/ 1 January 2002

Ivory Coast rebels as self-styled policemen

When a resident of rebel-held Bouake in Ivory Coast rings the headquarters of the mutineers who seized control here in September to complain that he was robbed, they react fast.

Within an hour 10 rebels return with four suspects in hand, eager to improve their reputation after reportedly executing resisters when they first took up arms against President Laurent Gbagbo eight weeks ago and seized control of half of the west African country in a bloody uprising that has claimed at least 400 lives.

The self-styled policemen are members of the ”crisis command post” that the rebels have set up here in a bid to ”polish their image”, explains the bearded Corporal Jesus, one of the leaders of the law and order cell set up in the third infantry battalion in Bouake.

As mediators scrambled this week amidst fears of renewed fighting to breathe life into peace talks between Gbagbo’s government and the rebel leaders, the corporal admitted that there were summary executions at Bouake shortly after the rebels took control of the central town on September 19.

But, the way he sees it, the rebels had little choice. ”Either we let the thugs go, or we executed them and made an example of them.”

He says, however, that those who opted for the latter were ”mostly civilians” who sided with the rebels and were ”trying out their fire power” and that now ”there are no more summary executions”.

Corporal Jesus says the rebels have imprisoned

”dozens of gangsters” in their headquarters, adding quickly that they were being ”treated well”.

”We wanted to show that after some initial mistakes we, unlike the loyalists, have maintained respect for human rights,” says Sergeant Cherif Ousmane, one of the rebel representatives.

Bouake teems with rebels from the crisis command on patrol and a corridor in the rebel headquarters is stacked full of stolen objects they have recovered and intend to return to their rightful owners.

One of their vans pulls up in the courtyard with three men who have been arrested for armed robbery and are quickly brought before a ”judge” dressed in dirty combat gear.

One of the three admits that he robbed somebody while firing in the air, and is given a couple of slaps and put in ”temporary detention”.

His two accomplices, who stood by and watched, are lectured, slapped and let go with a warning to report to the rebels every day at midday.

The rebels claim that they are also acting against the ”unsavoury elements” within their own ranks, like those running rackets.

They said they responded swiftly when a member of a non-governmental organisation passing through Bouake alerted them that ”a month ago, in a village not far from Bouake, a dozen mutineers fired shots in the air and tried to force the residents to pay tax.”

The rebel leaders were informed via satellite phone and deployed the crisis command who arrested and ”dealt with” the rebel racketeers, to the delight of the villagers.

The rebels say they do not only act as police but have put themselves at the general service of the population in the areas they control in the way firemen might, rushing women in labour and the sick to hospital.

”The rebels are really helping us these days,” a resident of Bouake says.

”They are less vicious than the government soldiers, who spend their time fleecing us,” says another.

A third puts its more bluntly: ”The mutineers are not, for whatever reason, killing civilians.” – Sapa-AFP