Benghazi rebels feel they are being denied the promised air power and kept in the dark by revolutionary council The chants of the demonstrators in Benghazi and among furious rebel fighters on Libya’s frontline reflected the sudden shift in mood. “Where is Nato?” demanded the same people who only days earlier were waving French flags and shouting “Viva David Cameron”. But behind the growing anger in revolutionary Libya over what is seen as a retreat by the West from air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces – a fury compounded by two botched Nato raids that killed rebel fighters – there was a second question: where are our leaders? Nato’s failure to use its air power to reverse days of military setbacks for the rebels prompted a collapse in confidence in the West’s intentions among Gaddafi’s foes. Conspiracy theories flew. The West wants a divided Libya so it can control the oil, said some. Turkey, a Nato member, is vetoing air strikes because it supports Gaddafi, said others. Nato denied it was scaling back attacks and explained it faced new challenges in striking Gaddafi’s forces now that they have switched from relying on tanks and heavy armour in favour of smaller fighting units in pick-up trucks that are harder to hit. Not many in the liberated areas of Libya were interested. They were angry – and wanted their leaders to tell the West. But the revolution’s self-appointed chiefs in the interim national council were nowhere to be seen. Eventually it took the leader of the rebels’ armed wing, Abdul Fattah Younis , to voice the anger. “Nato is moving very slowly, allowing Gaddafi forces to advance,” he said. “Nato has become our problem.” The incident highlighted the virtual invisibility of the revolutionary administration to the ordinary people it claims to lead. That was not much of a problem when the uprising appeared to be advancing. But recent setbacks have shaken confidence and raised concerns that Libya might be facing an extended civil war or division, which means divided families among other things. People in rebel-held areas want to know what the revolutionary council – a 31-person body that functions around a core of 11 people who have been publicly named and meet regularly in Benghazi – is doing about it. But they are getting few answers. The council’s two principal leaders, Mahmoud Jibril and Mustafa Abdul Jalil, are hardly visible. Both men are, in any case, regarded by those dealing directly with them as sincere and well-meaning but lacking in either charisma or authority. One person working closely with the council’s day-to-day operations was deeply frustrated at the fact that “they don’t understand the need to communicate with the Libyan people. “They don’t understand that no one knows who they are. These lawyers and doctors in Benghazi who say they are a government, it’s like kids playing dress-up for a lot of them. They don’t understand the need to explain to the people what it is they are doing,” the source
Continue reading …
US director of 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker and Dog Day Afternoon dies at home in Manhattan Sidney Lumet, arguably the greatest director of the American crime drama, has died at the age of 86. His stepdaughter, Leslie Gimbel, said Lumet died of lymphoma at his home in Manhattan, the New York Times reported. Lumet was nominated for the best director Oscar on four separate occasions between the late 50s and early 80s before picking up an honorary Academy Award in 2005. Born in Philadelphia, the son of two Yiddish stage performers, Lumet served as a radar repair man in the second world war before directing theatre productions in New York. This apprenticeship would form the basis for his later screen career. Lumet typically corralled his actors through a lengthy rehearsal period and then shot the film at speed. He made his feature debut with the acclaimed 12 Angry Men, a claustrophobic courtroom drama that starred Henry Fonda as a rogue juror. Lumet’s preferred location was the cauldron of inner-city New York and his favoured subject matter tended to be the porous line between order and criminality. Many of his most famous pictures – The Pawnbroker, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and The Verdict – stand as tense, earthy morality plays. But the director also took the occasional detour along the way, as evidenced by his plush version of Murder on the Orient Express, his Oscar-winning media satire Network, or 1978′s The Wiz, a Motown musical update of The Wizard of Oz, starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. His career spanned six decades and more than 50 films. “All I want is to get better and quantity can help me solve my problems,” he once admitted. “I’m thrilled by the idea that I’m not even sure how many films I’ve done. If I don’t have a script I adore, I do the one I like. If I don’t have one I like, I do one that has an actor I like or that presents some technical challenge.” Along the way, he worked with the likes of Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Sean Connery, Albert Finney, Ingrid Bergman and Al Pacino. Lumet took a memorable final bow with Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, an acclaimed crime saga that proved its creator was still a force to be reckoned with. “The veteran director Sidney Lumet may be 84 years old,” wrote Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw in January 2008. “But in this superb heist thriller, he breaks out the shocks – and the twists – with the ferocity of a hungry youngster.” Sidney Lumet Crime Xan Brooks guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Attacker opened fire with machine gun before shooting himself in crowded mall in suburb of Alphen aan den Rijn near Amsterdam At least five people have died at a shopping centre outside Amsterdam after a gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon before killing himself. There were also at least 11 people wounded during the attack at the Ridderhof mall in the suburb of Alphen aan den Rijn, 15 miles (25km) southwest of Amsterdam. A witness identified as Maart Verbeek told the Dutch state broadcaster, NOS, that the attacker had a machine gun and that he had seen at least five people he believed were dead and many more wounded. “There was a panic in the mall, a lot of people running,” said Verbeek, a pet shop owner. “I see the attacker coming, walking, and I go inside the store … and I see him going by with a big machine gun.” NOS cited witnesses as saying the man later shot himself in the head with a second weapon, a pistol. The gunman was described as a 25-year-old white male with blonde hair who wearing a leather jacket and camouflage pants. “You hear about this sort of thing happening at American schools and you think that’s a long way away,” said Rob Kuipers, 50, a project manager. “Now it’s happened here in the Netherlands.” Four of the wounded are in critical condition, five were in serious condition and at least two others were slightly wounded, Mayor Bas Eenhoorn later told reporters. He described the incident as a “disaster of unparalleled proportions” for Alphen, known as a quiet suburb. “Under these circumstances, with many people shopping at the Ridderhof today, including parents with children, it’s an incomprehensible situation,” he said. Netherlands Europe Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
In less than four weeks, Britain will decide on whether to change the voting system. But do people understand AV? And how many will turn out to vote? Thursday lunchtime, and two Sheffield University students are standing behind a table outside the union handing out free doughnuts. At an adjacent table, beneath a couple of straggly purple balloons, another group gathers around piles of leaflets, asking passersby if they have heard about the 5 May referendum. This is a big day for the Yorkshire and Humber Yes to Fairer Votes campaign. In less than four weeks, Britain decides whether to switch from first past the post to the alternative vote in only the second national referendum ever to be held in the UK. Activists have come from York, Hull and Leeds for this evening’s mega phonebank, when about 20 volunteers will make 1,000 calls. “My great-grandad campaigned for electoral reform,” says 22-year-old politics graduate Emily Wilkie. “He
Continue reading …
A total of 110 people in 80 cars and three trucks involved in crash on motorway near Baltic Sea after sandstorm A sandstorm in northern Germany has caused a huge motorway pile-up that killed eight people and injured at least 41 others, police said. Rostock police spokesman Volker Werner said rescue operations were still under way and the death toll could rise. At least 41 people were injured, many of them seriously, and were taken to nearby hospitals. Others who suffered shocks or bruising received treatment on the spot, Werner said. Some 110 people in 80 cars and three trucks were involved in the crash a few miles from the Baltic Sea on Friday, Werner said. At least 17 vehicles caught fire, including a truck carrying flammable material. “Unfortunately, it looks like the death toll could rise further,” Werner said. Several bodies were thought to be in the burnt vehicles. “One truck has crashed on a car, so we don’t know yet how many people are in the car below it,” he said. The crash in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state was caused by a sandstorm, but it was unclear if this was down to a sudden lack of visibility or sand on the road, Werner said. Strong winds may have carried the sand from nearby fields – one of them freshly ploughed – to the four-lane highway, Werner said. The region has recently experienced prolonged dry conditions, affecting agriculture and leaving many soils exposed to erosion. Germany Road transport Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
• Egypt tense after army stage pre-dawn raid on Tahrir Square • Beleaguered Yemeni president warns against ‘intervention’ • Red Cross ship docks in besieged Libyan city of Misrata • Syrian activists call for daily protests following bloodiest day in three-week-old uprisin g • Click here for full coverage of Friday’s developments 12.39pm: Rising tensions in Egypt between the military and protesters in Tahrir Square are reflected in this tweet from Mosa’ab Elshamy , an Egyptian student and photographer: The notorious “Army and people, hand in hand” chant has been replaced with “People and people, hand in hand”. Sad, to say the least. #Tahrir 12.25pm: Relatives of victims of the Lockerbie bombing have asked their lawyers to request a meeting with Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister who has defected to Britain. Koussa is believed to have been an intelligence officer when PanAm flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in 1988, leaving 270 people dead. The Press Association reports that Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died in the attack, confirmed that the legal team representing the victims’ families had been instructed to approach officials with a view to setting up a meeting with Koussa (left). He warned that anything Koussa said would have to be taken with “a huge pinch of salt”, however. Koussa was head of Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence agency from 1994 and a senior intelligence agent when PanAm flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie. The Boeing 747 jumbo jet was en route from London to New York when it exploded over the Scottish town, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 residents. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was jailed for mass murder in 2001 but the Libyan was returned to Tripoli in 2009 on compassionate grounds after doctors treating him for prostate cancer gave him an estimated three months to live. Dr Swire added: “The underlying problem is that many of us are not satisfied with the verdict that Megrahi was guilty as charged.” “Koussa was at the centre of the regime in 1988, so if anyone knows the role Libya had to play in it, he would. It’s important for us to get any information that we can. “But anything he would say would have to be taken with a huge pinch of salt because of his current predicament.” The request from the victims’ families comes after Scottish police and prosecutors met Koussa on Thursday as part of their investigation into the bombing. He arrived in the UK last week. 12.08pm: Syrian security forces used live ammunition overnight on Saturday to disperse a pro-democracy protest by hundreds of people in a Sunni district of Latakia, according to a report from Reuters. The shooting reportedly caused scores of injuries and possible deaths, said residents, including one who ess saw water trucks hosing down the scene in the Sleibeh district of the city of Latakia, Syria’s main port, 330 km (210 miles) northwest of the capital. Anti-government demonstrations spread across Syria yesterday with the highest turnout yet in a month of unrest, despite a heavy crackdown by security forces in the city of Deraa in which at least 22 people were reported killed. 12.02pm: It’s shaping up to be a busy day in terms of news across the middle east. Using an interactive map put together by the Guardian , you can follow the latest tweets around the Arab world and the region from our network of journalists, bloggers and experts. 11.51am: Tamer El Said, an Egyptian filmaker, was in Tahrir Square throughout Friday and during the late night attack. My colleague Peter Beaumont has just spoken to him: There was a huge demonstration that started at about 11 o’clock. There were some military officers who joined it who were dissatisfied with what the Supreme Military Council was doing. There were between 15-20 of them. Obviously it was really dangerous for them so the other protesters decided that it would protect them from being arrested by the military police. “At about 11 o’clock last night the security forces, who had surrounded the square, tried to enter it to try and catch these soldiers but the protesters would not allow them to come in. There was army and police and special forces. At 3 o’clock they attacked the square. They were firing bullets in the air at first then rubber bullets and then live rounds. They pushed all the demonstrators out of the square. Then they started to chase the protesters into the surrounding streets and into the down town area using tear gas and bullets. I have a friend who was there who said there was continuous shooting. 11.33am: Peter Beaumont, the Observer’s foreign affairs editor, has filed a news piece on the clashes in Cairo . They come amid increasing tensions between Egypt’s ruling military and protesters impatient at the pace of reform and moves towards prosecuting members of the old regime. 11.10am: As Egypt turns a new and dangerous corner, we’re going to be bringing you more coverage shortly of events in Cairo, where soldiers beat hundreds of protesters with clubs and fired into the air in a pre-dawn raid on protestors in Tahrir Square. In the meantime, here is some quite raw but startling footage capturing the moment when that raid took place. To watch the full video, turn off the auto-refresh button at the top of this page: _ 10.57am: As the fall-out from uprisings around the middle east continues, the most intense round of fighting since Israel’s 2008-2009 offensive is taking place between Israeli forces and militants in Gaza. Israel pounded Hamas targets in the strip with air strikes and tank shells today, killing four militants according to Palestinian officials contacted by the Associated Press news agency. As Palestinian missiles landed in Israel, AP reported: In all, 18 Gazans have been killed and more than 65 wounded since Israel unleashed the strikes following a Hamas attack on an Israeli school bus Thursday. An anti-tank rocket struck the bus, seriously wounding a 16-year-old boy and injuring the driver. After Israel’s devastating military offensive in the winter of 2008-2009, Gaza’s Hamas rulers had largely observed a cease-fire, and it was not immediately clear why the Islamic militants chose to end their relative restraint. Israel, in turn, has pledged to strike back hard for the bus attack, in an attempt to restore the deterrence created by the Gaza war. Early Saturday, an Israeli airstrike struck a car near Rafah in southern Gaza, killing three Hamas militants. Hamas said one of its top commanders, 29-year-old Tayser Abu Snima, and two of his assistants were killed. Later, Hamas said a tank shell killed another militant near the Jabalya neighborhood in Gaza. The Israeli military said it was not aware of a strike involving a tank shell. Overall, the Palestinian death toll since Thursday includes 11 militants, a Hamas policeman and six civilians. Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired more than 15 missiles into Israel Saturday. The rockets reached the vicinity of the Israeli cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheba. The military confirmed that its newly deployed Iron Dome defense system knocked some of them down. No Israelis were wounded in the attacks. 10.39am: Good morning. Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of events in the Middle East. Here is a summary of major news events: • Soldiers beat hundreds of protesters with clubs and fired into the air in a pre-dawn raid that wounded 15 people on Saturday to disperse an overnight demonstration in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square. The troops eventually withdrew, enabling demonstrators to reoccupy the square and block the streets leading into it. Armed with sticks and other makeshift weapons, they vowed not to leave until the defense minister, the titular head of state, has resigned. A force of around 300 soldiers swept into the square around 3am. and waded into a tent camp in the center where protesters had formed a human cordon to protect several army officers who had joined their demonstration in defiance of their superiors. • Yemen has recalled its ambassador from Qatar for consultation after Qatar’s prime minister said Gulf states had a plan for embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Protests in Yemen descended into violence on Friday with at least five people killed and dozens wounded as Saleh rejected the Gulf Arab plan to secure an end to his 32 years in power. Saleh told tens of thousands of supporters in the capital: “We don’t get our legitimacy from Qatar or from anyone else … we reject this belligerent intervention.” • There has been a breakthrough in humanitarian efforts to relieve the besieged Libyan town of Misrata after a ship carrying medical supplies docked there, while the Red Cross also said it was sending aid workers to Zawiyah, west of Tripoli. The Red Cross began negotiations with Libyan government officials a week ago on access to western areas under its control. The organisation is already deployed in rebel-held eastern territory, mainly in the cities of Benghazi and Tobruk. Rebel fighters say they have meanwhile pushed deeper toward the oil port of Brega, a key prize in the back-and-forth battles with government forces. • Syrian anti-government activists have called for daily protests against the regime after at least 32 people were killed in the single bloodiest day of demonstrations in the country’s three-week uprising. Most of the dead were reported in the restive southern city of Daraa, where burials are planned for today Rights activists and witnesses said that security forces opened fire on Friday on tens of thousands of protesters in Daraa, killing 25 people and wounding hundreds. Arab and Middle East unrest Egypt Libya Syria Yemen Middle East Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
At least two people killed in pre-dawn raid on protesters calling for Mubarak to face trial and removal of army chief Egyptian soldiers armed with clubs and rifles have stormed Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a pre-dawn raid that reportedly killed at least two people, re-igniting the simmering tensions in the country. Video footage showed hundreds of troops, firing weapons and charging in large numbers into the square to clear it. Tahrir Square – which for 18 days was the centre of Egypt’s revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak — was occupied again on Friday by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians calling for Mubarak to be put on trial, and for the head of the army, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, who is the titular head of state, to be removed. Many demonstrators were demanding that the army council be replaced by a civilian one during a transitional period to democracy, accusing the military of protecting members of the former regime. The huge turnout followed growing fears that the revolution had been hijacked by the army. Witnesses in the square said the raid was led by a mixture of army, police and internal security forces. About 300 soldiers swept into the square at around 3am, backed by 20-30 military trucks. Witnesses said firing continued in the square until around 5.30am on Saturday. Although an army spokesman insisted that only “blanks”, not live bullets, had been fired to warn protesters, images on social media websites appeared to show spent casings of both blank and live shells. The soldiers honed in on a tent camp in the centre where protesters had formed a human cordon to protect several army officers who had joined their demonstration in defiance of their superiors. The troops dragged an unknown number of protesters away, throwing them into trucks, which video footage showed driving into the square amid the sound of gunfire. Among those arrested were understood to be soldiers who had joined the protest. “I saw women being slapped in the face, women being kicked,” said one female protester, who took refuge in a nearby mosque. Troops surrounded the mosque and heavy gunfire was heard for hours. The military issued a statement afterwards blaming “outlaws” for rioting and violating the country’s 2am to 5am curfew. It said no one was harmed or arrested. “The armed forces stress that they will not tolerate any acts of rioting or any act that harms the interest of the country and the people,” it said. As troops withdrew, protesters armed with makeshift weapons returned to the square and dragged debris and barbed wire to seal off the streets leading into it. “We are staging a sit-in until the field marshal is prosecuted,” said Anas Esmat, a 22-year-old university student. “The people want the fall of the field marshal,” chanted protesters, in a variation on the chant that has become famous across the Middle East in protests calling for regime change. “Tantawi is Mubarak and Mubarak is Tantawi,” went another chant. Egypt Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Foreign Office intervened to halt an investigation in the 1990s by Malaysian authorities into the deaths of 24 unarmed villagers The Foreign Office intervened to stop a criminal investigation into the alleged massacre of 24 unarmed villagers by British troops, in a cover-up that puts Britain’s colonial past under renewed scrutiny. Newly disclosed documents reveal that in the 1990s UK officials pressured Malaysian authorities into aborting a police inquiry into the alleged killings by Scots Guards in Malaya in 1948. They reveal that Malaysian police officers contacted Interpol and were due to visit the UK in 1993 to interview soldiers involved in the shootings, only for the Foreign Office to pressure the country’s high commissioner into halting the visit. One memorandum states that senior Foreign Office officials later met Malaysian police chiefs to discuss closing the inquiry shortly before it was
Continue reading …
Reports of mass murders and rapes in villages. Pro-government forces also accused of atrocities Mass killings have been carried out by both sides of the conflict in Ivory Coast, according to the campaign group Human Rights Watch. Their report documents a trail of death and destruction carried out by rebel forces who have swept through the country and are now fighting on the streets of Abidjan to secure the presidency for Alassane Ouattara. As Ouattara, backed by the UN and the international community, edges closer to victory, the Guardian has uncovered evidence of atrocities committed by the forces acting in his name. Refugees who scrambled through the rainforest to safety in neighbouring Liberia have described children being burned alive during rebel attacks and bodies littering the streets. HRW is calling for an investigation into massacres carried out by both the rebels and those loyal to the defiant president, Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to give up power after losing the presidential election in November. Hundreds have been killed by forces loyal to Ouattara, according to HRW’s report. It found that summary executions of perceived Gbagbo supporters had taken place, and reported accounts of mass rape. Matt Wells, HRW’s Ivory Coast researcher, said: “In village after village, Ouattara’s forces terrorised civilians perceived as supporting Gbagbo, killing hundreds and raping dozens more. In committing to move Ivory Coast out of its longstanding crisis, Ouattara must ensure that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are brought to justice.” Pro-Gbagbo forces are also accused of having carried out atrocities, killing more than 100 presumed Ouattara supporters as rebels advanced. The Guardian spent a week travelling in the border region between Ivory Coast and Liberia, hearing tales of savage attacks on civilians. It also encountered what is emerging as a recurrent aspect of the violence in Ivory Coast: the use of mercenaries from Liberia, believed to have been recruited by both sides in the conflict. Crouching in the bushes along the banks of the river that separates Liberia from Ivory Coast, two young Liberian men in filthy clothes and flip-flops agreed to a recorded interview after a small payment was made. They described how they had just returned home from a nine-day operation with pro-Ouattara rebels, where they said they were told to kill “anyone and everyone”. They described barbaric scenes in which they surrounded villages in the west of Ivory Coast and, armed with machetes, killed everyone they saw. “The town we entered first, most of the people were on the road. We killed them, just cutting them with our machetes,” they said. One of the towns they claim to have attacked was Blolequin. UN investigators said yesterday they had found more than 100 bodies in Blolequin and surrounding towns. Some appeared to have been burned alive and others had been thrown into a well. The UN believes Liberian mercenaries may have been responsible. Toulépleu is another town the two mercenaries say they attacked, and where HRW has uncovered evidence of mass killings. One mercenary said: “There are so many bodies in Toulépleu. A digger came from Danane to bury the bodies. There was no way for cars to go over there because of the bodies on the ground. It stank.” Now in the safety of a transit camp in Liberia, refugees fleeing from Toulépleu spoke of the horrors they witnessed there. They described how they grabbed family members and escaped from their homes in a hail of bullets. Whoever and whatever were left behind were burned. Cradling his five children in the red dust outside the UNHCR tent that is now all he has, Kuide Pehe Ferdinand described the chaos when the attack began. “I had too many children to save when the rebels hit. We tried to pick them all up, but one of my baby girls is disabled and we had to leave her. When I went back, they had burned the house with my baby inside.” The Audgines were also grieving for a loved one killed after the rebels set fire to their home. “I can’t even eat, I feel such sadness now,” said Rosaline, mother of nine, whose elderly father was burned alive. She said she could do nothing to help him, as he shouted to them from within the flames. She and her children are a few of the many people in the camp who have shaved their heads in a traditional gesture of mourning. The International Red Cross recently reached Toulépleu, and said it found a town almost completely razed to the ground. HRW has documented the executions of elderly people who were unable to escape rebel attacks. It says they were held captive in their villages by the pro-Ouattara rebels, and has evidence that more than 30 were executed. One 67-year-old woman from the village of Doké told HRW that pro-Ouattara fighters had taken several captives out each day – often men and women between 60 and 80 years old – and executed them at point-blank range. The pro-Ouattara forces have denied killing civilians in their advance upon Abidjan, blaming any deaths on Gbagbo’s soldiers. Those standing guard at the border crossing with Ivory Coast near Toe Town, eastern Liberia, were in victorious mood when interviewed by the Guardian. In their smart camouflage gear and with AK47s slung around their necks, they swaggered up to the barrier across the bridge between the two countries. “I pray for democracy in Ivory Coast and that the will of the people will be respected,” said “Angelou”, their commander, gripping his gun. As he talked, the sound of gunfire cracked from the forest behind him and his troops. “We don’t have problem with civilians. If you see someone’s died, it’s because he’s taken up a gun. If he’s taken up arms, he is not a civilian, he is my enemy.” The conflict threatens to cause a wider humanitarian crisis in the region. More than a million people have been internally displaced within Ivory Coast, while more than 125,000 have crossed the border into Liberia, a country that itself has been devastated by 14 years of civil war. Many Liberian communities are sheltering refugees, but barely have enough food for themselves, and there are fears the crisis will destabilise Liberia’s fragile peace. Ivory Coast Alassane Ouattara Laurent Gbagbo Rachel Stevenson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Reports of mass murders and rapes in villages. Pro-government forces also accused of atrocities Mass killings have been carried out by both sides of the conflict in Ivory Coast, according to the campaign group Human Rights Watch. Their report documents a trail of death and destruction carried out by rebel forces who have swept through the country and are now fighting on the streets of Abidjan to secure the presidency for Alassane Ouattara. As Ouattara, backed by the UN and the international community, edges closer to victory, the Guardian has uncovered evidence of atrocities committed by the forces acting in his name. Refugees who scrambled through the rainforest to safety in neighbouring Liberia have described children being burned alive during rebel attacks and bodies littering the streets. HRW is calling for an investigation into massacres carried out by both the rebels and those loyal to the defiant president, Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to give up power after losing the presidential election in November. Hundreds have been killed by forces loyal to Ouattara, according to HRW’s report. It found that summary executions of perceived Gbagbo supporters had taken place, and reported accounts of mass rape. Matt Wells, HRW’s Ivory Coast researcher, said: “In village after village, Ouattara’s forces terrorised civilians perceived as supporting Gbagbo, killing hundreds and raping dozens more. In committing to move Ivory Coast out of its longstanding crisis, Ouattara must ensure that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are brought to justice.” Pro-Gbagbo forces are also accused of having carried out atrocities, killing more than 100 presumed Ouattara supporters as rebels advanced. The Guardian spent a week travelling in the border region between Ivory Coast and Liberia, hearing tales of savage attacks on civilians. It also encountered what is emerging as a recurrent aspect of the violence in Ivory Coast: the use of mercenaries from Liberia, believed to have been recruited by both sides in the conflict. Crouching in the bushes along the banks of the river that separates Liberia from Ivory Coast, two young Liberian men in filthy clothes and flip-flops agreed to a recorded interview after a small payment was made. They described how they had just returned home from a nine-day operation with pro-Ouattara rebels, where they said they were told to kill “anyone and everyone”. They described barbaric scenes in which they surrounded villages in the west of Ivory Coast and, armed with machetes, killed everyone they saw. “The town we entered first, most of the people were on the road. We killed them, just cutting them with our machetes,” they said. One of the towns they claim to have attacked was Blolequin. UN investigators said yesterday they had found more than 100 bodies in Blolequin and surrounding towns. Some appeared to have been burned alive and others had been thrown into a well. The UN believes Liberian mercenaries may have been responsible. Toulépleu is another town the two mercenaries say they attacked, and where HRW has uncovered evidence of mass killings. One mercenary said: “There are so many bodies in Toulépleu. A digger came from Danane to bury the bodies. There was no way for cars to go over there because of the bodies on the ground. It stank.” Now in the safety of a transit camp in Liberia, refugees fleeing from Toulépleu spoke of the horrors they witnessed there. They described how they grabbed family members and escaped from their homes in a hail of bullets. Whoever and whatever were left behind were burned. Cradling his five children in the red dust outside the UNHCR tent that is now all he has, Kuide Pehe Ferdinand described the chaos when the attack began. “I had too many children to save when the rebels hit. We tried to pick them all up, but one of my baby girls is disabled and we had to leave her. When I went back, they had burned the house with my baby inside.” The Audgines were also grieving for a loved one killed after the rebels set fire to their home. “I can’t even eat, I feel such sadness now,” said Rosaline, mother of nine, whose elderly father was burned alive. She said she could do nothing to help him, as he shouted to them from within the flames. She and her children are a few of the many people in the camp who have shaved their heads in a traditional gesture of mourning. The International Red Cross recently reached Toulépleu, and said it found a town almost completely razed to the ground. HRW has documented the executions of elderly people who were unable to escape rebel attacks. It says they were held captive in their villages by the pro-Ouattara rebels, and has evidence that more than 30 were executed. One 67-year-old woman from the village of Doké told HRW that pro-Ouattara fighters had taken several captives out each day – often men and women between 60 and 80 years old – and executed them at point-blank range. The pro-Ouattara forces have denied killing civilians in their advance upon Abidjan, blaming any deaths on Gbagbo’s soldiers. Those standing guard at the border crossing with Ivory Coast near Toe Town, eastern Liberia, were in victorious mood when interviewed by the Guardian. In their smart camouflage gear and with AK47s slung around their necks, they swaggered up to the barrier across the bridge between the two countries. “I pray for democracy in Ivory Coast and that the will of the people will be respected,” said “Angelou”, their commander, gripping his gun. As he talked, the sound of gunfire cracked from the forest behind him and his troops. “We don’t have problem with civilians. If you see someone’s died, it’s because he’s taken up a gun. If he’s taken up arms, he is not a civilian, he is my enemy.” The conflict threatens to cause a wider humanitarian crisis in the region. More than a million people have been internally displaced within Ivory Coast, while more than 125,000 have crossed the border into Liberia, a country that itself has been devastated by 14 years of civil war. Many Liberian communities are sheltering refugees, but barely have enough food for themselves, and there are fears the crisis will destabilise Liberia’s fragile peace. Ivory Coast Alassane Ouattara Laurent Gbagbo Rachel Stevenson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …