“They looked at his identity card and shot him dead” Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire 23 militia and soldiers entered our bedroom towards 10pm. The militiamen were in plain clothes while the security forces were in black. Some of them had a red armband. They told us they were looking for arms. They found nothing in our home but took our mobile phones. When they left, they took my daughter, Sita, with them. I tried to protect her but they pushed me to the ground. As they were leaving my house, they began to rip off my daughter's clothes. She came back a few hours later and her skirt had bloodstains on it. She told me they had forced her to walk with them. They pushed her to the ground. Two of them held her hands and feet while the other one raped her. They all took it in turns to rape her." Arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment Some people were arrested and ill-treated by security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo. Some of them were only arrested because they had Muslim names. The bodyguard of a notary was arrested along with other people on 16 December 2010, the day of the demonstration by supporters of Alassane Ouattara. This man told an Amnesty International delegation in February 2011: "I was in my car with two other passengers when we were arrested in Cocody [a district of Abidjan]. The security forces asked to see our identity cards and when they saw we had Dioula names, they immediately said we were rebels. They saw I was carrying a gun and I showed them my permit and gave them the name of the notary who I was on my way to see. They weren't interested and told us to undress. We only had our underpants on. They took us to CECOS and on our arrival, they said: ‘Look, we caught some rebels’. Immediately, a dozen of “corps habillés” [uniformed people] began to take it in turn to hit us. They hit us with clubs, belts, gun butts and kicked as with their boots. They insulted us. They asked us if we had said goodbye to our parents because they were going to kill us. Then they took us to the police headquarters where we were 'welcomed' by police officers who were lined up in a row. We were forced to walk between them. The police hit us from both sides. They were armed with truncheons, electric cables and clubs. They kept hitting us and threatened to execute us." This man was released a few hours later at the request of his employer. Two journalists, Sanogo Aboubakar and Kangbe Yayoro Charles Lopez, who work for a TV station based in Bouaké (a FAFN stronghold), were also victims of ill-treatment after their arrest on 28 January 2011 in Abidjan by security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo. Amnesty International met the journalists in detention. One of them told Amnesty International: “They began to beat us. There were some 30 of them. We were surrounded by them and they punched us, slapped us and kicked us with their boots during some 30 minutes. One of them tried to strangle me and I fainted. When I woke up, they beat me with iron bars and burnt me three times with cigarettes.” The two journalists remained in prison until the doors of Abidjan's main prison were opened on 31 March and all the inmates were freed. Index: AFR 31/002/2011 Amnesty International May 2011