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FESCI Activities and Violence Perpetrated Since 2002

After the eruption of armed rebellion in September 2002, the changes that had begun within FESCI during the “war of machetes” accelerated, to the point where members of FESCI from the early 1990s told Human Rights Watch they scarcely recognize the organization they created.⁸⁰ Rather than student strikes for student causes, FESCI is often known today for both politically and criminally motivated violence meted out primarily against fellow students perceived to support opposition political parties or the northern-based rebels, actions taken to stymie the peace process at key junctures on behalf of the ruling FPI party, and the impunity which nearly always attaches to FESCI-perpetrated crimes. In addition, members of FESCI are routinely associated with “mafia” type behavior including extortion and protection rackets. Together, FESCI’s actions both on and off campus have a chilling effect on the freedoms of expression and association for fellow students and professors.

Activities and Violence on Campus

Murder, Assault, and Torture of Fellow Students

Since 2002, members of FESCI have on numerous occasions attacked fellow students, especially those of northern origin or who are considered to bear some other proxy for imagined rebel sympathy or support for the political opposition. Many of the most brutal attacks were perpetrated against members of a rival student union. During these attacks, at least one student has been murdered, and others have been severely beaten and tortured in student dormitories.

Many of the incidents investigated by Human Rights Watch have been highly publicized in local media, made the subject of press conferences by local human rights groups, featured in the reports of the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (ONUCI), and denounced by international human rights groups.⁸¹ In several instances, victims have filed complaints with the police, but in very few instances has a member of FESCI been arrested for criminal offenses perpetrated against fellow students. Student leaders told Human Rights Watch that in most instances when they have reported violence to the police, they have been told that, “since FESCI is involved, you better settle it amongst yourselves.”⁸² In a few instances, some of which are described below, police themselves were actual eyewitnesses to FESCI-perpetrated crimes, and yet nevertheless failed to intervene or otherwise respond professionally.

The most severe abuse by far has been experienced by members of a rival student union, the General Student Association of Côte d’Ivoire (Association Générale des Élèves et Étudiants de Côte d’Ivoire, AGEECI), which FESCI has accused of supporting the New Forces rebels.⁸³ Since its creation in 2004, one of AGEECI’s leaders has been assassinated, one of its female members gang raped, and a number of its members badly beaten by students claiming membership in FESCI. While FESCI-perpetrated violence against AGEECI members has diminished in recent years, AGEECI members told Human Rights Watch that the relative calm is primarily due to the fact they have stopped or curtailed nearly all public activities. Today, many AGEECI members fear to set foot on campus.⁸⁴

One of the most notorious FESCI-led attacks involved the killing of one of AGEECI’s founding members, Habib Dodo, also a leader in the youth wing of the Communist Party. According to eyewitnesses, on June 23, 2004, Habib Dodo was kidnapped from the home of Ekissi Achy, the secretary general of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PCRCI). According to witnesses, around 1 p.m., one student in the house received a phone call warning him that a large group of students was making its way to the house, just minutes before they arrived.⁸⁵ One witness present in the house that day described FESCI’s arrival:

There were about forty of them that surged into the house. I recognized between a third and a half of them as FESCI members. Some had t-shirts that said “FESCI Criminology,” because that’s the section they were in. They were armed with sticks shouting, “Where is he? Where is he hiding?” [referring to Habib Dodo] They busted up stuff around the house, including the television, windows, the bathroom sink, everything. They also stole clothing, shoes, and money. When I ran to my room to make sure they hadn’t stolen my scholarship money, I saw three of them in there looking through things. They were ATC [Anti-Chambristes], the foot soldiers of FESCI.⁸⁶ They are the ones who are gathered up for these sorts of actions. There was screaming and crashing all over the house. I decided to run with a friend to the police station, the 16^th precinct. When I got there, I was so panicked that it was hard for me to explain. It took about five minutes to calm down. Finally, I said, “FESCI is attacking our house!” But they told me they didn’t have anyone available to send.⁸⁷

Meanwhile, another witness present in the house during the attack, the secretary general of the PCRCI, also attempted to contact the police:

After FESCI left with Habib I called the police, but no one came. Finally, I took a taxi there. It was about one kilometer away. When I arrived, I told them, “We’ve been calling and calling!” But the officer just asked me to leave. I said, “I’m talking about a kidnapping. They will kill him!” But I realized that he wasn’t going to do anything, so I took another taxi to the prefecture de police in Plateau.⁸⁸ I saw the second in command who called the director who said he’d look into it. Only then did someone from the 16^th precinct come to my house to survey the damages. The next day I was told they had killed Habib on campus by hanging him.

The same day Habib was kidnapped, another communist student, Richard Kouadio, was almost beaten to death in Bassam.⁸⁹ He was left near the Bassam road. We rescued him after I received an anonymous call saying that FESCI had taken him. ONUCI went and got him and took him to the main hospital in Treichville.⁹⁰

In a July 2005 interview, FESCI leader Serge Koffi justified the attacks on AGEECI because “AGEECI is not a student organization and we cannot let them meet on campus. It is a rebel organization created in the rebel zone and seeking to spread its tentacles to the university.” ⁹¹

The secretary general of the PCRCI described efforts to seek justice in the Habib Dodo case:

I immediately filed a complaint with the police against FESCI and its leaders for kidnapping, torture, murder, and vandalism. We initially hired a lawyer who dropped the case as soon as he understood the sensitive nature of the affair, but MIDH helped us.⁹² Since that time, we’ve tried to bring both political and legal pressure to move the case forward. We went to see the Minister of Security at the time, Martin Bléo, and he had the police guard my house for one year. He supposedly gave instructions to have the case followed. Then we went to see Henriette Diabaté, the Minister of Justice at the time, and we gave her a copy of the complaint. We also saw the Minister of Human Rights at the time, Madame Wodié. We’ve even given names of the people involved to the judicial police. The police have interviewed Richard Kouadio and members of AGEECI, but we’ve never heard of any FESCI members being questioned. Over three years later, we have finally been told that the file was sent from the police to a magistrate. In the end, we don’t think it will go anywhere because of the politics involved, but we have to keep trying.⁹³

FESCI-perpetrated violence against members of AGEECI peaked in 2005, when a number of AGEECI members were severely beaten. One victim described being beaten in July 2005 after trying to distribute pamphlets at a bus station inviting students to an AGEECI press conference:

We were at the north station in Adjamé when a busload of FESCI members came, as many as a hundred of them.⁹⁴ They grabbed two of us distributing pamphlets, but three got away. It all happened right in the middle of the bus station with people all around. They stripped us naked right there in front of everyone. There were police I saw at the bus station watching. One policeman told FESCI, “Leave them alone.” But a FESCI member replied, “That won’t happen. This is FESCI and these are rebels!” After that, the policeman watching—there were either two or three of them—did nothing. Someone in the crowd yelled, “If they are rebels, kill them!” At that point, they put us in a taxi to take us to the Cité Rouge in Cocody.⁹⁵ In the taxi, they were sitting on top of us like we were the seats. There were three of them on top of us, and two in the front of the taxi. My companion passed out. In the taxi they were saying, “We’re going to kill them.” When we arrived at the Cité Rouge, they took us behind the cité and beat us. Then Maréchal KB came with his security personnel. He asked questions like, “Did you take money from the rebels?” and “Who do you work for?” Then he said, “We’re going to kill you if you don’t admit you took money from the rebels.” Meanwhile, our comrades had called ONUCI, LIDHO, MIDH, and someone contacted the Minister of Security, Martin Bléo, who applied pressure and we were freed around 5:30 p.m.⁹⁶ A week later, we filed a complaint at the palais de justice in Abidjan, but it hasn’t gone anywhere. The authorities have questioned no one and done nothing. But ONUCI photographed us and gave medical treatment, and MIDH did a press conference.⁹⁷

Several instances of FESCI-perpetrated violence against members of AGEECI involved the manifest failure of police to intervene or respond in a responsible way, as illustrated by the following testimony of a FESCI attack in December 2005:

I was working with high school students at their school to create an AGEECI committee. Around 1 o’clock that afternoon, a number of cars pulled up outside the school. There were five of us AGEECI members in the classroom at the time. Three went to see what the commotion was, and never came back. The next thing I knew, a group of FESCI members erupted into the classroom. They started to hit the two of us who were left with clubs and the blunt side of machetes. Then they put us in a taxi. Before we drove off, four policemen arrived in a truck. We thought they would intervene to save us, but FESCI told the police that we were rebels and assailants. The police said that if that’s the case, they should go ahead and kill us. The police left, and we drove off.

As we were driving near the port, we were stopped at a checkpoint by two policemen. The people in the car identified themselves as FESCI members and then got out to talk with the police. They got back in the car and we drove through the checkpoint. We started driving towards an abandoned area. I was afraid that if that was where they were taking us, it meant death, but then they took us instead to the Cité in Port-Bouet.⁹⁸ They first took us to a building and put me in a small room, where a group of them started to beat me with clubs and slingshots. Then I passed out. When I woke up, they started asking whether I worked for the rebellion, for Ouattara, or for Soro. Then they said they were taking us to the beach to kill us by drowning. The beach wasn’t far and they marched us there, which started to attract attention. They threw us in the water. A lifeguard came and FESCI started to threaten him. A crowd began to gather and people started asking questions. Eventually the crowd got big enough that the FESCI members left. The lifeguard called an ambulance and they took us to the hospital.

Since then, I’ve been threatened so many times on my cell phone that I had to change the number. I had to go outside of Abidjan for a while to protect myself. If I try to file a complaint against a FESCI member, it won’t go anywhere. They’re the ones who brought the president to power. They can do what they want.⁹⁹

While members of AGEECI have suffering the most severe FESCI-perpetrated violence, other students and student groups interviewed by Human Rights Watch report that they have suffered occasional beatings by members of FESCI, particularly where there was a challenge to FESCI’s economic activities on campus.¹⁰⁰ A university student told Human Rights Watch:

In November 2006, around eighty of us in a class gave 2,500 francs each [West African CFA francs, about US$5] to the delegate of our class section to make copies of a document we needed for our economics exams. When he didn’t deliver the copies as promised, we weren’t sure when or if we were going to see them. So we drew up a petition to national bureau FESCI to protest, but before we sent it, six of us went to see the head of all class section delegates, who is a member of FESCI. He told us to meet him at amphitheatre H3 to discuss the matter. When we arrived on their third floor, there were lots of FESCI students on the stairs, and then twenty or so in the room, all waiting there. We knew them as FESCI because we all know each other and they don’t try to hide their membership. They put five of us on our knees, but they separated out the deputy delegate of our class section into another room. They had some irons plugged in and said they were going to iron us with them. The also had belts and clubs. Then they started to beat us one at a time. If you would get up, they would hit you again. One of us started to bleed a lot and they told him to clean up the blood. They were saying, “You want to spoil our gumbo?¹⁰¹ You want to spoil our business?” Meanwhile, the deputy delegate was in a room next door getting beaten even more severely. His eyes were swollen shut and they made him wash his face with hot pepper water. Later, there was a meeting held between the university administration and those who were beaten. They told us they would listen to FESCI and then do a mediation and reconciliation, but they never called us after that. We didn’t file a complaint with the police because if you do that you better have a bodyguard. They could even kill you. You’d have to flee the country. Maybe you could file a complaint against another movement, but not them.¹⁰²

Sexual Threats and Violence

Human Rights Watch documented several cases of sexual abuse and exploitation perpetrated by members of FESCI since 2002, and believes the numbers and incidence of sexual abuse by its members may be significantly underreported.¹⁰³

Students interviewed by Human Rights Watch report that FESCI members demand and extort sex from female students on campus, occasionally by threatening to kick a student out of her dorm room unless she agrees to sleep with a FESCI member.¹⁰⁴ A journalist quoted a law student as stating, “As soon as a girl pleases [a member of FESCI] they send their guys to get her. If she refuses to submit to them she is expelled from the residence and prevented from going on campus to attend her classes.”¹⁰⁵

When a group of women interviewed by Human Rights Watch was asked how one could contact the school administration for protection or how to report such behavior, the interviewees all laughed and one said, “You are dreaming! The university will do nothing.”¹⁰⁶

Human Rights Watch research indicates that members of FESCI have been implicated in at least two cases of rape. The most notorious case involved the brutal gang rape of an AGEECI student leader in June 2005 on the Cocody Campus in Abidjan, explicitly because of her student activism with AGEECI. She told Human Rights Watch:

I was kidnapped by the same members of this FESCI which had tortured Habib Dodo to death. After dragging me all over the campus, looking for a “general” who was supposed to tell them what to do, they finally went to the old campus. Shortly afterwards, they made me undergo an interrogation. Their questions were trying to make me confess AGEECI’s collaboration with the rebels, and to get information about the leaders. I tried to say I didn’t know anything…They told me I was screwed. They also gave me information on my home, my private life, to show me that they know a lot about my case and that I couldn’t escape them. When they spoke of my [family members]…I had chills…Then my interrogator asked them to “Be effective” as he locked me up with four of them, and told them to “Do a clean job…” They beat me up. They told me that they were trained to kill and that they’d kill me if I didn’t speak. They showed me bloodstains on the ground… and told me it was the blood of my comrades who’d been tortured there not long ago. Then…one of them insisted that they undress me forcibly and make me lay down, which was done. I understood right away that this was to accomplish an evil plan. One of them hit my head against a wall, the others were hitting me and sexually abusing me. I screamed until my voice was hoarse but it was useless…My rapist took his place, squeezing my throat with his two hands. He was strangling me…He covered my face with a piece of coarse cloth and penetrated me. While he was raping me I tried to fight back and scream but the others were holding my feet… My rapist was hurting me. I was disgusted, suffering, and powerless…[After they let me go] they forbade me to return to the campus and told me my studies were finished…on pain of death.¹⁰⁷

A leading local human rights NGO following this woman’s case confirmed that there has been no police investigation of the complaint she registered and that her requests for action from the university and Ministry of Justice have received no response.¹⁰⁸ The same organization documented the gang rape of another student active in the PDCI opposition party by two members of FESCI (one of whom she could identify) near her house in Abidjan shortly after she participated in an anti-government protest march on March 25, 2004. This student gave the organization a written, detailed testimony, reviewed by Human Rights Watch. The NGO confirmed that there was no police or judicial follow-up for her case.¹⁰⁹

Intimidation and Attacks on Professors and Teachers

Since at least 2002, FESCI has subjected to intimidation, and occasionally physical abused, of several professors and teachers because of their political beliefs or activism for better working conditions. In November 2007, FESCI members reportedly beat with belts and clubs two high school teachers who participated in a teachers strike.¹¹⁰

A high school teacher told Human Rights Watch that in November 2006 FESCI students smashed a rock over his head during a fight that started in a restaurant after students had become drunk.¹¹¹ According to the teacher, though his fellow teachers went on strike in protest, the students involved were not sanctioned.

Other teachers told Human Rights Watch that they fear giving a bad grade to a member of FESCI due to unpredictable and possibly violent consequences:

At our high school, we have about 4,000 students. All teachers know who the members of FESCI are because if you have a FESCI leader in your class, he can come and go when he wants and speak when he wants. If you don’t let the student do what he wants, you’ll be eyed suspiciously and you might end up getting attacked in the street. You’ll never even know who did it because chances are they will send people you don’t know. So the teachers are afraid of them because it’s a question of your life. You fear to give them a bad grade.¹¹²

While many teachers, especially at the high school level, continue to fear FESCI-perpetrated violence, the head of a professors union at the university explained to Human Rights Watch how the presence of former FESCI members among the university professors is beginning to change professor-student relations:

Last year [2006], FESCI disrupted our general assembly held while we were on strike. Some FESCI students came with machetes. We told them that if they so much as touched a professor there would be two “white years.”¹¹³ Today relations with FESCI have changed a bit because . . . newer professors used to be FESCI members themselves and they have become more strident in defending our interests. They know how FESCI operates and they won’t let us be intimidated.¹¹⁴

Effect on Freedoms of Speech and Association

In interviews with Human Rights Watch, professors, teachers, and students described the chilling effect that FESCI’s actions have had on freedoms of expression and association at both the high school and university level.

Teachers at the high school level described being reluctant to discuss the performance of the current government, to suggest that the economy is doing poorly, or to address a number of other politically sensitive subjects in the classroom:

We’re obliged to limit what we say in class for fear of the consequences. For example, you can’t criticize the management of the country and you have to say in spite of your convictions to the contrary that things are getting better. You can’t talk about corruption. You can’t denounce human rights abuses. And if you give a bad grade, they can intimidate you until you change it. But FESCI is a false problem. It is here simply because it is supported by a political system. It’s kept like a sword of Damocles over the heads of anyone thinking of opposing power.¹¹⁵

University professors interviewed by Human Rights Watch appeared less fearful to address politically sensitive topics in class, but all noted that criticizing FESCI or the political controversy surrounding its actions is off limits:

Regarding freedom of expression, we professors pay attention to all we say and do as concerns FESCI. They have the benefit of impunity. The politicians, police, and army won’t help you if you are threatened by FESCI. FESCI can murder and the investigation will never go anywhere. But the politicians prefer to close their eyes to certain practices because ultimately they need FESCI for their political ends.¹¹⁶

The shadow cast by FESCI’s history of violence has had a profound effect on the activities of other student organizations, from rival student unions to student religious groups, who told Human Rights Watch that after the abuses perpetrated against AGEECI,¹¹⁷ they have curtailed or ceased open recruitment, passing out pamphlets, and other activities that could be construed as a challenge to FESCI’s dominance on campus.¹¹⁸ Thus, in many ways, attempts to exclude perceived rivals from political space through violence and intimidation, so prevalent on the national stage since the crisis erupted, have been mirrored at the university level, and have served to greatly undermine freedoms of association and expression on campus.

Beyond refraining from public acts on behalf of a rival organization, opposition supporters living in student dormitories told Human Rights Watch that they must be discreet about their political affiliation, even going so far as to making sure they do not have any books or literature in their rooms that might associate them with the opposition, to avoid being forcibly evicted by FESCI from their room: “In the dorms, if you are not pro-FPI, you can’t express yourself. What you think, it has to be kept inside you, not expressed. That’s one of the worst things about it. You have to hide who you are for your own security and survival.”¹¹⁹

Several students and professors interviewed by Human Rights Watch pointed to the role that FESCI has played in “pacifying” the university and the benefits this holds for the ruling party.¹²⁰ Throughout the 1990s, the university environment was a hotbed of opposition activity and FESCI-led demonstrations by university students were a constant thorn in the government’s side.¹²¹ In contrast, since President Gbagbo came to power, there have been very few times when FESCI has struck or demonstrated against the government for reasons of student welfare or otherwise, despite little if any objective improvement in conditions experienced by students. At the same time, as discussed below, some members of FESCI have used their power to great personal economic benefit, often at the expense of economically deprived students. When asked about the relative absence of strikes relating to overcrowding and other issues that dominated FESCI’s 1990s agenda, one FESCI leader explained:

Some say we don’t do strikes anymore, but we have to communicate differently and recognize the realities that those in power have to cope with. Gbagbo comes to campus and eats with us, he shares our reality. We see small gestures to improve our lot, and we know he’d give more if he had more. He doesn’t flee from us so we don’t push for more.¹²²

Student leaders from other organizations interviewed by Human Rights Watch expressed a strong desire to openly and publicly organize and push for better student conditions, but all stated that they fear a violent reaction from FESCI.¹²³ Students and professors noted that it is one of the bitter ironies of FESCI’s history that an organization born out of the fight for multiparty democracy has become intolerant of any challenge not only to its own authority, but to that of the government as well.¹²⁴

Criminal Control by FESCI of Key University Facilities and Services

Though the roots of some practices pre-date the outbreak of civil war in 2002, since the crisis erupted members of FESCI have exhibited an increasing tendency to criminally appropriate and allocate key university facilities and services. Activities include racketeering of merchants and minibus drivers near university facilities, extortion of fellow students for a portion of their scholarship money, and illegal seizure and subletting of dorm rooms.

Mafia-like Behavior

Merchants, members of a transporters union representing taxi and minibus drivers, and officials in a mayor’s office working in proximity to university facilities told Human Rights Watch that they were routinely subjected to extortion and racketeering by members of FESCI, and often likened the organization to a “mafia.”

Merchants operating on or in close proximity to the university campus, university residences, and even high schools told Human Rights Watch that they are required to pay “taxes” to FESCI for the privilege of operating. Such “taxes” include an initial setup fee of 15,000 to 25,000 francs (West African CFA francs, about US$30 to $50), followed by periodic payments that are fixed in relation to the size of the operation in question. While a market women selling garba, a popular lunchtime cassava-based staple, might pay 3,000 francs per month (about $6), a merchant operating a larger soft drink stand might pay 25,000 francs per month (about $50). According to merchants interviewed by Human Rights Watch, anyone who refuses to pay risks being beaten or evicted:

I run a telephone booth close to one of the university residences. Members of FESCI often come and call and then refuse to pay. Sometimes they come to collect their taxes each day, sometimes once per week. It depends on their mood. They usually take 200-300 francs per day [about $.40 to $.60], 1,000 per week [about $2], or around 5,000 per month [about $10]. They simply come and say, “We’ve come to take the quota.” If you don’t pay, you could be beaten, kicked out of your spot, or have your store busted up.¹²⁵

Merchants running larger enterprises interviewed by Human Rights Watch appear not to have to pay “taxes” to FESCI. For small-time hawkers and food sellers, however, FESCI’s demands are difficult to resist.

Human Rights Watch interviewed two former FESCI members who once were responsible for collecting money from merchants around one university dormitory. Both described a well-organized collections system in which the “financial secretary” of an individual section of FESCI keeps a list of those merchants under FESCI control in their territory and the “taxes” due. The financial secretary then collects on a monthly or weekly basis, though this does not exclude impromptu attempts to collect off-schedule if money is needed.¹²⁶

In addition to the regular “taxes” that are collected at intervals, merchants told Human Rights Watch that members of FESCI often demand free services from restaurants and taxis, often going en masse to eat and drink and then refusing to pay.

According to students, merchants, and civil servants working in a mayor’s office, FESCI will not allow city tax collectors to collect official government taxes on their “turf.” One city tax collector told Human Rights Watch:

It started slowly, even before 2002, but has picked up steam since then. Today, the areas around the different university dormitories are a real no man’s land. We can’t penetrate it. In 2004, as head of collection operations, I went to their area to investigate. It didn’t take long before FESCI had surrounded me. I said, “Who are you?” One of them said, “Ah, I see. You don’t know then.” Then they chased us out of there with kicks and slaps. And this isn’t an isolated case. We’ve tried several times to collect and other agents have been beaten outright. I’d estimate that we lose around ten million francs [West African CFA francs, about $20,000] per year to FESCI due to its “tax” collection around the two student dormitories located in our commune.¹²⁷

Representatives of a mayor’s office said that the police will not intervene in these and other matters involving FESCI because FESCI is “protected by those in power”:

They are armed, and we certainly can’t send people to collect taxes in their zone. Our only force is the national police, but the police tell us they don’t want trouble with FESCI so we can’t count on them to help us. Any policeman will think twice before acting against FESCI or its interests because he knows that FESCI is protected by those in power. Basically, you just pray to God that you don’t have any issues with them because there is no security force that will stop them.¹²⁸

In return for “taxes” paid, FESCI “protects” the merchants by dealing with thieves and other troublemakers. At one university residence, a FESCI member described a system for judging and sentencing alleged thieves:

If a merchant we protect has a problem with a thief, he will bring them to us. He’ll come to whoever is on duty that day who listens to both the thief and the merchant and then decides what to do. Usually he decides how much the thief owes to the merchant and takes a commission from the thief as well. Often the thief is beaten too. Merchants prefer to come to FESCI because we’re more efficient than the police where you risk things not going anywhere. Police have no right to come to our territory. If they come, we chase them away. They are usually afraid of us anyway. So even if a citizen goes to the 8^th precinct to say they have a problem with FESCI, the police will tell you they can’t do anything about it. That’s why the residences are a state within a state.¹²⁹

Minibus drivers passing near two major pick-up-and-drop-off points near university facilities told Human Rights Watch that they must pay FESCI 200 francs (West African CFA francs, around $.40) each time they load a new passenger, and estimate that FESCI’s take from the 100 minibuses that work the line could be as high as 160,000 francs (about $320) per day.¹³⁰ A transporters union told Human Rights Watch that in many instances the police are as little as 100 meters away, often engaging in racketeering of other drivers, and they do nothing to stop FESCI.¹³¹

Police and students told Human Rights Watch that individuals in their community are increasingly hiring members of FESCI both to provide security, as well as perform acts of thuggery. One woman who decided to pay FESCI to help provide security to her home was quoted in the local press as saying, “With [FESCI], I have security. I had been threatened and I called the police. They did nothing. So I chose to trust my security to students.”¹³² One police officer explained what happened when members of FESCI were hired to collect on a private debt:

If you have a problem, if someone owes you money for example, you go rent the services of FESCI who will go and break things for you and get your money back. This happened just a month ago. We came and found FESCI with clubs surrounding a house. Some guy inside owed 900,000 francs [about $1,800]. They were essentially holding the house hostage. I told the guy in the house who owed money to try to come up with something. I told him, “If you have 100,000, [about $200] just give it, because they are the ones who control things in this country now.” I now hear citizens say things like, “I’m going to file a complaint with FESCI.” This is now how some want to settle their problems!¹³³

Theft of Scholarship Money

Students interviewed by Human Rights Watch allege that, on an apolitical basis, FESCI takes a portion of all student scholarship money in plain view of university officials. Students told Human Rights Watch that FESCI representatives sit right next to the area where the money is distributed by the university to collect “their share,” often about 5 percent.¹³⁴ If someone attempts to resist, students interviewed by Human Rights Watch allege that FESCI takes all of it by force.

FESCI Control of Dorm Room Allocation

There are over 60,000 university students in the Abidjan area, yet just under 10,000 beds in student dormitories.¹³⁵ As a result, conditions in university dormitories throughout the Abidjan area are cramped.¹³⁶ The scarcity of beds, coupled with the fact that many students cannot afford to commute, means that dorm rooms are an incredibly prized commodity.¹³⁷

In this context of scarcity, the university administration, a division of the Ministry of Higher Education, allots nearly 4,000 beds to different student organizations based on a quota system.¹³⁸ While the system was originally intended to ensure housing for the relatively restricted leadership of student organizations, representatives from the Ministry of Education told Human Rights Watch that the quota system has expanded greatly since 2000.¹³⁹ Under the current allotment, pro-FPI groups such as FESCI, the youth wing of the FPI party (JFPI), and African Solidarity (Solidarité Africaine, SOAF) are officially given over half of the beds distributed under the quota system. At the same time, groups associated with the political opposition, such as AGEECI and the youth wing of the RDR opposition party (JRDR) are given no beds under the quota system because, according to the ministry, “FESCI has refused.”¹⁴⁰

Beyond the rooms allotted under the quota system, according to the ministry, FESCI has illegally seized control of at least 611 others beds by forcibly evicting students.¹⁴¹

FESCI’s control of the dorms provides it with enormous political and financial power. Students interviewed by Human Rights Watch report that FESCI often forcibly evicts non-FESCI students out of rooms and then rents the room to someone else for between 10,000 and 20,000 francs (West African CFA francs, about US$20 to $40) per bed per month, with all proceeds going to the member of FESCI who controls the room.¹⁴² Many other students are assigned a dorm room by the university, only to find that it is under the control of FESCI. Many of these rooms are rented to individuals who are either no longer students or who never were students to begin with.¹⁴³ In such circumstances, students told Human Rights Watch that rather than attempt to deal with FESCI directly, university officials instruct them to see FESCI to resolve their housing problems.¹⁴⁴

With respect to political control, numerous students interviewed by Human Rights Watch report that that since 2002, many students from the north or those suspected of supporting the political opposition, have been selectively evicted by FESCI.¹⁴⁵ According to many students interviewed, the constant risk of forcible eviction instills a climate of fear and ensures the subservience of non-FESCI members.¹⁴⁶ FESCI in turn uses its stranglehold over the dorms to conscript students for massive pro-government protests and other mobilizations.¹⁴⁷ For example, in reference to the anti-UN riots of January 2006, one student explained:

Before the protests that January, one of the FESCI leaders in our dorm held a meeting and told all of us living there, “FESCI is going into the street. If you don’t mobilize, you won’t have a room when we get back.” So I can assure you that even though I am an RDR supporter, I found myself out on the street manning a checkpoint like all of the other so-called “patriots.” Otherwise, I would have lost my room. Trying to go against FESCI is like trying to go against the government itself. You can’t do it.¹⁴⁸

In February 2007, FESCI’s newly elected secretary general, Augustin Mian, participated in a ceremony in which he ceremonially handed over the key to 530 illegally occupied rooms to university administration officials.¹⁴⁹ However, he rejected the claim that all of the rooms had been occupied by members of FESCI, pointing the finger instead at former university students who have finished their studies, but refuse to give up their room. While this is a promising development, it remained unclear as of this writing what it will mean in practice, and whether it will do anything to prevent illegal occupation in the future.¹⁵⁰

Activities and Violence off Campus

Since 2002 violence and criminal activity by FESCI members have often spilled over the bounds of the university environment, and have taken the form of mass mobilizations and attacks on perceived opponents of the government, including opposition politicians, judges, the media, and employees of the United Nations. These activities, which often directly promoted the interests of the ruling FPI party, typically met with little response from police and judicial authorities.

Blocking the Peace Process through Violence and Intimidation

Since the political crisis erupted in 2002, members of FESCI, together with other overtly pro-government groups such as the Young Patriots, have staged numerous violent political demonstrations in support of the government. On some occasions, these violent protests have resulted from direct public call to action by high-ranking FPI party leaders issued to all FPI partisans. In some instances, youth protestors engaged in illegal activity such as manning unauthorized checkpoints have been provided direct logistical and other support by members of the government security forces.

Examples of such mass mobilizations include violent protests in 2003 in response to a French-brokered peace agreement deemed by the “patriotic galaxy” to be too “pro rebel,” where Charles Blé Goudé and Jean-Yves Dibopieu played a crucial role in mobilizing both Young Patriots and FESCI members.¹⁵¹ The protests paralyzed Abidjan for days as protestors attacked several French buildings and hurled rocks and insults at French citizens as they tried to leave the country from Abidjan's airport, all with little or no response from the government security forces.¹⁵²

In January 2006, the International Working Group, a body composed of various government and international and regional organization representatives, and charged by the UN Security Council with monitoring implementation of its resolutions on Côte d’Ivoire, issued a controversial decision perceived as prejudicial to the FPI party.¹⁵³ In response, members of the Young Patriots militia, together with members of FESCI and other pro-government groups, took to the streets, throwing rocks, burning tires, taking control of the national television station,¹⁵⁴ and attacking vehicles and premises of the UN and international humanitarian agencies, resulting in heavy material losses. The violence and associated incitement forced temporary retreat of some 400 UN and humanitarian personnel from parts of western Côte d’Ivoire.¹⁵⁵

Pro-government youth set up a barricade on January 17, 2006. Hundreds of similar roadblocks were erected throughout Abidjan. © 2006 AFP

Human Rights Watch is aware of no instance in which the authorities arrested a member of FESCI or the Young Patriots for actions taken in January 2006, despite paralyzing traffic for days, openly extorting passersby, and carrying clubs and other weapons.¹⁵⁶ To the contrary, according to accounts gathered by Human Rights Watch, security forces were conspicuously turning a blind eye, if not actually condoning violent activities by youth groups such as FESCI and the Young Patriots.¹⁵⁷ Eyewitnesses, including one police officer, told Human Rights Watch that security forces provided logistical support to the protestors involved in the violence, including food, water, and transportation.¹⁵⁸ During the protests, youth groups set up hundreds of checkpoints, sometimes in the very locations where Ivorian security forces had maintained a checkpoint the day before.¹⁵⁹ In evaluating the demonstrations, then-serving FESCI leader Serge Koffi was quoted in a pro-FPI newspaper as saying, “We are very satisfied . . . Youth have shown that they are still ready, still mobilized [to defend the republic].”¹⁶⁰

In July 2006, members of FESCI, the Young Patriots, and other pro-government youth groups once again caused major disturbances in Abidjan and other cities across the country, erecting barricades, burning cars, and forcibly disrupting the “Audiences Foraines” – public hearings for those residents, predominately from the north, who lack identification papers – that were a critical component of the peace process.¹⁶¹ Demonstrations started after the head of Gbagbo’s FPI party, Pascal Affi N’Guessan, declared at a press conference that the hearings should be blocked: “We call upon our supporters to oppose these operations by any and all means.”¹⁶² Members of the “patriotic galaxy,” including members of FESCI and the Young Patriots heard the message loud and clear. Actions taken by pro-government youth groups in response to this call to arms effectively ground to a halt a national program intended to identify and provide official papers for Ivorians who have no documentation.¹⁶³

In response to FPI leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan’s call, opposition leader Mady Djédjé of the Gathering of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (Rassemblement des Houphouétistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix, RHDP), an alliance of all major opposition parties, called on his supporters to “unblock [the identification process] by all means necessary,” leading to clashes between pro-government and pro-opposition youths.¹⁶⁴ According to a UN report, at least eight individuals died, and dozens were wounded.¹⁶⁵ In late July, leaders of both government and opposition youth groups called for an immediate end to the violence in order to avoid “another Rwanda.” ¹⁶⁶

After the events of July 2006, the identification process did not start again until September 2007, this time with the blessing of President Gbagbo and his FPI party. Unlike July 2006 where a call to arms by political leaders led to massive disruptions and clashes in the street between partisans of rival parties, there have been no public protests by pro-government youth groups such as FESCI and the Young Patriots.

The power of FESCI and other “patriotic” youth groups to mobilize youth into the streets since the crisis erupted has been one of the keys to their national influence. It is due to the mass mobilizations such as those discussed above that members of FESCI and other “patriotic” groups believe that they have “saved the republic” and “kept Gbagbo in power.”¹⁶⁷One member of FESCI interviewed by Human Rights Watch explained:

In return for its privileges, FESCI gives the government the power of mobilization. Whenever there is a movement, it’s FESCI who does it or organizes it. The patriotic galaxy relies on us to organize things. Of course, today the Young Patriots have less need of FESCI because they have a lot of capacity of their own. But it’s still true that because we are all concentrated in a few places around the university, we can all be easily mobilized from there. Other patriots are sitting at home here and there, but we are concentrated in one spot. It’s when other patriots see FESCI spilling into the streets that they know it’s safe to come out too. Whenever we’ve mobilized, security forces send up water and supplies so we can keep going. Some provide the supplies indirectly through wives and family.¹⁶⁸

Attacks on Members of the Political Opposition

On several occasions since the military-political crises erupted in 2002, members of FESCI have been responsible for attacks on opposition leaders, members of the political opposition, and rebel leaders occupying ministerial positions as part of a political accord. In no instance that Human Rights Watch is aware of have these attacks resulted in an official investigation or any arrests.

In July 2005 the headquarters of the PDCI was besieged by a combined group of FESCI and Young Patriots intent on stopping a PDCI youth group from holding a press conference. Two persons were seriously injured, and a dozen wounded as assailants attacked PDCI youth with clubs and iron rods.¹⁶⁹ One student who participated in the attack described how police present on the scene observed the abuses, but took no action:

The RHDP wanted to do a meeting at the PDCI headquarters in Cocody, but Blé Goudé had called on FESCI to stop it. So Semibi, who was second in command under Serge Kuyo at the time, came to Cité Mermoz to tell us to stop the press conference.¹⁷⁰ There were at least 60 of us who responded to the call and went in front of the PDCI headquarters to beat any youth who tried to get inside, using clubs and fists. I had to go out with everyone else or I’d be accused of being a rebel too. There were three trucks of police from the CRS [Companie Republican de Sécurité] there who stood by and did nothing. ¹⁷¹

In September 2005 members of FESCI attacked Minister for Territorial Administration and senior officer of the New Forces rebels Issa Diakité while he traveled to the Abidjan suburb of Cocody to attend a funeral.¹⁷² When Diakité became separated from his security detail, FESCI members barricaded the entrances to the house in which he had taken shelter, leading to a tense standoff between FESCI on the one side, and Diakité’s ONUCI bodyguards and members of the government Security Operations Command Center (Centre de Commandement des Opérations de Sécurité, CECOS), who came to intervene on the other.¹⁷³ Several hours later, army chief of staff Philippe Mangou arrived, and after a short discussion with the FESCI members, they quickly departed.¹⁷⁴

One FESCI member described to Human Rights Watch how after the attack, Damana Pickas, former FESCI leader, former JFPI leader, and current counselor to Affi N’Guessan, the head of the FPI party, came to the Cité Mermoz¹⁷⁵ to scold FESCI leaders for these actions:

When Diakité came to a house near the Cité Mermoz, two members [of FESCI] saw him and alerted all the students in Mermoz. I was sitting out front of the cité when it happened. They ran out and busted up all cars in front of the house that were there to attend a funeral. But I don’t think the FPI ordered the attack. I know this because [Damana] Pickas came to Cité Mermoz soon after to say that what we did was not acceptable and that the next time FESCI would be punished. He said that of all the rebel ministers, Diakité was the one closest to the president. So that’s how I knew the FPI hadn’t ordered it.¹⁷⁶

In a declaration published in the pro-FPI Notre Voie newspaper, then FESCI leader Serge Koffi denied all responsibility for the incident, claiming that the attack was staged by pro-New Forces partisans.¹⁷⁷

In February 2006, a mob of rock-throwing students, reportedly including members of FESCI, attacked Minister of Economic Infrastructure Patrick Achi of the PDCI party on the university campus, requiring his bodyguards to fire in the air to clear an escape route.¹⁷⁸ FESCI leader Serge Koffi denied any responsibility for the attack.¹⁷⁹

March 2004 Attack on the Judiciary

In February 2004, three FESCI members were arrested, tried, and sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for assault and battery of a suspected thief they had caught on campus. The arrests provoked violent FESCI-led protests. The three students were soon freed on the initiative of the chief public prosecutor (procureur de la republique), Sékou Goba, who was subsequently suspended by then serving Minister of Justice Henriette Diabaté, currently a leader of the RDR opposition party.¹⁸⁰ In retaliation, the following month hundreds of members of FESCI and the Young Patriots youth militia surrounded the Palais de Justice in downtown Abidjan to protest the swearing in of two judges, including the president of the Abidjan Court of Appeals, who had just been named by Justice Minister Diabaté.¹⁸¹

Young Patriots and members of the Students Federation of Côte d’Ivoire (FESCI) demonstrate on March 9, 2004 in front of the Abidjan courthouse in a protest against the nomination of new judicial authorities. © 2004 AFP

Though police had been stationed around the building in anticipation of the protest, protesters surged into the building, beating several magistrates. Human Rights Watch interviewed one of the judges beaten that day, who explained that while some police tried to stop the attackers, others stood by and did nothing, while others even collaborated with FESCI and the Young Patriots:

There were many police guarding the building that day so we had been told it was safe to come to the ceremony. We came in the back door and saw lots of youth vociferating and speechifying outside. We were in our offices when they started invading. There were six or so of us in one office. A policeman came and knocked on our door and said, “Hey, what are you doing in there? Open up!” I opened the door, and the policeman stood aside as a mass of youth erupted into the room. They weren’t armed. I recognized some of them as FESCI members. One of them yelled, “You are bringing this country to ruin! You are the ones who wanted to get rid of the public prosecutor because he freed some of our men.” They beat me in the face and bloodied me. They wanted to throw me down the stairs but I resisted. Another judge was thrown down the stairs. Then a few policemen tried to calm things and get them to leave. So we saw that within the police the same political division existed as elsewhere.¹⁸²

After the incident, a magistrates’ union went on strike and demanded a formal inquiry, as did the president of the bar association. The US embassy issued a statement denouncing "a lack of respect for the law [and the] impunity some groups enjoy."¹⁸³ Though the magistrate interviewed by Human Rights Watch filed a complaint and the police questioned several individuals in connection with the affair, no one has ever been arrested. According to the magistrate beaten that day, today the complaint is “almost forgotten.” ¹⁸⁴

It would be difficult to overstate the impression that the public beating of judges by members of FESCI and the Young Patriots made on Ivorians. Dozens of individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch, from police, to professors and students, to victims of FESCI, all asked a version of the question: “If FESCI can beat up even judges without fear of punishment, what hope do I have of seeking justice?”¹⁸⁵ In reflecting back on the incident, former Minister Diabaté told Human Rights Watch:

I have never seen or heard of anything like this anywhere in the world: judges beaten and paraded around by youth groups, just because they claimed the judges were RDR! There were no serious investigations after this incident. Impunity has become the rule.¹⁸⁶

Intimidation of and Attacks against the Press

On several instances in 2006 and 2007, members of FESCI besieged and invaded buildings belonging to Ivorian print and broadcast media, often leaving a trail of damaged property in their wake.

On two occasions in 2006, FESCI members stormed the national television station (Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne, RTI) because they wanted to read a statement on the air. An eyewitness who works at the television station described to Human Rights Watch how in January 2006, FESCI members were escorted into the television station by none other than the head of Côte d’Ivoire’s armed forces, General Philippe Mangou.¹⁸⁷ FESCI then proceeded to interrupt a live newscast in an attempt to deliver an anti-United Nations statement:

That day, the 1 o’clock news report was supposed to air. A group of ministers, including security, communications, and defense were there to read an official government communiqué calling for calm. But just before the broadcast started, ten or so four-by-fours drove into the courtyard. They were full of members of FESCI, including [FESCI leader] Serge Koffi, and the Young Patriots. General Mangou also came, dressed in military uniform and flanked by his bodyguards. A member of FESCI said, “We have an announcement to make.” I asked them to let me see what they wanted to read and they said they had no text, so we refused. Our policy was that all live material had to be seen in advance. There was a lot of tension. Finally, they busted into the studio. The presenter was in the middle of reading the news when they came in and took over the studio. By that time, hundreds more [FESCI members] had come from the Cité Rougé next door and we were effectively taken hostage.¹⁸⁸

RTI agreed to broadcast a pre-recorded statement later that evening. However, the following day, members of the Young Patriots and FESCI again stormed RTI and demanded to make a subsequent statement. In his message, FESCI leader Serge Koffi announced that he had “taken” the television station and urged young people to take to the streets to demand the departure of foreign troops.¹⁸⁹ Members of FESCI and the Young Patriots continued to occupy RTI that evening, issuing calls for action, including a call on demonstrators to “take the airport.”¹⁹⁰

In July 2006, angry that RTI had broadcast statements from representatives of a striking professors union, members of FESCI stormed the station in an attempt to read their own statement:

They were angry because we had aired a story on the teachers’ strike in which some of the striking teachers were interviewed. In the past, when FESCI or the Young Patriots have come there has been no resistance from the soldiers who are permanently there to guard the place. But this time, some of the soldiers tried to keep them from entering. In the confusion, one member of FESCI slapped a soldier who fired at the ground and the bullet ricocheted and hit a member of FESCI [in the leg]. After they erupted past the gates, they managed to break the windows of most of the cars inside the RTI parking lot. One of the soldiers who guards the station later told me, “Those FESCI guys bug the shit out of me. If they are still around, it’s because we haven’t been given orders to put a stop to it.”¹⁹¹

In August 2007, members of FESCI stormed and raided the offices of a newspaper, L’Intelligent d’Abidjan, to protest the newspaper's supposed refusal to publish FESCI’s rejoinder to an article alleging that the student group had switched political allies from the FPI to the UDPCI opposition party. According to reports, police came to the scene and negotiated with the attackers until FESCI left the newspaper's headquarters.¹⁹² No one was arrested.

Attacks on Human Rights NGOs

In May 2007, FESCI members attacked and ransacked the headquarters of two of Côte d’Ivoire’s leading human rights organizations, the Ivorian League for Human Rights (Ligue Ivoirienne des Droits de l’Homme, LIDHO) and Actions for the Protection of Human Rights (Actions pour la Protection des Droits de l’Homme, APDH), resulting in as much as 40 million francs (West African CFA francs, about US$80,000) in damages.¹⁹³ The motive behind the attack appears to have been the organizations’ perceived support for a professors’ union that had been striking for better working conditions. However, some members of both human rights groups postulate that the teachers strike was a pretext, and that FESCI’s real goal was both the elimination of files and records that contained details regarding FESCI’s misdeeds, as well as punishment for having publicly denounced FESCI’s actions in the past.¹⁹⁴

In one of the attacks, which lasted over two hours, human rights activists described to Human Rights Watch how local police stood by and watched as the destruction ensued, yet failed to intervene or otherwise try to stop FESCI members. If police reinforcements were called, they did not arrive. An eyewitness to the attack on LIDHO described the events:

I was near the entrance to our compound when we saw a huge group of students coming towards us on foot. Some were wearing FESCI t-shirts. They didn’t try to hide who they were. They yelled, “This is FESCI!” I’d say around three hundred or so came to our headquarters. The road outside was clogged with people. They had stones and clubs. One of them yelled out, “We’re not going to school. You say you are defenders of human rights and yet you protect teachers who won’t teach us!” They had two ways of manifesting anger: breaking and stealing. They took all our hard disks and broke computer screens. They stole people’s telephones, money, anything of value. There were nine staff members here, but we didn’t resist to save our lives. We just watched them doing whatever they wanted with our office. Three policemen came, but they didn’t intervene.

We heard that before coming here they held a meeting on campus in which they decided to do a “sit in” at LIDHO. In terms of their reaction after the fact, Serge Koffi [FESCI Secretary General] first recognized having held a meeting in which they decided to hold a sit-in, then he blamed it on “uncontrolled elements,” and then he said, “We don’t regret having done it” and that it was “a warning.” At the same time, he even said that he’d file a complaint against us for having defamed his organization because he says it was thugs who broke our things, not members of FESCI.¹⁹⁵

In the days that followed the attack, both NGOs were visited by the Minister of Justice and President Gbagbo, who gave them approximately five million francs each (West African CFA francs, about $10,000) to help cover the loses sustained.¹⁹⁶

A general view of the Ivorian League for Human Rights (LIDHO) turned upside down by members of FESCI. © 2007 AFP

Both organizations expressed surprise at the attacks. LIDHO in particular had been a strong defender of FESCI throughout the 1990s when they were persecuted by the government. Both organizations had been involved in attempting to promote peaceful resolution to conflicts on campus and had undertaken initiatives to reduce the incidence of campus violence.¹⁹⁷

LIDHO and APDH have filed lawsuits against FESCI, though at this writing there were no significant developments in connection with the affair. One lawyer following the case for LIDHO expressed hope, but acknowledged that there will likely be severe challenges:

FESCI hasn’t been punished in the past, but we think it may be different this time because we are following vigorously and it has gone to an investigating magistrate who is obliged under Ivorian law to open an investigation and hear people. It’s hard to say whether FESCI’s past of beating judges will play on the judge’s mind, but we can’t hide the fact that it’s a delicate matter and that so far FESCI hasn’t been losing sleep for all the things they’ve done in the past. We are all witness to the fact that things never advance against them through legal channels. They benefit from total impunity.¹⁹⁸

Another human rights defender expressed the importance of the case advancing where others in the past have failed:

The Minister of Justice and President Gbagbo both condemned what happened orally when they came. But we need concrete acts, not just condemnation. We don’t want money. We filed the lawsuit against FESCI to show them that they aren’t above the law. Just one time judicial authorities need to send the signal that no one is above the law in Côte d’Ivoire.¹⁹⁹