REUTERS, Paris | Tuesday
GROUPS of Ivory Coast soldiers have been summarily killing unarmed suspected criminals and mistreating lawyers and journalists since the military coup last Christmas Eve, the human rights group Amnesty International has reported.
It said some suspects had been made to kneel naked before being shot in front of a crowd. Relatives or former employees of ousted President Henri Konan Bedie had been tortured in a bid to recover money that military ruler General Robert Guei says Bedie stole.
Amnesty said Guei’s government had ordered the groups of soldiers, calling themselves ”La Camora” after the Sicilian mafia, or ”The Red Brigades”, to fight criminality.
The report, based on a fact-finding visit by Amnesty members to the Ivory Coast last May, said Guei summoned the soldiers in front of the Amnesty delegates and ordered them to dissolve the groups.
”Abuses against lawyers and some civilians decreased following that order, but journalists are still being harassed and summary executions against suspected criminals continue with full impunity,” Amnesty International said.
”There will be no serious hope of restoring law and order until those believed responsible for such acts are brought to court,” the group said.
The report was published hours after Guei said he had escaped an assassination attempt by young rebel soldiers.
Guei took power in a military coup last December in a country that had previously been seen as a rare haven of stability in volatile West Africa.
There have been bouts of military unrest since then, often over pay, although Guei has also suggested political motives. – Reuters