June 2013. “THAT LAND IS MY FAMILY’S WEALTH” 90