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GENEVA / COTE D’IVOIRE HUMAN RIGHTS
STORY: GENEVA/ CÔTE D’IVOIRE HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 1.27
SOURCE: UNTV
LOCATION: GENEVA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
DATELINE: 12 APRIL 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ FILE
FILE – RECENT, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Aerial shot, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
12 APRIL 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, Press Room III
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“A number of FDS soldiers loyal to Laurent Gbagbo were also arrested yesterday and it is unclear where they were taken and how they are being treated. Our Human Rights staff in Abidjan are looking into this and monitoring the situation.”
4. Med shot, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Our team has so far established that 536 people were killed in the west of the country in Duekowe, Guiglo, Blolequin and Bangolo in the past few weeks but the number could very much be higher than that.”
6. Med shot, journalist
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“This is why it is particularly important how Laurent Gbagbo is treated in custody. If he is treated in accordance with international standards, with humility, with respect and the investigation and trial are taken forward in accordance with the law we believe that will send a very strong signal to the direction in which the country is going.”
8. Med shot, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“When schools in the north and west reopened, I believe it was at the end of March, after months of being closed, they did so with a plan for making up this lost time through extra hours and extra hours of schooling. But soon after schools in the west and north reopened, the schools in the south were closed due to the rising violence and insecurity in Abidjan.”
10. Wide shot, journalists
A UN human rights spokesperson told a news briefing in Geneva this morning that how former President of Côte d’Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo and his followers are treated while in custody will send “a very strong signal to the direction in which the country is going.”
Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) noted that a number of soldiers loyal to Gbagbo were arrested yesterday “and it is unclear where they were taken and how they are being treated.”
She said that the UN Human Rights staff in Abidjan is monitoring the situation, while OHCHR investigation teams in the west of the country are continuing to investigate the violence and killings in that area.
So far they have established that 536 people were killed in Duekowe, Guiglo, Blolequin and Bangolo in the past few weeks, but, she said, “the number could very much be higher than that.”
Shamdasani said that Gbagbo must be treated “in accordance with international standards, with humility, with respect and the investigation and trial are taken forward in accordance with the law”
During the same meeting, Marixie Mercado, from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) told journalists that children in Côte d’Ivoire are at risk of loosing an entire year of schooling. She said that after schools in the north and west reopened, “after months of being closed”, the schools in the south closed down “due to the rising violence and insecurity in Abidjan.”
Gbagbo’s refusal to step down after losing the United Nations-certified presidential runoff poll in November plunged the West African country into violence, with his forces pitted against soldiers loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized President.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged Ouattara to ensure that there is no retaliation against supporters of his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo, who surrendered yesterday after months of defying the outcome of the election he lost.
In telephone discussions with Ouattara late yesterday, the Secretary-General stressed the expectation that since Gbagbo is now in the hands of the President’s forces, any further bloodshed will be avoided.
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