children, thirteen women and some elderly people were among the victims treated by the NGO at the Man hospital following the attacks on those areas.66 Despite overwhelming evidence of its deployment of the Mi-24 helicopters, the Ivorian government denied the attacks. The follow-up committee for the peace accords, which included diplomatic representatives of the U.S. and French governments and other officials, visited Danané on April 9 to evaluate the situation. Following the visit, it issued a statement expressing concern over the situation in the west and calling for the Ivorian government to ground its helicopters.67 Following this incident, further helicopter attacks have not been reported, but the government continued to scale up its equipment through May 2003, including through the purchase of Romanian Puma helicopters.68 Arbitrary arrests and detentions Government forces were responsible for scores of arbitrary arrests, detentions and “disappearances” in towns and areas under their control. Some of those arbitrarily arrested and detained were released and others were later found dead. However Human Rights Watch fears that some of those detained have been “disappeared” given that a number of people who were last seen in government custody have yet to be accounted for. It is impossible to provide a definitive number of the “disappeared,” given the massive displacement and flight of foreign nationals that has taken place in the west. Hopefully a number of the people who are unaccounted for will be identified through family tracing in the displaced and refugee camps. Nonetheless, forensics investigation may be required to establish the fate of some of those who were last seen in the custody of government forces. Witnesses from Vavua described the pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions to Human Rights Watch. One such account went as follows: There was no military camp in Vavua before the crisis, but some loyalist forces came to Vavua, after the rebels took Korhogo, towards the end of September. Maybe about 1,000 came to Vavua. They made checkpoints at all the entrances to the town. They would beat Burkinabe, take them away and then you wouldn’t see them again. The military were all Ivorian. The loyalists usually didn’t harass the townspeople, but they did stop men who came to the town from outside, those who came in to buy petrol or other goods. They would stop them and ask them for identity cards, and if you were Burkinabé or Malien, they would beat you and take you out of town. I don’t know exactly what happened to them. I saw the loyalist soldiers take one man I knew: he was an older man in his sixties, a Malien named Mr. Koné, who was a guard at a store called Des Edines. It was 10 a.m., and I was in the commercial quarter with my friends, when I saw the man in a “karego” [military truck] with at least six soldiers, all wearing green, with automatic weapons. There were two civilians in the vehicle but I only recognized Mr. Koné. He was kneeling with his hands tied behind his back, and the soldiers were holding guns at his neck. The vehicle went in the direction of Seguela.69 In other government-held towns, the armed forces rounded up groups of northern and immigrant individuals, sometimes at night after the curfew, and then detained them without charges. In one case documented by Human Rights Watch, members of the state security forces in Duékoué lied to family members who inquired about a detainee’s whereabouts in early 2003. The victim described his arbitrary arrest and temporary “disappearance” to Human Rights Watch. 66 “Scores of wounded civilians in western part of Ivory Coast after military attack,” press release, Médecins sans Frontières, April 17, 2003, at www.msf.org (accessed May 19, 2003). 67 Laurent Banguet, “Fresh fighting in Ivory Coast, despite unity govt’s ‘steps towards peace’”, Agence France Presse, April 19, 2003. 68 “Deux hélicoptères Puma roumains pour le président ivoirien,” Agence France Presse, May 15, 2003. 69 Human Rights Watch interview, Bobo-Dioulasso, February 8, 2003. Human Rights Watch 23 August 2003, Vol. 15, No. 14 (A)