[ 2011-10-16 ]

ICC prosecutor outlines ICoast poll unrest probe plans
ABIDJAN (AFP) - The International Criminal Court's
chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said up to six
people will be probed for involvement in
post-election atrocities in Ivory Coast.

Moreno-Ocampo, who arrived Friday pledging an
"impartial" investigation, said three to six
people would be investigated.

"But we don't know who they are," he added after
meeting with President Alassane Ouattra, Justice
Minister Jeannot Ahoussou Kouadio, former prime
minister Charles Konan Banny -- who now heads a
national reconciliation panel -- and Abidjan's
civil and military prosecutors.

Judges at the ICC, based at The Hague, appointed
Moreno-Ocampo to mount an inquiry into the
violence that killed more than 3,000 people during
a five-month standoff after last November's
elections in the world's top cocoa grower.

They ruled on October 3 that there was evidence
that both sides in the conflict committed war
crimes and crimes against humanity -- supporters
of now President Ouattara and fighters loyal to
his political rival, longtime leader Laurent
Gbagbo.

They said pro-Gbagbo forces hired some 4,500
mercenaries, including fighters from neighbouring
Liberia, and armed them.

Gbagbo's troops also attacked UNOCI, the United
Nations peace-keeping force in the Ivory Coast.
Between 700 and 1,048 people were killed by
pro-Gbagbo forces, according to figures given by
the prosecutor's office.

Troops loyal to Ouattara are accused of attacking
civilians in Abidjan and and western Ivory Coast,
particularly in the town of Duekoue, the judges
said.

"The material indicates that pro-Ouattara forces
targeted civilians who were perceived to support
Laurent Gbagbo and the attacks were directed
against specific ethnic communities," the judges
had said.

"We'll be totally impartial," Moreno-Ocampo said
Saturday, after meeting leading members of
Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party.

"We'll focus the investigation on the most odious
crimes and the most responsible... to prevent
violence and ensure Cote d'Ivoire to move ahead,"
he said, using the French name of the former
French colony in west Africa.

Gbagbo refused to give up power after losing the
elections to Ouattara.

Pro-Ouattara forces seized Gbagbo in April and has
been under house arrest in the north of the
country since.

Source - AFP

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