within three years of the buyer’s death, the land would revert to the state without compensation.171 Against the backdrop of growing dissatisfaction with the Bédié regime and increasing political friction, the political and media discourse accompanying the law provoked outright violence, including deaths, between the indigenous ethnic groups and the largely Burkinabé immigrant community.172 A Burkinabé farmer who lived in the Vavoua area for fifty years said, “[The war began] first of all because of the social exclusion and hatred of foreigners. It started bit by bit, before Gbagbo, but it’s an explosion now. Before the war, I heard the young people saying things about how the Burkinabé should leave, how they had stolen land…. The old ones, the ones who sold the land to the Burkinabé, they didn’t say these things.”173 Tensions over the law surfaced throughout the west, but particularly in the rural areas around Daloa and Duékoué, where the Bété and Gueré are considered the indigenous population and are generally supportive of the Laurent Gbagbo’s FPI. While linked to the political violence in the towns, the rural violence that took place in June 2002 had a different target. The increasingly militancy of the rural Gueré, Bété, and Niédéboua youths translated into associations, youth groups, and political party membership. Resentment of the Burkinabé settlers in the plantations intermingled with anti-RDR sentiment and led to mutual attacks of Bété or Gueré against Dioula and Burkinabé, with dozens of deaths and wounded, and scores of villages burned in June and July 2002. Some of the Gueré youths specifically linked the violence to the electoral campaign. Human Rights Watch was told, “During Gbagbo’s electoral campaign, he said would chase the foreigners away. The youths talked of that, of Gbagbo’s electoral promises.”174 Human Rights Watch documented at least eight deaths and more than sixty wounded from the villages north of Duékoué in June and July 2002, and considers this figure a gross underestimation of the actual toll from the violence. Over six thousand people, mainly Burkinabé families, but also northern Ivorians, Guerés and Bétés, fled their encampments in the plantations. Many came into Duékoué and Daloa in July 2002.175 Many people interviewed by Human Rights Watch blamed the pronouncements of high-level politicians, carried and inflamed by the local media, for feeding both the rural and the urban violence, and exacerbating the situation. In late-June 2002, a meeting of traditional leaders in Abidjan warned political parties and their leaders of the dangers of the increasingly contentious political discourse.176 However, few serious attempts were made to reduce the tension. Indeed, after the July 2002 elections, President Gbagbo congratulated the nation for the “largely successful and peaceful elections.”177 Local authorities did not address the real causes of the violence—the increasingly uncontrolled militancy of youth groups inflamed by their leaders and the lack of reaction by the forces of law and order. Instead, in a telling move, the traditional chiefs from several villages around Daloa signed a series of recommendations which included, as point one, a call for the exclusion of any non-indigenous candidates (including Ivorians from other regions) in any future elections in Daloa.178 State-tolerated violence by civilian self-defense committees Against this volatile background, the outbreak of the civil war in September 2002 provoked a new wave of violence in the villages of the west. As the rebels moved into the west, the allegations made by some journalists 171 Law no. 98-750 of December 23, 1998 set out the law on rural land ownership. This was followed by Decrees no. 99-594 and no. 99-595 of October 13, 1999, which provided implementing legislation for the law, including procedures for application and registration of land ownership. 172 Clashes between Burkinabé and local Krou villagers around Tabou led to a number of deaths and the flight of over 12,000 Burkinabé in November 1999. The primary cause of these clashes was friction over land. 173 Human Rights Watch interview, Banfora, February 7, 2003. 174 Human Rights Watch interview, Duékoué, April 2, 2003. 175 Many of the Burkinabé sought refuge in the Catholic church in Duékoué, a pattern that was to be repeated several times in the coming months. 176 Simplice Allard, “Les rois et les chefs traditionnels appellent les acteurs politiques au calme et à la retenue,” L’Inter, June 29, 2002, at www.presseci.com/linter/archive/1243.html (accessed June 28, 2003). 177 Charles Trabi, “Gbagbo se réjouit du triomphe de la loi sur le désordre,”L'Inter, July 13, 2002, at www.presseci.com/linter/archive/2365.html (accessed June 28, 2003). 178 Minutes of a meeting of traditional chiefs of Daloa, held August 30, 2003, on file with Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch 44 August 2003, Vol. 15, No. 14 (A)