Third Ivory Coast mass grave found
2011-01-13 19:29
Geneva - A third mass grave has been reported in Ivory Coast, the top UN human rights official said on Thursday, while denouncing the killing of civilians and an ambush on peacekeepers.
Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told Reuters that UN officials had been denied access to the three sites, including a mass grave found earlier, alleged to contain 80 bodies.
More than 200 people have died in violence since the November 28 presidential election in the West Africa country and fear of more conflict has prompted more than 25 000 people to flee into neighbouring Liberia, according to UN figures.
"I am very concerned now that a third mass grave has been discovered. Not only my representative there but the UN representative has not been allowed access to the mass graves," Pillay said in an interview in her Geneva office.
It is alleged to be located at Issia, near Daloa, but UN officials have not been able to verify its existence, according to her spokesperson Rupert Colville.
Gbagbo vs. Ouattara
Pillay voiced deep concern that there has been no political settlement between Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, who the United Nations says won the presidential election. Gbagbo disputes that and has refused to step down.
She denounced an attack which left three UN peacekeepers slightly injured when their patrol was ambushed by forces loyal to Gbagbo in Abidjan on Tuesday evening.
"I am very concerned because the UN contingent that went to investigate allegations of killings was fired upon," said Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge from South Africa.
"So what we all hoped for, a negotiated settlement, stands at grave risk to me because Mr Gbagbo is arming his supporters who in turn are going around killing and also ambushing a UN contingent," she said.
In an unusual public move on December 31, Pillay issued a statement revealing that she had written to Gbagbo and senior military officials warning them that they may be held criminally accountable for human rights violations.
"This needed to be done, as you know I served as a judge on the Rwanda tribunal so I am very concerned about taking immediate steps to prevent what might well lead to ethnic killings in Ivory Coast," she said on Thursday.
"The question now being discussed within the UN is the urgency of military intervention, not only to protect UN peacekeepers," she said.
