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XII. METHODOLOGY

This report is based on a ten-week visit by Human Rights Watch researchers to Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire in February, March and April 2003, and on prior and subsequent research. Research was carried out in Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Banfora, Yendere, Nyangoloko, Sikasso, Zegua, Conakry, Nzerekore, Thuo and the Guinean refugee camps, Freetown, Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, Bouaké, Daloa, Duékoué, and Guiglo.

Additional research was conducted in person and through telephone interviews in Europe and North America. Over one hundred and fifty individuals were interviewed, many of them victims of and witnesses to the abuses described in this report. Human Rights Watch met representatives of the Ivorian and Burkinabé governments and with representatives of the MPCI rebel forces. Members of civil society and religious groups, local and international media, diplomatic missions, and humanitarian agencies were interviewed in several countries.

The vast majority of the interviews were conducted directly with interviewees in French or English without a translator. In a handful of cases, a translator was used to translate from a local language into French.


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August 2003