OCTOBER 28, 14:45 EDT

   55 Bodies Found in Ivory
   Coast

   By TIM SULLIVAN
   Associated Press Writer

   ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast
   (AP) — Ivory Coast's
   new government
   pledged Saturday to
   track down the killers
   of dozens of young
   men whose bodies
   were found dumped in
   a field — men who
   opposition officials
   and witnesses say
   were executed by
   government security
   forces.

   The gruesome
   discovery of the 55
   bodies Friday, and the
   allegations that the country's paramilitary
   police could be involved, cast a shadow over
   the new government. Less than a week after
   an uprising drove the military ruler from power
   and only two days after street fighting here
   ended, the reports also fueled the uneasiness
   that regularly sparks rumors of renewed
   violence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's main city.

   The corpses all appeared to be young men
   who had been shot. They were still tangled
   grotesquely on top of one another Saturday in
   a field surrounded by forest on the edge of
   Abidjan's Yopougon neighborhood. Twisted at
   obscene angles, most of the bodies were
   naked or only partially clothed.

   Officials in white gowns, rubber boots and
   plastic gloves sorted through the corpses as
   the country's new interior minister arrived in a
   large motorcade, accompanied by soldiers and
   paramilitary police.

                                ``I am
                                ashamed of
                                what we
                                are seeing
                                here,'' said
                                the
                                minister,
                                Emile Boga
                                Doudou, a
                                surgical
                                mask to
                                ward off
                                the stench
                                hanging
                                around his
                                neck.
                                ``The
                                police must
                                do their
                                work to
                                find the
                                author of
                                this
                                atrocity.''

                                But to
                                followers of
                                opposition
                                leader
                                Alassane
                                Dramane
                                Ouattara,
                                who say
                                those
   dumped in the field were fellow members of his
   Rally of the Republicans party, Ivorian
   authorities cannot be trusted to investigate
   the crime.

   ``It is security forces that killed them,'' said
   Amadou Coulibaly, a party spokesman. He said
   at least 155 Ouattara supporters have been
   killed in Abidjan since Wednesday, and at
   least 22 in other Ivorian cities. Those numbers
   could not be independently confirmed.

   Coulibaly said that in Abidjan, some of those
   killed were grabbed by militant supporters of
   newly installed President Laurent Gbagbo,
   handed over to security forces and not seen
   again until their corpses were spotted in the
   pile.

   Area
   residents
   backed up
   his
   account,
   saying on
   condition
   of
   anonymity
   that
   Gbagbo
   militants,
   backed by
   paramilitary
   police and soldiers, had forced their way into
   the homes of Ouattara's most ardent
   followers, beating young men and hauling
   them away.

   ``They broke down the door,'' said one man,
   a taxi driver who said six of his relatives were
   taken away by Gbagbo supporters backed by
   security forces. The driver escaped by fleeing
   the house.

   The discovery of the bodies followed three
   days of violence that drove out military junta
   leader Gen. Robert Guei and then turned to
   fighting between rival opposition forces. The
   unrest has left some 200 people dead.

   Guei had claimed victory in Ivory Coast's Oct.
   22 presidential election, a vote that was
   dogged by fraud and unfair competition
   charges. In less than a day, he saw power slip
   from his grasp as thousands of demonstrators
   took to the streets. Later joined by security
   forces, they swept Gbagbo, who ran against
   Guei in the election, to power.

   Gbagbo's victory, though, set off another
   round of unrest as Ouattara's supporters
   launched protests to call for new elections.
   Those protests led to even more violence,
   with political fighting turning into horrific
   sectarian attacks. Gbagbo's mostly southern
   Christian supporters battled Ouattara's
   followers, most of them northern Muslims.

   Ouattara was thought to have more support
   than Gbagbo, but he was barred from
   Sunday's vote by the Supreme Court, as were
   other opposition figures.

    t

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