“They looked at his identity card and shot him dead”
Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire
29
Another eyewitness said: "About 3am on 7 March, everyone was sleeping when we were
woken up by people shooting. These people, some of whom were armed and who were
speaking Dioula, entered houses and asked where the arms sent by Laurent Gbagbo were.
They set fire to some houses and some people did not get out in time. Some people were shot
dead. Others, including Martin, a chemist, had their throats cut. The armed men accused us
of supporting Laurent Gbagbo. When they went into one house, one of the commandos
opened a gas cylinder and set fire to the place. In the morning, when Kango Sylvie, 40, one
of the villagers, came out of her house, she was red and the skin was peeling off her body.
She died of her wounds the same day."
Another witness told Amnesty International that on the day after the attack they saw "two
people who had had their right tendons cut and who had also been shot in the left leg."
Moreover Amnesty International learnt that in the neighbourhood of Abobo several people,
including people accused of lootings, were summarily killed by members of the Invisible
Commando.
3.4. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY THE FRCI DURING AND AFTER
THE ARREST OF LAURENT GBAGBO
During the fighting in Abidjan and in the weeks that followed, the FRCI, created by Alassane
Ouattara on 8 March 2011, committed serious human rights violations against real or
presumed supporters of Laurent Gbagbo.
The attack on Laurent Gbagbo's residence in Abidjan on 11 April 2011 was followed by
human rights violations against some of the outgoing president's close supporters, including
members of his government.
A witness, who was in the residence at the time of the attack told Amnesty International how
President Gbagbo, his wife, Simone Gbagbo and close supporters were in the basement of
the presidential residence after it had been bombed.
This person described the conditions in which the former Minister of the Interior, Désiré
Tagro, was wounded. "Désiré Tagro was in discussions with the French ambassador about the
conditions for the surrender of Laurent Gbagbo and his close supporters. Désiré Tagro went
out with a white flag but was shot at although he was not hit. He returned and called the
ambassador to ask him to stop the shooting. When we went out, I saw that Désiré Tagro was
wounded in the jaw." Désiré Tagro died on the same evening from his wounds. At a meeting
with the Amnesty International delegation on 19 April 2011, UNOCI officers said that,
following a request from the FRCI, they had evacuated Tagro to their medical unit. However,
no surgeon was available so they had transferred him to the Sainte Anne-Marie International
Private Hospital (PISAM) in Cocody, where he died.
The same witness said that supporters of Laurent Gbagbo were hit by FRCI soldiers in the
yard of the presidential residence after their surrender.
Index: AFR 31/002/2011
Amnesty International May 2011