and government figures about Burkina Faso’s support to the MPCI and the television images of captured Burkinabé “rebels” had immediate repercussions in the villages around Daloa and Duékoué, which were highly populated by Burkinabé settlers. The fact that government officials at various levels encouraged civilians to mobilize into self-defense committees and protect access routes into towns from the rebels exacerbated the situation.179 The transition from the existing youth groups and associations into self-defense committees was an obvious step. The MPCI rebels captured Vavoua on October 7, 2002. This event brought the war into the west for the first time and prompted fears among the local population of further advances. Reports that the MPCI had killed a number of gendarmes in Bouaké, combined with the fact that the television and print media continued to show images of Burkinabé and northerners as “captured assailants,” caused groups of young Gueré militants, armed with machetes, hunting rifles and other weapons, to storm Burkinabé villages and encampments north of Duekoué. According to witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, each village had its bands of young Gueré militants who were part of an organized network of self-defense committees and youth groups with links to Abidjan. Iruzon,180 a village north of Duekoué was the epicenter of the problem, which spread to Blodi, Diahouin, Tuazeo and other villages between Duékoué and Kouiblie in the first week of October. One young Burkinabé described the October events as “the Burkinabé hunt” and told Human Rights Watch about the escalation of events in Blodi, a village near Iruzon. When the rebels started in Vavoua, people said the Burkinabé were with the rebels. The young Guerés started to attack. The mayor came and told them to put up checkpoints to defend the village. Then, at the checkpoints they started to harass the Burkinabé, asking for money and if someone doesn’t have money then they take your bike. This continued until they were organized with weapons. On October 8 they went and attacked a encampment and killed three young Burkinabé. After this, they started to burn everything so we had to leave. At night they would come and search our houses for weapons. Sometimes people had hunting rifles—this made things worse. They said that the president of Burkina Faso was responsible for the war.181 Thousands of Burkinabé fled without any of their possessions, sometimes even losing children in their panicked flight. Their homes were burned and destroyed, their livestock and crops were looted. Many fled to Duékoué. Displaced Burkinabé told Human Rights Watch that in many instances, the Gueré militias deliberately destroyed their documents, including the local receipts of their land purchases and the state documents attesting to their official usage of the land. Several Burkinabé said, “When the Guerés started attacking the houses, they destroyed the papers. They ripped up our identity cards and papers for the fields.”182 In addition to the destruction of documents, homes and villages, Human Rights Watch documented several killings of Burkinabé by Gueré youths, who stopped them at the checkpoints erected around each village and at the road junctions.183 Burkinabé were also targeted in other locations of the country, such as the south-west and in Abidjan. Older Burkinabé are physically identifiable and thus easily targeted due to the patterns of facial scarring used by the Mossi ethnic group. The custom of facial scarification has been decreasing over the past decades. A number of younger Burkinabé who escaped violence and lacked these facial scars told Human Rights Watch that they had been able to pass as members of other ethnic groups while in government controlled territory and believed that they would have been killed had they had the traditional facial scars. 179 Statement by Jules Yao Yao, armed forces spokesperson, transcribed from RTI and reported in Notre Voie, October 18, 2002. 180 Iruzon is the home village of Matthias Doué, a Gueré and the Chief of Staff for President Gbagbo. 181 Human Rights Watch interview, Duékoué, April 2, 2003. 182 Human Rights Watch interviews, Duékoué, April 2, 2003. 183 Human Rights Watch interviews, Duékoué, April 2, 2003. Human Rights Watch 45 August 2003, Vol. 15, No. 14 (A)