Military

DATE=10/28/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IVORY COAST (L)

NUMBER=2-268559

BYLINE=LUIS RAMIREZ

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Ivory Coast's new government is vowing to punish those responsible for the killing of as many as 50 young men whose bodies were found after several days of bloody demonstrations that followed the country's controversial presidential elections. V-O-A's Luis Ramirez reports from Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan.

TEXT: The bodies are those of young men, missing since Thursday when police attacked demonstrators in Abidjan's impoverished Abobo district, which is home to many of the city's Dioula-speaking Muslims.

The bodies were discovered in a clearing at Banco Forest, on the outskirts of Abidjan.

The killings happened when supporters of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and his Assembly of the Republicans Party, or R-D-R, took to the streets demanding new elections following the departure of military ruler General Robert Guei.

General Guei was forced to flee after demonstrations broke out over his attempt to steal the October 22nd elections. The General on Tuesday declared himself the winner, despite results that showed victory for socialist Laurent Gbagbo.

Mr. Gbagbo was the only well-known opposition candidate allowed to run against General Guei. Alassane Ouattara was among those barred from taking part in the elections. On Thursday, as Mr. Gbagbo was being sworn in, R-D-R supporters took to the streets, demanding new elections that would include Mr. Ouattara.

Witnesses say the massacre in Abobo was triggered after demonstrators killed a police commando during the demonstrations. On Saturday, most residents of the district were too fearful to give accounts of what happened. This Abobo resident, without giving his name, told V-O-A what he saw when security forces arrived to investigate the killing of the commando.

///ACT IN FRENCH/// He says, when they [arrived from the scene] they saw the people who had been arrested. They couldn't stomach it. They asked [their comrades]: "Are they the ones who killed the lieutenant?" He says they had machetes, they had clubs, they had slingshots and other weapons. He says, the police agents became enraged. They became sick with rage, they dealt with them mercilessly.

Witnesses say the young men were dragged to a police camp (Escadron Comando) in Abidjan's Abobo district, stripped naked, and executed. Forensic experts at the scene where the bodies were dumped say most of them appear to have been shot at close range.

Dioula-speaking Muslims of northern Ivory Coast have long complained that Christian southerners have kept them out of power.

Laurent Gbagbo was sworn in on Thursday as Ivory Coast's first civilian president since the December military coup that had put General Robert Guei in power.

In forming his new government, Mr. Gbagbo named some members of other parties to his cabinet, reserving the most important positions for members of his Ivorian Popular Front party (F-P-I).

After meeting with the new president Friday, Alassane Ouattara said his party would not be part of the new government. (SIGNED)

NEB/LR/DW/PLM