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Report: Ivory Coast rebels executed police
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- Ivory Coast's main rebel faction executed at least 52 paramilitary police and eight of their sons in the rebel stronghold of Bouake, human rights group Amnesty International said Thursday. In a report on atrocities in the war-riven West African country, Amnesty quoted several survivors of what it said was the planned killing of scores of detainees and sons aged 18 to 24. After an insurrection on September 19, rebels seized Bouake, the country's second largest city. The city's police force took refuge in their barracks after the insurrection and were left in relative peace until October 6, when loyalist forces attacked and the police were accused of harboring pro-government spies. About 60 police and 50 of their sons were placed under arrest. Witnesses said on the night of their arrest, rebels went to the detainees massed in Bouake's military prison three times and randomly opened fire, killing and wounding dozens of people. "I was hiding in a cell on the left. ... One of the rebels came close to us and glanced into our cell, saying: 'Hell, there are still a lot of them here!' He sprayed the room with bullets, then loaded another magazine and fired randomly. When he left, I smeared myself in blood and hid under a body," said a survivor. Survivors were left for two days amid rotting bodies to take care of the wounded, some of whom died well after being shot, the report said. Some survivors were later forced to dig mass graves for the victims. About ten have since "disappeared" and are thought to have been killed after they buried their comrades. Others were freed after paying a hefty ransom to the rebels, Amnesty said. According to witnesses, about 40 police, 30 of their children and five civilians detained with them were killed. But Amnesty said it had only managed to confirm the death or "disappearance" of 60 people, including eight sons aged between 18 and 24. "I heard children screaming 'We are not police! Don't kill us'," said another paramilitary police officer quoted in the report. U.N. probeIvory Coast's war erupted out of a failed coup in September. Thousands have been killed and more than a million people driven from their homes. The main rebel faction, the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast, holds the north of the country. Two other rebel groups have seized large chunks of the cocoa-rich west. Since the start of the war, rebels and loyalists have traded accusations of summary killings and other abuses. The United Nations has said it would probe the alleged crimes and former colonial power France has warned those responsible could face the International Criminal Court. After the rebels seized Bouake in mid-September, the city's police force was disarmed but they continued to live peacefully with their families at the barracks, where they had raised a white flag. Some were even allowed to leave Bouake. But on October 6, after an unsuccessful attack by President Laurent Gbagbo's loyalist forces, the rebels accused Bouake's police of harboring pro-government spies and arrested them. Those who escaped death in the military prison at the Third Battalion had to pay between 750,000 CFA francs ($1,232) and one million CFA francs ($1,643) to be freed, Amnesty said. The rights group collected testimonies on the summary killings during a December trip to MPCI-held areas but waited to release the report out of fear it could endanger paramilitary police still detained in Bouake. All of them have since been released. Amnesty also said it had discussed the report with rebel leaders, who said they were not aware of the killings but did not deny the information. The MPCI had so far said the bodies of loyalists found in mass graves in Bouake died in fighting. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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