IVORY COAST: DOZEN OF MEN WOUNDED IN FIGHTING IN ABIDJAN ARRIVE AT A TEMPORARY HOSPITAL

Record ID: 183510

  • Title: IVORY COAST: DOZEN OF MEN WOUNDED IN FIGHTING IN ABIDJAN ARRIVE AT A TEMPORARY HOSPITAL
  • Date: 29th October 2000
  • Summary: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (OCTOBER 29-30, 2000)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV MAKESHIFT HOSPITAL IN THE IVORIAN CAPITAL ABIDJAN 0.03 2. SLV MEN BEING TREATED UNDER A CANVAS AT THE HOSPITAL AFTER THEY RECEIVED INJURIES IN FIGHTING LAST WEEK 0.08 3. MCU MAN TREATED FOR A HEAD WOUND AFTER HE WAS BEATEN 0.12 4. SV DOCTORS STITCH UP A MAN WHO'S PENIS WAS PARTLY TORN OFF 0.15 5. MCU THE MAN'S HEAD 0.18 6. MCU AN OLD MAN, TRAORE LANSANE, 63, IS HELPED TO WALK AFTER SURGERY 0.21 7. MCU (FRENCH) TRAORE LANSANE, TORTURE VICTIM, SAYING: "It was the gendarmes (who did this). It was the gendarmes commandos. It was they who did it, the gendarmes commandos." 0.29 8. SV TRAORE LANSANE ON A TEMPORARY OPERATING TABLE 0.33 9. MCU (FRENCH) LANSANE, SAYING: "They (the gendarmes) did it because they said that I was RDR. That was the only reason, because I am Dioula. (NB: RDR IS OPPOSITION PARTY RALLY OF REPUBLICANS. THEIR SUPPORT COMES FROM THE NORTH OF WHICH DIOULA IS A MAIN ETHNIC GROUP) 0.41 10. SV MAN'S HEAD IS SEWN BACK TOGETHER AFTER HE RECEIVED A DEEP MACHETE CUT. THE MAN GROANS IN PAIN 0.46 11. MCU (FRENCH) ALY COULIBALY, SPOKESMAN OF THE RALLY OF REPUBLICANS OPPOSITION PARTY, SAYING: "(We want) the creation of an international commission of enquiry to bring to light this whole tragedy and to condemn the culprits, the accomplices and the leaders." 1.06 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Reuters ID: LVA9DO0UK6IXCGXYTBNSZHTABR10
  • Story Text: Dozens of men wounded in fighting in the Ivory
    Coast capital Abidjan arrive at a temporary field hospital
    outside the house of opposition party leader Alassane
    Ouattara. Many of the men say they were beaten and tortured by
    the gendarmes.


    Evidence of horrific human rights abuses continues to
    emerge after violence erupted in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan,
    last week.

    At a makeshift hospital outside the house of prominent
    opposition leader Alassane Ouattara men arrive for treatment
    saying they have been beaten or tortured.

    Many of the men blame the security forces for what
    happened.

    "It was the gendarmes (who did this). It was the gendarmes
    commandos. It was they who did it, the gendarmes commandos.

    They (the gendarmes) did it because they said that I was RDR.

    That was the only reason, because I am Dioula," said
    sixty-three year-old Lansane Traore.

    Traore, who suffered injuries to his head, chest and legs,
    said he was falsely accused of throwing a stone at a gendarme
    on Thursday (October 26). He described in detail how the
    gendarme beat him for hours and threatened him with death.

    Doctors at the medical centre also sewed his penis back in
    place.

    Troare said he was an ethnic Dioula from the north of the
    country.

    The Rally of Republicans political party called for an
    international enquiry on Monday into the abuses.

    Scores of people were killed last week when
    traditionally-stable Ivory Coast erupted into violence.

    First a popular uprising overthrew military leader General
    Robert Guei who declared himself the winner in elections on
    October 22 against opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo.

    Then supporters of Gbagbo, supported in some cases by the
    security forces, engaged supporters of Alassane Ouattara's
    Rally of Republicans.

    On Friday (October 27) the bodies of 47 young men were
    found in a field just outside the city and witnesses said
    elements of the gendarmes were responsible for at least some
    of the killings.

    Aly Coulibaly, Spokesman Of the Rally of Republicans
    opposition party said, "(We want) the creation of an
    international commission of enquiry to bring to light this
    whole tragedy and to condem the culprits, the accomplices and
    the leaders."
    Laurent Gbagbo was finally sworn in as president on
    Thursday (October 26). Observers say ending human rights
    abuses will have to be high on his agenda.
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