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STORY: UN / COTE D’IVOIRE WRAP
SOURCE: UNTV
TRT: 2.30
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN building
11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY
2. Med shot, Cote d'Ivoire's Ambassador Youssoufou Bamba walks to the stakeout position
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Youssoufou Bamba, Permanent Representative of Côte d'Ivoire to the United Nations:
“It is my pleasure to announce officially that the former President of Côte d'Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo has been arrested, is well and alive and will be brought to justice.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Youssoufou Bamba, Permanent Representative of Côte d'Ivoire to the United Nations:
“The operation of arrest of Mr. Gbagbo has been conducted by the Ivorian forces. I repeat it. I am clear about that, no confusion whatsoever.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY
8. Pan right, Bamba walks away from the stakeout position
9. Pan left, Le Roy walks to the stakeout position
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
10. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“Mr. Gbagbo surrendered to Ouattara’s forces, President Ouattara’s forces. It was the forces of President Ouattara who came inside the residence, not UNOCI at all and not Licorne. It was President Ouattara’s forces who entered the residence and then Mr. Gbagbo surrendered to them. We again targeted the heavy weapons, but it was the forces of Mr. Ouattara who entered the residence, not UNOCI and not Licorne.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
12. Close up, reporter’s notepad
11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“President Ouattara might want to, of course, to prosecute him, but again, that is his call and might want him to go outside of Abidjan. But again, that is President Ouattara’s call. And, if he decides so we will then assist in providing security while he will remain in President Ouattara’s custody.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
14. Close up, camera
11 APRIL 2011, NEW YORK CITY
15. Zoom out, Le Roy walks away
16. Med shot, Simonovic at the press conference dais
17. Close up, camera
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Ivan Simonovic, Assistant Secretary-General of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“It is essential to break the cycle of impunity and retaliation taking part historically in this country. If after conflict in 2002 we’d established truth and ensured accountability, perhaps we could have avoided what has happened now.”
19. Wide shot, dais
The United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire today (11 April) confirmed that the country’s former president Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered to forces loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara and is currently in their custody.
Côte d'Ivoire has been engulfed by violence since last November, when Gbagbo refused to step down from power, despite losing a UN-certified and internationally recognized presidential election to Ouattara.
Early this morning, at UN Headquarters, the Permanent Representative of Côte d'Ivoire, Youssoufou Bamba, said that Laurent Gbagbo had “been arrested, is well and alive and will be brought to justice.”
He stressed that the operation had been conducted by the Ivorian forces.
Peacekeeping operations chief, Alain Le Roy, later bolstered that point, repeating that Gbagbo had surrendered to “President Ouattara’s forces” and pointing out “it was the forces of Mr. Ouattara who entered the residence, not UNOCI and not Licorne,” referring to the UN and French peacekeeping forces in Côte d’Ivoire.
Le Roy told reporters after briefing the Security Council that Gbagbo was currently in an apartment in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, where Ouattara and his entourage have been based under UNOCI protection since the result of the election was declared.
He commented that Ouattara might decide to prosecute Gbagbo, “and if he decides so we will then assist in providing security while he will remains in President Ouattara’s custody.”
The peacekeeping chief noted that there were still likely to be pockets of resistance in Abidjan, but the city was largely quiet.
At a later press conference, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Šimonovic, told reporters in New York after his return from a fact-finding mission to Côte d’Ivoire that widespread and systematic abuses were committed in Abidjan, including attacks against pro-Ouattara demonstrators, looting, as well as the rape of political activists.
In view of Gbagbo’s arrest, he said that “it is essential to break the cycle of impunity and retaliation taking part historically in this country” and pondered that if truth and accountability had been established after the conflict in 2002, “perhaps we could have avoided what has happened now.”
He said that UN human rights officials estimate that 400 people were killed in Abidjan before the recent escalation of violence in the city and that 150 of them died as a result of deliberate targeting with heavy weapons.
