[ 2011-07-01 ]

I. Coast issues arrest warrants for Gbagbo allies
ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivory Coast has issued
international arrest warrants for firebrand youth
leader Charles Ble Goude and other close aides of
former president Laurent Gbagbo, the Abidjan
prosecutor said Friday.

"Arrest warrants have been issued against suspects
on the run," including Ble Goude, who led Gbagbo's
Young Patriots, and former government spokesman
Ahoua Don Mello, the prosecutor Simplice Kouadio
Koffi told a news briefing.

Ble Goude, who long supported Gbagbo during his 10
years in power, was the rebel-rousing head of the
youth movement held responsible for violence in
Abidjan and elsewhere against foes of the former
head of state.

Gbagbo's refusal to acknowledge defeat to Alassane
Ouattara in last November's election led to a
stand-off of nearly five months and finally ended
with Gbagbo's arrest in April after weeks of armed
conflict in the commercial capital.

Ble Goude also rallied his youth followers to
attack troops from ex-colonial ruler France and
the UN peacekeeping mission as the international
community recognised Ouattara as the west African
country's new president.

Under UN sanctions since 2006, Ble Goude has
reportedly been spotted in Benin and Ghana, where
several figures from the Gbago regime have gone
into exile.

The arrest warrants also target Gbagbo's former
industry minister Philippe Attey and the Ivory
Coast's ex-ambassador to Israel Raymond Koudou
Kessie.

The authorities know "very well where these people
can be found," the prosecutor added without
elaborating.

The Gbagbo allies are being sought in connection
with an investigation into theft, misuse of public
funds, pillage and damage to the public economy by
the former regime.

The probe led to 15 people being charged and
placed in protective custody last week and six
more over the past few days, the prosecutor said.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC)
prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked judges for
permission to probe alleged war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed in the aftermath of the
disputed presidential poll.

Ouattara, who was sworn in as president in May,
has promised wide-reaching investigations into the
crimes committed during the country's
post-election stalemate where some 3,000 people
were killed, according to UN statistics.

But rights groups have accused Ouattara of
pursuing selective justice by aggressively probing
crimes committed by his adversaries, while
ignoring the brutal conduct of his loyalists.

Gbagbo, his wife Simone and 13 others affiliated
with the former regime remain under house arrest
in the north of country.

Rights groups have recently put pressure on Ivory
Coast's new government to clarify the legal
uncertainty surrounding the cases of many former
Gbagbo officials who have been detained since
April without charge.

"There is a growing divide between the Ouattara
government's rhetoric that no one is above the law
and the reality that justice appears one-sided,"
the New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

The UN Human Rights Council has said that
investigators it sent to the country believe war
crimes may have been committed by both sides.

"Serious crimes such as murder and rape took place
through generalised and systematic attacks," the
UN panel said, implicating both Gbagbo's forces
and fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Source - AFP

... go Back