France probes I Coast violence
2005-12-14 22:12
Paris - Paris prosecutors said on Wednesday they are investigating alleged rapes and assaults against French citizens in Ivory Coast during violent anti-French protests there in 2004.
The probe, which does not designate anyone by name, will examine 20 out of a total of 232 complaints filed by residents upon their return to France, the prosecution office said. The charges include rape, extortion and armed assault leading to permanent injury, it added.
Most of the other complaints, which do not involve violence, have been dismissed because there is not enough evidence to identify culprits, it said.
Ivory Coast has been split into a rebel-held north and loyalist south since a September 2002 coup attempt propelled the world's largest cocoa grower into civil war.
Violence erupted anew in November 2004 when Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo launched bombing attacks on the rebel-held north for three days, citing insurgents' failure to disarm. An air strike that day killed nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker.
French troops retaliated by destroying the country's tiny air force, sparking anti-foreigner riots by loyalist youth in the south and brief, unprecedented battles between French and Ivory Coast forces.
A French military court is conducting a separate probe into the air strike.
- AP