us. And when the gendarmes were tired they just sat down, took a rest and someone else took their place. Once after a shift change, one of the new gendarmes—he might have been an officer because he had a cell-phone and seemed to throw his weight around—said, ‘it’s enough now. Let’s stop it. Let these people alone now.’ But another gendarme started arguing with him and saying half to the gendarme and half to us, ‘we’re going to kill all of them. They’re all Dioulas, all foreigners, you’re the ones who want to set Côte d’Ivoire on fire.’ And then they started physically pushing and hitting and fighting each other until the one trying to stop the beatings took out a pistol and threatened the other one to follow his order, and then they left us alone. In contrast, an RDR supporter held within first the Agban Gendarme Camp and later in the Camp Commando of Koumassi, described the difference between the two camps, and the effort made by the commander of Koumassi to exert his authority to ensure the protection of the detainees.113 In Agban we were severely beaten by ten or so gendarmes. They beat us until nearly all of us were bleeding. Then after the ICRC came, they decided to move l00 or so of us to Koumassi because it was too crowded at Agban. After arriving at Koumassi we were taken in to the gymnasium where three gendarmes started beating us, mostly with belts. But after about five or ten minutes of this, a big man came and said, ‘leave them alone, don’t ever beat or disturb them.’ He ordered those beating us to leave and as they did we could hear them whispering that they’d come back anyway. Then the big man introduced himself as the commander and told us water was available for anyone wanting to take a bath. I observed that soldiers in this camp were much more disciplined than in Agban. Then the next morning, at around 6:00-7:00 a.m., two of the same three who’d beat us the night before came back, as promised, to have a go at us. When several of us shouted from the pain, they yelled, ‘shut your mouth.’ We guessed it was because they didn’t want the commander to hear them. But he did and when he arrived a few minutes later, he yelled at them and said ‘I told you these people are not to be beaten, leave now.’ And from that day on we were left alone. The commander also gave us food and allowed our parents to send food to us. He always tried to comfort us by telling us that we’d soon be freed and that nothing would happen to us. He was very good to us, especially after Agban. Two cousins who were among five Burkinabés captured from their home in Abobo on December 5, 2000, taken to a cemetery and threatened with death. They described a ten-minute argument over whether or not to kill them among the thirteen policemen conducting the operation.114 After arresting us they then drove us in a regular civilian minibus to the cemetery behind Abobo. Inside the minibus I counted thirteen police officers, including the driver. There was one in an African print shirt and with a walkie-talkie. I think he might have been the chief but I’m not sure. At the cemetery they told us to get down from the car and start walking. Some distance away we saw a big hole and one of them said, ‘no one’s around; we’ll kill you, put you in there [the hole] and no one will ever know.’ Then some of the others started saying we shouldn’t be killed. They spent about ten minutes arguing, really arguing, over whether or not to kill us. During the yelling they said things thing, ‘you Burkinabé…you came here to look for a little money and now you want to rule us.’ One of them said they should bring us to their boss at the HQ ‘so the police will know that we did our job.’ Finally the one in civilian dress insisted that we not be killed, 113 114 Human Rights Watch interview, Abidjan, November 25, 2001. Human Rights Watch interview, Abidjan, February 7, 2001. Human Rights Watch 58 August 2001, Vol. 13, No. 6(A)