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.
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