UN 'encouraging defiance'
2004-04-06 08:39
Abidjan - Ivory Coast's human rights minister on Monday accused the United Nations of making a biased and ethnic-based interpretation of the rights situation in the west African country, and encouraging "defiance of the authorities".
"It has been noted that certain attitudes and written statements by the UN tend to encourage defiance of the Ivorian authorities," said Victorine Wodie, in a statement published on Monday in Notre Voie, a daily newspaper close to President Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front party.
"In the same vein, a biased and sometime ethnic interpretation of the human rights situation in Ivory Coast can be seen in the activities of the UN organs in Ivory Coast," she added.
"All of this could lead to insubordination and the destruction of the foundations of the government."
Opposition
Wodie's statement was in reaction to the violent repression of a banned anti-government demonstration on March 25, in which the opposition has said up to 500 people died. The government says only 37 people were killed.
It was published the day an official ceremony was due to be held to mark the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, still divided in two and riven by instability more than a year after a peace pact was signed to end a civil war that began in September 2002.
Both sides have called for an international inquiry to be set up to investigate incidents involving civilians, after the army quashed the anti-government demonstration 11 days ago.
Most of the alleged atrocities were perpetrated in neighbourhoods in Abidjan - known to be opposition strongholds.
Wodie said that, although she was eager for the international inquiry to be up and running, she noted that several other investigations into possible human rights abuses since the start of the civil war have remained "dead letters".
Hinted
"Only a team that came here in December 2002 hinted at elements, but the report's obvious bias has since been denounced," she said.
A report published by that UN investigative team in January 2003 expressed concern at the activities of pro-Gbagbo "death squads".
The Ivorian government rejected the allegations made in the report, which it called biased, incomplete and riddled with "gratuitous accusations" and "hasty conclusions".
"It is time for the global organisation to get hold of itself and encourage everyone to respect Ivory Coast's laws," said Wodie, accusing the UN of "conveying cliches about Ivory Coast".