COTE D’IVOIRE / REPORT

U.N. mission human rights officer Guillaume Ngefa comments on a report released this week by Amnesty International which said that UN peacekeeping forces failed to protect civilians during the five-month period of post-election violence. ONUCI

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:58
• Production Date: 26 May 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS OPERATIONS IN COTE D'IVOIRE - UNOCI
• Subject Topical: PEACE AND SECURITY; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS; ELECTIONS
• Geographic Subject: COTE D'IVOIRE
• MAMS Id: U110526g

Description

STORY: COTE D’IVOIRE / AMNESTY REPORT
TRT: 1.58
SOURCE: ONUCI
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH/ NATS

DATELINE: 26 MAY 2011, ABIDJAN, COTE D’IVOIRE/ FILE

Shotlist

26 MAY 2011, ABIDJAN, COTE D’IVOIRE

1. Wide shot, press conference
2. Med shot, reporters
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Guillaume Ngefa, UN Human Rights Officer for Côte d'Ivoire:
“The resurgence of inter - communal conflicts was the central issue. The second factor, it is the multiplication of intimations against the civilian populations, committed with complete impunity. The proliferation of the light weapons, the strong concentration of militias and other armed groups, the porosity of the borders as well as, recently, the bloody confrontations between the Defence and Security forces, FDS, Liberian militiamen and mercenaries on the one hand and the armed forces of the Force Nouvelles and the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire and their militia on the other. “
4. Med shot, reporters
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Guillaume Ngefa, UN Human Rights Officer for Côte d'Ivoire:
“Our investigations included 85 sites in cities, villages, districts and camps. And we also visited presumed summary execution and massacre sites. We were in mortuaries, hospitals, cemeteries. We also visited 17 camps of the displaced.”
6. Med shot, reporters

22 MAY 2011, DUEKOUÉ, WEST OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE

7. Various shots, USG Alain Le Roy and SRSG Y.J. Choi tour refugee camp

Storyline

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) reported today that post-election violence that began last December had killed more than 1,000 people in the western part of the country before it came to an end last month.

According to a report presented today in Abidjan, 103 of the 1,012 slain persons were women and 42 were children.

Guillaume Ngefa, the interim head of UNOCI’s Human Rights Division, said the tally was the result of an investigation by a team of UN experts covering the period from December 2010 to April 2011. At least 505 of the victims were killed in western city of Duékoué, he said.

The violence erupted last December when former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down after he lost the UN-certified presidential run-off election in November to Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara was sworn in earlier this month after Gbagbo surrendered in April.

Ngefa said the UN report cited several human rights violations linked to clashes between the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), militias and mercenaries, on the one hand, and the Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire (FRCI) and traditional hunters, on the other.

On Sunday, the Chief of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy, visited a refugee camp in Duekoué in the West of Côte d’Ivoire, where much of the violence took place.

Le Roy, who is part of the delegation of the United Nations Secretary-General, arrived in Abidjan on Thursday to attend the inauguration of President Alassane Ouattara, which took a place on Saturday in Yamoussoukro.