The end of the “free pass” in Cote d’Ivoire?

In Côte d’Ivoire: 2 Years in, Uneven Progress, Human Rights Watch explain the stakes in the arrest of Amadé Ouérémi on May 18th, and what could be the implications for the “victor’s justice” in Cote d’Ivoire.

“People suspected of serious international crimes shouldn’t get a free pass just because they are linked to the government in power,” Wells said. “What happens next with Amadé Ouérémi will be telling. A credible investigation and, evidence permitting, prosecution would help heal the deep communal divisions in western Côte d’Ivoire and show that justice may finally be available to victims on both sides.”

[…]

members of the military have often engaged in serious human rights abuses, including widespread illegal detentions, inhuman treatment, torture, and, in at least few cases, extrajudicial killings. Some of the commanders implicated in these abuses were previously implicated by Human Rights Watch in a command role for serious crimes committed during the post-election crisis. The Ivorian government’s inadequate efforts to address ongoing rights abuses makes it more likely that some soldiers will continue resorting to such abuses during moments of tension, Human Rights Watch said.
The impunity for the security forces has also manifested itself in their involvement in criminal activity that often targets civilians. The UN Group of Experts found in its April report that, in consolidating their power in response to the security threats, military commanders had created a “military-economic network” throughout the country marked by parallel taxation, extortion, and smuggling worth millions of dollars. Since 2002, many former rebel commanders who now occupy key military positions have overseen similarly lucrative taxation and smuggling in northern Côte d’Ivoire, as documented b yHuman Rights Watch and the UN.

Alassane Ouattara interview on BBC Hardtalk

Cote d’Ivoire was once one of west Africa’s growth engines. Today, the population is trying to recover from the civil war that tore the country apart.

After a period of conflict in which many Ivorians were killed, the ousted leader Laurent Gbagbo is now awaiting trial in The Hague, at the International Criminal Court. The new Ivorian President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara has the task of uniting a divided nation. His critics accuse him of presiding over a victor’s justice and letting off supporters of his who are suspected of crimes. Are they right?

The stake in Simone and Laurent Gbagbo indictment

From Treat Greed in Africa as a War Crime, by Kamari Maxine Clarke.

The indictments of the Gbagbos are welcome, but they don’t bring the court any closer to confronting the fundamental causes of the violence that has plagued Ivory Coast — and most of sub-Saharan African — for centuries. Colonial rule, and the military takeovers and suppression of democratic movements that followed it, have contributed enormously to the misery. But even those legacies are not the root cause.

Violence in Africa begins with greed — the discovery and extraction of natural resources like oil, diamonds and gas — and continues to be fed by struggles for control of energy, minerals, food and other commodities. The court needs the power to punish those who profit from those struggles.

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For all its deficiencies, the I.C.C. — which in 10 years has achieved just a single conviction, that of a Congolese warlord last year — has a global reach and responsibility as the world’s first permanent war-crimes tribunal. Holding government officials and their inner circles accountable is a step toward justice, but the pursuit cannot end there. The Gbagbos, however heinous their alleged crimes, were ultimately figureheads in a vast and unregulated system of extractive capitalism.

At least 60 dead in Abidjan’s New Year’s Eve stampede

About 60 people have been crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium in Cote d’Ivoire’s main city of Abidjan after a New Year’s Eve fireworks display.

The incident took place near Félix Houphouët-Boigny stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said. One of the injured at a hospital said security forces had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled.

Other reports said the crush happened when thousands of people who were trying to leave the festivities met another large crowd arriving at the same time.

“The provisional death toll is 60 and there are 49 injured,” the interior minister, Hamed Bakayoko, said in a statement on national television. “During the fireworks everything was proceeding normally,” Bakayoko said. “At the end of it people wanted to go home, back to their home districts. Full story here.

 More details to follow.

Creating political debate: the reason behind the dissolution of the government?

Marc-André Boisvert gives a good explanation of the recent political events in Cote d’Ivoire on his article in ThinkAfricaPress:

A local journalist proposed an interesting theory during the Ivory Coast’s week without government: a clash between the two coalition partners could have been a way for Ouattara to enforce the creation of an opposition. Laurent Gbabgo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), which was forcibly removed from power in 2011 after it rejected the election results, boycotted the last legislative elections leaving Ouattara’s government without opposition. Some saw this forced dissolution as a Machiavellian move to create a constructive opposition which has been badly lacking in Ivorian politics.

 I had a similar reaction after Ahoussou government’s termination: considering Ouattara cannot afford to lose the PDCI support now, was the move aimed at focusing the public debate on politics, as opposed to the post-conflict legal cases?

As the two formations are now getting all the attention, it looks like the FPI might be losing its momentum. Without a strong leader, I would be curious to see how the Front Populaire Ivoirien evolves.

Nonetheless, I am pleasantly surprised that for once, the controversial topic in Cote d’Ivoire does not involve ethnicity or conflict. Hopefully, the political debate and public attention can focus more on the economical and social issues that affect the Ivorian population every day.

 

 

The life of Simone Gbagbo in Odienné

The last time we saw her she appeared exhausted and neglected. Some of her braids had been ripped out. That last time was April 11 last year, only a few minutes after her arrest. Since then the 63-year-old Simone Gbagbo has been sporting very close-cropped hair.

On August 18, 2011, she was charged by the Ivorian justice system for “economic crimes”, but the former First Lady is yet to be incarcerated. She is currently living in a controlled residence in Odienné, the birthplace of incumbent President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s mother.

 

Read the full article in the African Report.

Gbagbo to get legal help from the International Criminal Court

Ivory Coast’s former president Laurent Gbagbo will get legal aid while his financial status is assessed, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said Saturday.

His defence costs to date will be covered by the ICC’s legal aid, said a statement from the court’s clerk, after his defence team said they had no resources with which to conduct his defence.

During a hearing on December 14, lawyer Emmanuel Altit, for Gbagbo, told the court that they did not have the means to do their job.

“At this moment, we do have no office, no computer, no access to the Court’s computer system, no funding,” he said.

The financial aid granted by the court will however only cover the preliminary stages of the case pending an investigation into Gbagbo’s financial status, after which it would be reassessed, the clerk’s statement said.

Full article here.