VI. DESTRUCTION OF POOR NEIGHBORHOODS AROUND ABIDJAN-A HUMANITARIAN TRAGEDY

Following the attacks of September 19, the Ivorian security forces, reportedly sometimes accompanied by young armed men in plain clothes, began an assault on various neighborhoods of Abidjan, allegedly to seek out those who had launched the attack and their supporters. What ostensibly started as a security operation immediately degenerated into a serious pattern of human rights violations, accompanied by excessive force, extortion, arbitrary arrests and destruction of property with the consequent mass dislocation of vast numbers of inhabitants of Abidjan. The Ivorian Red Cross estimated that between September 21 and 24, some 12,000 people were displaced from ten neighborhoods in Abidjan. Of these people, an estimated 80 percent were foreigners.²⁰ A further eight neighborhoods were designated for destruction but had not been visited by the inter-agency rapid assessment mission that made this estimate.

It is President Gbagbo's stated policy for his security forces (including the military, the gendarmerie and the police) to engage in a pattern of eradicating certain poor districts of Abidjan, alternatively called "quartiers précaires" (precarious neighborhoods) or "bidonvilles" (shantytowns).²¹ In early October 2002 the Governor of Abidjan district went further. He said: "All precarious neighborhoods in Abidjan-those hiding places for the assailants' weapons and drugs-will be razed. In one month's time, there will be no more precarious neighborhoods in Abidjan."²² Around one million people in Abidjan live in such areas. Under this policy, numerous neighborhoods of Abidjan (more than twenty in the district of Cocody alone) were destined to be either bulldozed or burned down. In rare cases, the residents receive written eviction notices prior to the destructions. In most cases, the attacks occur entirely without warning, often in the middle of the night. Witnesses reported that in most cases gendarmes (but in some cases police,²³ and in a few cases individuals in civilian clothes) entered their districts during the night, banging on doors and often breaking them down, yelling at the inhabitants and ordering them to leave the premises immediately. Some people fled prior to the actual invasion of their districts, fearful after reports that their district would be next. However, most remained and were present when the forces entered.

Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that the government forces burned down their homes with all their belongings inside, including their identity documents, and that they had in most cases lost everything. In some districts, the homes were bulldozed, apparently because burning attracts more attention, or because it is more difficult during the rains.

The neighborhoods targeted are all impoverished parts of Abidjan. Many, though not all, are ad hoc constructions made of wooden planks and plastic sheeting, and all appear to be quite crowded. Key to government policy seems to be the fact that these neighborhoods are inhabited predominantly by a mixture of northern Ivorians, immigrants from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Guinea, and refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia. Most of the immigrants have been living in Côte d'Ivoire for years, if not generations.

On September 21, 2002, gendarmes destroyed part of the Moscou neighborhood of Washington in the Cocody district of Abidjan. A community leader explained what happened:

About thirty gendarmes came down to our community at 9:00 a.m. on the 21^st of September. They were armed with machetes and clubs [gourdins] and they'd brought petrol with them, so we ran. Just before, two gendarmes had come to tell us we'd be OK-our homes would not be demolished. Some believed them, others fled because they'd heard rumours all the houses would be burnt. The houses of nine families were destroyed. One was a Malian family, the others were Burkinabé. We've lived here together with Ivorians for more than twenty years.²⁴

Other residents testified about their own experiences. One said:

I knew they'd burnt other places so when the gendarmes came, I offered them the money I had. They took 60,000 CFA [approximately U.S.$85]. Later the same day, they came back and took the rest of my money. At 9 o'clock the next day [September 21] they came and set fire to our house and destroyed the fridge I'd just bought for my business-I sell water, yoghurt and fruit. I'd lived here since 1982 with my husband and other members of my family. We are fourteen in our family and we now live here without any shelter.²⁵

Another person from the Moscou neighborhood recounted:

There was panic all around, we were on the bridge, it is the only bridge to leave this area of the district. I ran that way and met two men in green uniforms with machine guns. They told me to sit down and give them the money, if not they said they would just kill us.²⁶ They forced us down by grabbing our arms, and forced us to give them money. I gave 50,000 CFA [approximately U.S.$70] my sister gave 60,000 CFA [approximately U.S.$85]. The two of us were together.²⁷

Liberian refugees were among those brutally evicted from their homes in Deux Plateaux district of Abidjan. One young man told Human Rights Watch:

I am from "Sicobois"²⁸ in the Deux Plateaux district. We are mostly Liberians there but there are some others as well. I lived there for nine months-I came to Côte d'Ivoire from Liberia on November 14, 2001 after I'd seen my mother killed in front of me. On September 28, 2002 at 7:45 p.m., it was a Saturday, government forces came, gendarmes, in uniforms, I think it was the Republican Guard, with a Côte d'Ivoire badge on their arms and red berets on their heads. We were all there, they told us to get out, get out. None of us were informed before this, though we heard rumors. The government is accusing Liberians of being the cause of the coup. We ran and left all our belongings behind. The area was burned, completely to the ground as it was made of wood.

... We also heard that a man named Patrick David, a Liberian, was shot dead by soldiers in the Koute Quartier in Yopougon.

The details of the way it happened were that we were sitting on our porch, and the men from the barracks came to us heavily armed. They came onto our porch and said "get out." Some went in to gather some of their belongings. Not everyone left on foot, some had vehicles. I had to leave on foot. I saw them lighting the houses on fire. I was there when they set my house on fire.

I got separated from my little sister who is sixteen years old, and I still don't know where she is. I was with my half-brother, who is also eighteen years old. He is here with me now. My documents got burned....²⁹

Another Liberian refugee, a thirty-two-year-old woman, told Human Rights Watch:

I have been in Côte d'Ivoire since 1992. I had been living in the "Sicobois" neighborhood in Deux Plateaux, which is near the gendarmes' barracks. On September 19, 2002 I did not go out because I was afraid to go out, one man came at 4:30 a.m., and I did not open the door when he knocked. The whole night we heard shooting. He said he knew we are foreigners, and said we brought the problems into our country. "We know your houses," he said, "we will come back."

In the later morning of the 20^th, I woke up to hearing bullets flying. I looked out and saw that not too far from us in our neighborhood, houses were burning and people were running. Uniformed soldiers came and said to get out. We ran across the street and saw them burn down our house.

After that we went to visit my friend, who is also Liberian, to stay with her and eat there. While we were eating there, four uniformed soldiers and one in the car came to the house, and the four came inside, pushing the door open. My friend knew one of these soldiers. They came and tapped my friend's brother on the back, while another one grabbed the boy's hand and took him outside. When they came back in they asked my friend "Who are these people you are keeping here? Where is your dignity?" They asked the boy for money, he said he did not have any, so they put him in the car and drove off. We followed to [the military barracks] wanting to pay money for his release: we gave 120,000 CFA [approximately U.S.$170] and gave our mobile phone as well. The boy was released, but during the four hours he was with them, they beat him, and he had finger prints on his face....³⁰

One of the destroyed neighborhoods visited by Human Rights Watch researchers had been there for more than twenty-five years, which was not exceptional. Awoussa (or Hausa) Bougou, in the Yopougon district of Abidjan, was targeted in early October. It is divided into two parts, defined as near to either the first bridge over the road (1er pont) or the second (2ème pont). The two sections were destroyed on consecutive days. Human Rights Watch met residents one week later. Although their homes, shops, and mosques had been destroyed, many had returned to live there, sheltering under the trees.

Awoussa Bougou 2ème pont was destroyed first, as described to Human Rights Watch by a community leader:

On 3 October a group of people arrived early in the morning, around 7:00 a.m. They were police officers, gendarmes and bailiffs [huissiers].... They told us "you've got thirty minutes to leave before we demolish the whole area." I pleaded that we could have forty-eight hours to save our belongings and leave safely, but they wouldn't have it. They said we must leave. They had two bulldozers and destroyed everything. One of the bulldozer operators said, "I cannot destroy a mosque." The police officer hit the operator and told him to go ahead. The operator's left eye then became very swollen. They destroyed three large mosques and six small ones that day. The security forces threatened us, but no one was arrested. They were here all day. Some members of the anti-riot police [Brigade anti-emeute] came too-one said: "We must destroy this place. That is where the RDR meetings took place."

One week earlier the police and gendarmes had come to look for weapons. They found nothing, but still stole our things and harassed the women.

We're Ivorians and Nigeriens living here-the name comes from Hausa. My family has lived here since 1975-my mother ran a business from here, but there is nothing left of that now.³¹

Awoussa Bougou 1er pont was demolished on Friday October 4. A Muslim woman from the north of Côte d'Ivoire who had lived in the neighborhood for twenty-five years told Human Rights Watch:

Last Friday the CRS [Compagnie républicaine de sécurité] came with people from the mayor's office to move us out. They told us "If you talk we'll kill you all." They used tear gas to make us move fast. Five people got left behind because they could not escape quickly enough. There were three men, one woman, and a girl aged about seventeen. They were also northern Ivorians. One of them died.

Some have left to live with family in other parts of Abidjan, but most of us came back here because we have nowhere else to go. I sleep under the trees, others shelter with neighbors. The few things we have are stored with neighbors.

They brought big machines and destroyed three mosques. Over there, you can see people praying in the ruins of what was our main mosque. Four shops and many homes were also demolished. Everyone was crying. One person, a man of about forty years old, was arrested because he was speaking Dioula [a language spoken in the north of Côte d'Ivoire]-he was taken away by someone in civilian clothes. We intervened with the mayor but he said he could not help. We don't know what happened to him.

We knew they wanted to destroy some of our homes because the mayor wanted to built a new town hall [mairie] here. We had paid money to lawyers to stop the mayor taking away our land. After 19 September, all that changed-they just came and demolished the whole area.

My husband is dead, so I look after my children alone. My oldest son is sixteen and I used to pay for him to go to school. Now I have nothing and so he cannot study.³²

The Ivorian government claims that the districts being destroyed are populated by or sheltering "assailants" and/or weapons used by "assailants," and that the targeting of these areas is necessary for national security. None of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch had seen arms being discovered in the numerous raids.

The Ivorian government had reportedly made an electoral promise to eradicate these districts ostensibly to improve the living conditions of the current residents,³³ but had not acted upon this until after the September attacks. In his October 8 speech, President Gbagbo said the process would continue around military/security installations and instructed his minister of finance to seek money to provide new housing for the people affected. He also stated that it was not targeted at foreigners.

None of the reasons given justifies the comprehensive and serious violations of human rights being committed by Ivorian authorities against civilians residing in these districts.

First, although in the face of a national security threat a government may have a basis for searching for both weapons and alleged perpetrators, such searches must be undertaken in a manner that protects the rights of the civilians. Thus, searches must not be selectively carried out based on the ethnicity, national origin, or political opinion of the residents; must be conducted during the day unless there has been a formal state of emergency declared; and must never involve extortion, arbitrary arrest, mistreatment of any kind, physical or sexual violence. All of these violations have been committed during the searches carried out by Ivorian security forces.

Second, the fact that some of the districts contain structures that were originally constructed without a permit to build on that area does not provide the government with a justification for the brutality with which they have destroyed these homes. While Human Rights Watch recognizes the right of the Ivorian government to regulate the use of public (or private) space for reasons of public policy, such regulation should respect the rights of those resident in the neighborhoods affected to a fair hearing at which they may assert rights to occupancy or compensation, and should avoid the use of arbitrary and excessive force.

20 Information provided by humanitarian agencies in Abidjan.

21 Policy reiterated in President Gbagbo's speech of October 8, 2002, reported in Le Jour (Abidjan) of October 10, 2002. "Je voudrais vous dire que les armes qui ont servi pour attaquer, les 18 et 19 september, sont entreés en Côte d'Ivoire depuis longtemps, d'après ce que les enquêtes nous révèlent. Ce ne sont que celles qui ont servi à attaquer le camp de la gendarmerie d'Agban, qui étaient précisément cachées, camouflées dans les bidonvilles autour de Cocody et d'Adjamé-Williamsville. C'est pourquoi, dès la découverte de cette vérité, il a été procédé à la destruction de ces bidonvilles."

22 Statement by Pierre Amondji reported in Soir Info and 24 heures, October 4, 2002, as reported in "Les quartiers précaires d'Abidjan vont être rasés (gouverneur)," AFP, October 4, 2002.

23 Some witnesses were unable to distinguish between gendarmes and police, and few were able to describe the uniforms in detail as they were fleeing during the invasions. However, most stated that the forces who entered were uniformed, armed individuals, some with red berets, and all those uniformed were armed either with pistols or with machine guns.

24 Human Rights Watch interview, Abidjan, October 11, 2002.

25 Human Rights Watch interview with a Burkinabé woman, Abidjan, October 11, 2002.

26 "Ils ont dit qui'ils vont nous arroser. "

27 Human Rights Watch interview with two women, both approximately fifty years old, Abidjan, October 11, 2002.

28 This term is widely used and seems to refer to wooden shantytowns in general, rather than a specific area. The area referred to in this report is behind the Sococe supermarket in Deux Plateaux.

29 Human Rights Watch interview with eighteen-year-old Liberian male refugee, Abidjan, October 8, 2002.

30 Human Rights Watch interview, Abidjan, October 8, 2002.

31 Human Rights Watch interview with a community leader, Abidjan, October 10, 2002.

32 Human Rights Watch interview with female resident, Abidjan, October 10, 2002.

33 Human Rights Watch interview with Ivorian journalist in Abidjan, October 8, 2002.