Côte d'Ivoire: Civilians Must Not Be Targeted
U.N. Peacekeepers Should Protect Civilians Threatened With Violence

(New York, November 4, 2004) - As fighting renewed in Côte d'Ivoire on
Thursday, Human Rights Watch called on all parties to refrain from
targeting civilians and to respect international humanitarian law.
According to their mandate, United Nations peacekeepers deployed in the
country should protect civilians under imminent threat of violence.

On Thursday, Ivorian government aircraft launched a series of bombing
raids on the main rebel-held cities of Bouaké and Korhogo, signaling an
end to the ceasefire declared in January 2003 and the peace process
initiated at the same time. Several civilians were reported killed and many
wounded when a checkpoint manned by New Forces (Forces Nouvelles)
troops came under aerial attack. Meanwhile in Abidjan, the commercial
capital held by government forces, militant youth from a pro-government
group known as the Young Patriots (Jeunes Patriotes) attacked unarmed
U.N. personnel and burned two of their vehicles, attacked the hotel where
government ministers representing the New Forces lived, and ransacked
and burned the offices of at least two opposition newspapers.

"Côte d'Ivoire's civil war and its ongoing political crisis have been
characterized by shocking brutality. Civilians have often been attacked
solely on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or nationality," said Peter
Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa
Division. "If the government and rebels resume fighting, they must take
all steps possible to limit harm to the civilian population."

Human Rights Watch urged all parties to the Ivorian conflict-including
the Ivorian military, gendarmes, police forces, pro-government militias
and combatants from several rebel factions making up the New Forces-to
distinguish at all times between combatants and the civilian population.
They must not attack civilians including aid workers, medical personnel,
U.N. personnel and members of the International Committee of the Red
Cross. Captured combatants and civilians who find themselves under the
authority of an adverse party must at all times be treated humanely,
irrespective of their ethnicity, religion or nationality.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to the conflict in Côte
d'Ivoire are prohibited from launching indiscriminate attacks. Armed
forces must take precautions to limit the danger of attacks to civilian
populations. Military actions-including the use of helicopter gunships,
mortars or artillery-should be guided by the principle of proportionality
in that the attacker should refrain from launching an attack if the expected
civilian casualties would outweigh the importance of the military target.

Moreover, the Ivorian government must ensure that militias used for
military purposes are instructed in their obligations under the laws of war,
or international humanitarian law. Since 2000, the government has
increasingly relied on pro-government militias for both law enforcement
and, since 2002, to combat the rebellion. In recent months, pro-
government militia members have reportedly been undergoing military
training in Abidjan.

Drawn mainly from youth supporters of the ruling party, the Ivorian
Popular Front (Front Populaire Ivorien, or FPI), the militias have served as
a lightly veiled mechanism to intimidate and abuse members of the
political opposition and those suspected of opposing the government by
virtue of their religion, ethnicity or nationality. Most notably, the latter has
included Muslims, northerners and West African immigrants mostly from
Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Guinea.

"Pro-government militias have been responsible for serious human rights
abuses in Côte d'Ivoire's conflict," said Takirambudde. "The Ivorian
government's failure to hold the militias accountable for these abuses has
only strengthened the impunity of these groups in Abidjan and the rural
areas."

During the internal conflict from September 2002 through January 2003,
and during the political impasse that has followed, Ivorian state security
forces and other pro-government forces frequently and sometimes
systematically executed, detained and attacked civilians from northern
ethnic groups, Muslims and West African immigrants. Militia groups,
tolerated if not encouraged by state security forces, have engaged in
widespread targeting of the immigrant community, particularly
agricultural workers from Burkina Faso living in villages in western Côte
d'Ivoire. On their part, the New Forces have also attacked and killed
civilians suspected of supporting the government or ruling political party.

Neither the Ivorian government nor the rebel leadership has taken concrete
steps to investigate and hold accountable those most responsible for these
crimes. Perpetrators have been emboldened by the current climate of
impunity that allows grave abuses to go unpunished.

Background

Since the military coup of 1999, Côte d'Ivoire has descended from its
position as a beacon of socioeconomic stability in Africa to being one of
the continent's most intransigent crises. The political and social climate is
dangerously polarized and characterized by intolerance, xenophobia and
suspicion. The 1999-2000 military junta, 2002-2003 civil war between the
government and northern based rebels, and the political unrest and
impasse that followed have been accompanied by a persistent, pernicious,
and deadly disintegration of the rule of law. The issues at the heart of the
Ivorian conflict-the exploitation of ethnicity for political gain,
competition over land and natural resources, and corruption-continue
unabated.

While the bombing raids on Thursday marked the first relapse into full-
scale war since 2003, the country remains divided. The north and most of
the west of the country remain under the control of the rebel forces while
the government retains control of the south. Some 4,000 French troops
monitor the ceasefire line.

The internal armed conflict officially ended in January 2003, after the
signing of the French-brokered Linas-Marcoussis Agreement. The
agreement provided for the formation of a Government of National
Reconciliation, which was to oversee disarmament, transparent elections,
and the implementation of political reforms such as changes to citizenship
and land tenure laws. During 2003 the country made only limited progress
towards implementing the provisions of the agreement. Despite the
inclusion of both sides in the new government of reconciliation,
representatives of the New Forces withdrew in September 2003 citing,
among other reasons, President Gbagbo's lack of good faith in
implementing the agreement.

Fears that the impasse would lead to a fresh outbreak of violence led the
United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) to organize a summit to jumpstart the peace
process, which was held in July in Accra, Ghana. The summit resulted in
the signing of the Accra III agreement which committed the government
to adopt several key legal reforms by the end of August, including one on
citizenship for West African immigrants, one which would define
eligibility to contest presidential elections, and another which would
change rights to land tenure. The agreement also set October 15 as the
starting date for disarmament, and agreed that the process should include
all paramilitary and militia groups. However, none of the key reforms had
been passed by the Ivorian government, and the rebels refused to begin
disarming by the agreed-upon date of October 15.