ABIDJAN — Followers of Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara have targetted suspected supporters of former leader Laurent Gbagbo, killing at least 149, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
In a report, the New York-based organisation said Ouattara's Republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI) have targetted ethnic groups seen as loyal to Gbagbo while launching reprisal attacks.
"The hope of a new era following Ouattara's inauguration will fade fast unless these horrible abuses against pro-Gbagbo groups stop immediately," west Africa researcher Corinne Dufka said in the report.
Ouattara was sworn in late last month after a protracted and violent political crisis sparked by Gbagbo's refusal to accept defeat following the country's November election.
The report accuses pro-Ouattara forces of killing at least 149 "real or perceived" Gbagbo supporters in the run-up to his arrest on April 11 and through the following weeks.
"They sealed off and searched" areas considered Gbagbo strongholds in the commercial capital, and conducted "point blank executions of youths from ethnic groups generally aligned with Gbagbo."
The report also says pro-Gbagbo militiamen killed at least 220 men in the days surrounding his arrest.
Gbagbo is under house arrest in the north of country and Ouattara says he will ask the International Criminal Court to investigate whether the former president is responsible for crimes against humanity.
To boost the credibility of his new government, which Ouattara has repeatedly said must unite the country, the new president should suspend any commanders implicated in crimes against political rivals, the report said.
In research conducted between May 13 and May 25, the rights group "documented 54 extrajudicial executions in formal and informal detention sites," implicating both pro-Ouattara police and FRCI commanders in the deaths.
One witness told the rights group that he saw FRCI forces slit his 21-year-old brother's throat, and a female resident of a pro-Gbagbo area said she was raped by Ouattara's troops after being forced to load their car with stolen goods.
The report said Ivory Coast's Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko has promised to convene an emergency meeting with various political and military leaders to investigate the allegations.
Last month, the UN mission in Ivory Coast said at least 1,012 were killed in political clashes and communal fighting during the five-month political crisis.
Ouattara was confined to an Abidjan hotel for months after the poll, surrounded by pro-Gbagbo forces while the UN, African Union and many foreign governments demanded that he be freed and sworn in as president
Violence was initially sporadic, but surged dramatically in April when Ouattara forces launched an operation, backed by both the UN and French forces based in the country, to arrest Gbagbo.

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