30 “They looked at his identity card and shot him dead” Six months of post-electoral violence in Côte d’Ivoire "They started to hit the men and women with sticks and rifle butts. Others were filming them and taking photos of them like animals at a fair. French soldiers of the Force Licorne, who were stationed in front of the residence in their vehicles and tanks, did not intervene. They were like people in the cinema watching a film. One young woman who was being beaten up held out her hand to a French soldier, but he looked away." This witness said that later, French forces gave them some medical treatment and reassured some of the wounded. "When the FRCI soldiers threatened some people that they were going to take them to the Anyama camp and kill or rape them, the French soldiers said: ‘The protection of the authorities [i.e. Laurent Gbagbo and his close supporters] is our responsibility’." Amnesty International has also learnt that some of those close to Laurent Gbagbo were severely beaten on their arrival at the Golf Hotel, shortly after their surrender. A witness said: "When we arrived, UNOCI personnel lined up in a row to protect us but in the hall, next to the bar, armed men began to hit us and UNOCI soldiers left us unprotected." Several of those close to Laurent Gbagbo were severely beaten in the Golf Hotel, including Philippe-Henry Dakoury-Tabley, former governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) until January 2011. In April 2011, during a meeting with the Director of Cabinet of the Minister of Justice, Amnesty International delegates expressed their concern about the security of Laurent Gbagbo and those close to him and asked to meet them. They were told this was not possible for security reasons (See below Box 6.2). Laurent Gbagbo was initially taken to the Golf Hotel and was then transferred to Korhogo (in the north of the country) where no one seems to have been able to meet him until 2 May 2011, when the South African Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, had a brief conversation with him. Amnesty International also raised the question of the legality of these detentions. The officials replied that these people were under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior and had not been "detained" but rather "retained" under the provisions of a 1963 regulation (See below Box 6.2). Amnesty International also asked the Ministry of Justice for the names of all those close to Laurent Gbagbo who had been arrested and the place of their detention but the authorities refused to provide this information. Amnesty International remains concerned about the safety of those close to former President Gbagbo. Simone Gbagbo is currently under house arrest at Odienné (in the north of the country), others including Pascal Affi Nguessan, President of the FPI, are reportedly detained in Bouna in the north of the country. A number of other people are still being held in Abidjan, notably at La Pergola Hotel. Most, if not all these people remained detained incommunicado without any contact with their families and lawyers and some were reportedly held in life threatening conditions, notably 23 people including military and police officers held in a small cell in a military camp in Korhogo. At the time of finalizing this report (i.e. 17 May 2011), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was not able to visit these detainees. Amnesty International May 2011 Index: AFR 31/002/2011