don’t even have the means to go to Bloléquin to bring a complaint to the sub-prefect.111 Burkinabé leaders in many villages denied that their community members had extended into land they had no claim to (see text box below).112 However, a Burkinabé leader in Bloléquin said it was “distinctly possible” that illegal extensions happened in some cases, while warning that some Guérés were likely lying to try to get back land they had sold or ceded, taking advantage of the fact that many informal papers used to describe land sales were burned during the crisis.113 He also said that most crisis-related land conflicts in the area originate in illegal sales by other Guérés.114 In cases where illegal extensions occurred while people were displaced internally or as refugees, the authorities’ failure to address the dispossession violates the landowners’ rights under the African Charter and as set out in the Kampala Convention and the Pinheiro Principles.115 International law says that a landowner should have the right to restitution, including, where possible, the specific right to return to his land.116 Tit for Tat: Re-Seizures of Land Stolen After the First Ivorian Crisis As discussed in the Background, pro-Gbagbo forces and some Guérés forcibly displaced immigrants and Ivorians from northern and central ethnic groups during the 2002-2003 conflict. During this displacement, some Guérés illegally seized land that they had ceded or sold to these migrants years or even decades before.117 Many immigrants and non-native Ivorians were unable to return to their land until 2008, and some Guérés imposed conditions 111 Human Rights Watch interview with alleged victim of land dispossession by an illegal extension from previously owned land, Petit-Guiglo, June 5, 2013. 112 Human Rights Watch interviews with Burkinabé leader, Petit-Guiglo, June 5, 2013; with Burkinabé leader, Dedjéan, June 5, 2013; and with Burkinabé leader, Ladjikro, June 2, 2013. 113 Human Rights Watch interview with Burkinabé community leader, Bloléquin, June 8, 2013. 114 Ibid. The majority of cases of land dispossession documented by Human Rights Watch were indeed rooted in land sales by a Guéré who was not the landowner. 115 Kampala Convention, art. 9(2); Pinheiro Principles; ACHPR, art. 14. 116 Ibid. 117 Human Rights Watch interviews with Burkinabé immigrants, western Côte d’Ivoire, February and June 2013; and with humanitarian officials, Abidjan and western Côte d’Ivoire, February and June 2013. “THAT LAND IS MY FAMILY’S WEALTH” 42