The government made several symbolic gestures to try to ease domestic tension and deflect international criticism. On October 31, 2000, President Gbagbo set up a twenty-three member mediation body to promote national reconciliation. The committee, headed by Mathias Ekra, who had been the “national mediator,” or ombudsman, under Bédié, also included Muslim and Christian leaders, academics, traditional chiefs, and armed forces chief General Mathias Doue. November 9, 2000, was declared a national day of mourning for those killed in the October violence. At this writing no member of the security forces has been arrested or convicted in connection with any serious violation committed during either the October or December waves of election violence. However, two brothers accused of the October 26, 2000 killing of Gendarme Lt. Nyobo N’Guessan were arrested in November 2000 and are currently in custody in the MACA prison in Yopougon. The first brother, who was captured on November 18, 2000, told Human Rights Watch he was threatened with summary execution if he failed to reveal the work place of the second brother. Following the arrest of the second brother, both claimed to have been threatened with death and forced to confess to the killing.132 International Justice On June 26, a suit was filed in Belgium against Laurent Gbagbo, Robert Guei, and the current Ivorian ministers of the interior and defense, Emile Boga Doudou and Moise Lida Kouassi, charging them with crimes against humanity. The case was brought by 150 people claiming to be victims of the violence in Côte d’Ivoire in October and December 2000, including a survivor of the Yopougon massacre.133 They chose to sue the officials in Belgium because of that country’s 1993 law giving their courts jurisdiction over genocide and other crimes against humanity, war crimes, or torture, no matter where they were committed. On August 1, the case was accepted in the Belgian court.134 IX. THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY The discovery of the Charnier de Yopougon brought condemnation from members of the international community, and became the focal point of international concern about human rights, leading the United Nations secretary-general to take the unusual step of appointing an international commission of inquiry into the October violence. The violence during the December parliamentary elections, however, received little attention and few condemnations. There were more expressions of concern about the legitimacy of the electoral process than about the deeper, more worrying causes for and meaning of the violence, including the manipulation of concepts of ethnicity and citizenship to target perceived political opponents. Following the flawed October elections, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and Gnassingbe Eyadema, the president of Togo and current head of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), called for new elections.135 U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United States were less direct but strongly criticized the elections. Former colonial power France recognized the new government and said it was up to the Côte d’Ivoire to decide whether to hold new elections.136 The decision to disqualify Ouattara from standing in the parliamentary elections was condemned by the U.N., OAU, the U.S., and the European Union, which all subsequently dropped plans to send election monitors as they had to the presidential contest two months earlier. 132 Human Rights Watch, Abidjan, February 11, 2001. Laurent Houssay, “Plainte en Belgique contre le president Ivoirien, nouvel embarrass diplomatique”, Agence FrancePresse, June 28, 2001. 134 Theophile Kouamouo, “Cote d'Ivoire: les gendarmes de Yopougon acquittes ‘faute de preuves,’” Le Monde, August 4, 2001. 135 Norimitsu Onishi, “Dictator Gone, Ivory Coast Splits into Ethnic and Political Violence,” New York Times, October 27, 2000. 136 “Political Leaders Meet to Restore Calm in Ivory Coast,” Associated Press, October 27, 2000. 133 Human Rights Watch 62 August 2001, Vol. 13, No. 6(A)