36 “They looked at his identity card and shot him dead” Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire group, believed to support Laurent Gbagbo, found refuge in this city, in the bush, at the homes of relatives living in a district called Quartier Carrefour or in the city's Catholic Mission. In February 2011, the Amnesty International delegation met dozens of displaced people who had come to Duékoué. Many of them said they had fled their villages after being threatened by FAFN members. One of these displaced people, from the village of Blodi (10 km from Duékoué) told Amnesty International: "As soon as they arrived, the ‘rebels’ fired in the air and threatened us. We were afraid and fled, abandoning our belongings and plantations." Another man who found refuge in the Catholic Mission told Amnesty International the circumstances in which his wife and their one-year-old son had been killed by the FAFN in an attack on the village of Guiéhibli (some 24 km from Duékoué), on 28 December 2010. "We had fled to hide in the bush but the rebels followed us. My wife was carrying our child on her back and could not run quickly. She was hit by a bullet, which also went through our oneyear-old son's body and he died immediately." This man told Amnesty International that 14 other people from his village had been killed by the FAFN. The Amnesty International delegation also gathered witness statements on rape, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment committed by FAFN members in the areas under their control. Arbitrary detentions and ill-treatment In Mahapleu, a village between the towns of Man and Danane (about 600 km west of Abidjan), where most of the inhabitants reportedly voted for the outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo, nine men were detained by the FAFN in mid-January 2011 and severely beaten and ill-treated for several days. They were eventually released without charge or trial but were threatened and most of them had to leave their homes. One of them told Amnesty International: “They took me to the former health centre which they now use as their military base; they beat me very harshly with the butts of their rifles and they stepped on me. They put me into two large bags (the bags used for rice) and tied the bags with rope around (like a mummy) so that I could not move my hands and legs and beat me and threatened me with death.” Rapes In Mahapleu, a schoolgirl aged 15 was raped by an FAFN commanding officer in mid-January 2011. The girl told Amnesty International: "We had been given the day off school because of the elections and then school did not start again and I was in Mahapleu at my parents’ home. I was in the village with my elder sister and friends. A FAFN commander in a red four wheel vehicle stopped and forced me to get in. He forced himself on me and abused me. Then he threatened to throw my parents in prison if I told people what had happened. I have not told my mother. I acted as though nothing Amnesty International May 2011 Index: AFR 31/002/2011