“They looked at his identity card and shot him dead” Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire 15 3. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND ABUSES IN ABIDJAN 3.1 HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY SECURITY FORCES LOYAL TO LAURENT GBAGBO Extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings Faced with Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to recognize the results certified by the UN and then by the international community as a whole, Alassane Ouattara's supporters organized several demonstrations. Security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo responded to the demonstrations with excessive force, and in some cases, deliberately killed unarmed protesters and bystanders. During a protest march on 16 December 2010, organised by Alassane Ouattara supporters with the aim of taking control of RTI, several people were killed by the security forces. A truck driver living in Abobo told an Amnesty International delegation how his brother had been killed in front of him : "On the day of the march [on 16 December 2010], my brother was trapped between police vehicles at Marcory [a neighbourhood in Abidjan]. He tried to get away when the security forces started shooting in every direction. My brother was hit in the side. He fell down. Seeing that he was still alive, police officers shot him again and killed him. My brother's body is at the Anyama mortuary (box 50)." The same day, in the neighbourhood of Adjamé, near the Makassi crossroads, at around 9am, security officials fired teargas and then opened fire using live ammunition on another group of protesters, killing three people including a young car washer, Salami Ismaël, who was nearby and not participating in the march. An eyewitness told Amnesty International: “A young car washer, who was not participating in the demonstration, was shot dead by two men wearing military uniforms, with hoods. The young man was standing in front of the garage waiting for drivers in order to wash their vehicles when two military arrived. One of them tripped him, he fell down. One of the military who was wearing sunglasses shot at him at point blank with a gun.” In other cases, security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo shot dead people in the street simply because they were residents of districts presumed to support Alassane Ouattara. Index: AFR 31/002/2011 Amnesty International May 2011

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