10 “They looked at his identity card and shot him dead” Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire commission of inquiry to consider all the evidence available in order to establish the respective responsibilities of the UN and French forces. No international commission of inquiry was established. The intervention of the UNOCI and French troops in the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo on 11 April 2011 also raised many unanswered questions (see also below additional information about the role of the UNOCI and France in Section 2.3 and 6). Several attempts at political mediation took place under the aegis of France and Burkina Faso and ended in the signature of the Linas-Marcoussis (2003) and Ouagadougou (2007) Agreements. Following the latter agreement, Laurent Gbagbo appointed the then General Secretary of the New Forces, Guillaume Soro, as his prime minister. Despite the signature of several agreements seeking to reunify Côte d'Ivoire and to carry out a process of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), the country remained divided in two and both parties regularly committed serious human rights violations and abuses, including extrajudicial executions, deliberate and arbitrary killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, acts of torture and other ill treatment, abductions as well as rape and other sexual violence against women and young girls.3 Both parties recruited Liberian mercenaries as well as in some cases used child soldiers. 2.2 TWO PRESIDENTS - ONE COUNTRY Laurent Gbagbo had been elected head of state in October 2000 after an election that he himself described as "disastrous".4 At the end of his mandate in 2005, elections were due to be held. However, this election was postponed for five years because of delays in compiling electoral rolls and disarming fighters. The international community made considerable efforts to help organize elections. Finally, a presidential election was held in November 2010. International monitors generally regarded the election to be free and fair and the UN, mandated to certify the results, confirmed the victory of Alassane Ouattara. This result was immediately contested by Laurent Gbagbo, who proclaimed himself president after the Constitutional Council cancelled votes in four regions in the north of the country. The international community, notably the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), recognized Alassane Ouattara's victory and the country found itself in a political stalemate with two presidents and two governments. Efforts to mediate, particularly by the African Union, failed to peacefully resolve the political crisis. Alassane Ouattara and his government, led by Guillaume Soro, who was appointed Prime Minister and Minister of Defence shortly after the results of the November 2010 presidential elections were announced, remained blockaded in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan under the protection of the Forces armées des Forces nouvelles (FAFN, Armed Forces of the New Forces) and UNOCI forces. On 18 December 2010, the outgoing president, Laurent Gbagbo denounced the UN peacekeeping forces and French troops of the Force Licorne for taking sides and demanded their departure on the grounds that they were not impartial. This had no effect as UNOCI and France no longer recognized Laurent Gbagbo's legitimacy as President. Amnesty International May 2011 Index: AFR 31/002/2011