principles and values that make our country great – pardon, tolerance and solidarity.”22 However he rejected pleas for new elections despite calls to do so from the RDR, as well as the U.N., the OAU, South Africa and the United States.23 The government estimated that 164 people were killed during the October 24-26, 2000, violence in Abidjan alone.24 The RDR maintained 155 of its supporters were killed,25 while the FPI put their number of dead at approximately sixty.26 During the same period the Ivorian Red Cross in Abidjan evacuated 158 and treated 896 wounded.27 Detentions Throughout the day hundreds of protesters were rounded up and taken to one of several facilities including the National Police Academy (École Nationale de Police), Agban Gendarme Camp (Gendarmerie Agban), Gendarme Camp of Koumassi (Escadron Koumassi de la Gendarmerie), Gendarme Camp of Abobo (Escadron Abobo de la Gendarmerie), and Gendarme Camp of Yopougon (Escadron Yopougon de la Gendarmerie).28 Some six hundred detainees were held, most of them for two to four days. From the moment of capture nearly all detainees were subjected to brutal treatment. Human Rights Watch interviewed scores of detainees, all of whom were subjected to some degree of ill-treatment while in custody, ranging from mild beatings to severe torture. The majority of detainees were held in either the National Police Academy (between 200 and 300) or the Agban Gendarme Camp (some 150). It was also in these two facilities that detainees suffered the most severe treatment. Detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch, many still exhibiting wounds and scars, described being beaten with iron bars, electrical cable, ropes, belts, truncheons, chains, dog collars, gun butts, and pieces of wood. They were burned with cigarettes, pieces of burning plastic or clothing, and forced to swim in dirty open sewers. They were also forced to walk back and forth on their knees; made to lay under and look into the sun; tear-gassed at close quarters and sprayed in the eyes, mouth, and genitals with tear gas and mace; forced to fight with each other; and made to drink their own blood. Local clinics and hospitals treated hundreds of wounded. Almost all detainees were kept incommunicado and were deprived of food, water, and toilet facilities for the first several days of their detention. To secure the release of detainees, numerous family members reported having to pay bribes to corrupt police and gendarmes. A twenty-five-year-old tailor described his two-day detention in the Agban Gendarme Camp during October. Some twenty bruises, burns, and small wounds on his head and body were clearly visible to Human Rights Watch researchers:29 At around 1:00 p.m. on October 26, I was participating in a march with other RDR militants when I was captured with five other guys. After reaching the camp they made us swim in the gutter full of dirty water, broken bottles, human feces, and garbage. One of them forced my head under the half-meter deep water. As we moved through the gutter, gendarmes were lined up and beat us hard on the head with the butts of their rifles. 22 “Gbagbo to Form Ivorian Government Without Ouattara,” Reuters, October 27, 2000. Norimitsu Onishi, “Dictator Gone, Ivory Coast Splits Into Ethnic and Political Violence,” New York Times, October 27, 2000. 24 “Ethnic Wounds Hard to Heal in Ivory Coast,” Reuters, November 7, 2000. The total number of deaths countrywide for post-presidential election violence was estimated by the government to be some 170. This may be an underestimate. In an interview with the Ivorian Red Cross on November 16, 2000, Human Rights Watch was told seventeen people were known to have died during post-election clashes in several towns outside of Abidjan (seven in Daloa, three in San Pedro, four in Divo, and three in Bouake.) 25 ” Ivory Coast Calls for Inquiry,” Associated Press, October 30, 2000. 26 ”Ivory Coast people sweep Gbagbo to power, 60 dead,�� Reuters, October 25, 2000. 27 Human Rights Watch interview with Ivorian Red Cross Official, Abidjan, November 16, 2001. 28 The gendarme camps (escadrons) of Abobo, Koumassi, and Yopougon are colloquially known as “Camp Commandos.” 29 Human Rights Watch interview, Abidjan, November 14, 2000. 23 Human Rights Watch 18 August 2001, Vol. 13, No. 6(A)