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AFRICA

Trial of Ivory Coasts Laurent Gbagbo Will Test

International Criminal Court
By SASKIA de ROTHSCHILD

JAN. 27, 2016

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast To some of his countrymen, Laurent Gbagbo is nothing more than an
executioner who oversaw the killings and rapes of dozens of people. To others, he has become a
martyr and a hero who deserves freedom.
On Thursday, Mr. Gbagbo, the former president of Ivory Coast, will go on trial at the
International Criminal Court in The Hague, facing four counts of crimes against humanity
stemming from the violence surrounding the 2010 presidential election. He was narrowly defeated
in a runoff, but he insisted that he had won and refused to cede power, leading to months of
turmoil and the deaths of more than 3,000 people before his arrest in April 2011.
The trial of Mr. Gbagbo is an important challenge for the International Criminal Court. He is
the first former president to reach trial at the tribunal, which has been in operation for a decade
with a mandate to deal with war crimes and genocide. Also on trial with him will be Charles Bl
Goud, one of Mr. Gbagbos militia leaders in the 2011 upheaval, which followed more than a
decade of ethnic political violence in Ivory Coast.
The case is a reminder of the huge gulf that still exists between supporters of the current
president, Alassane Ouattara, who won re-election by a huge majority in a largely peaceful election
last year, and those who remain loyal to Mr. Gbagbo (pronounced BAHG-bo).
These days, Ivory Coast is bustling. Abidjan, the principal city, swirls with traffic, construction
sites are everywhere, and swarms of children in checkered school uniforms crisscross the streets.
Mr. Ouattaras government has invested in new roads and bridges, and the economy has been
growing briskly.
But the city still bears the scars of the violence from 2010 and 2011. In the Abobo
neighborhood, where pro-Gbagbo militias are said to have tortured, raped and killed people
because of their origins or political affiliations, Souleymane Grambout pointed out bullet holes in
pockmarked walls, and dark markings on the road pavement.

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Thats where they burned people alive, Mr. Grambout said.

He said that his two brothers had been killed in the upheaval and that his neighbor from Mali
had been shot in his bed, memories that are still vivid. Thats why we need this trial, he said. We
need justice; its a form of closure.
When Mr. Gbagbo clung to the presidency after the 2010 election, the country was torn into
warring factions, and both sides were accused of atrocities. Mr. Gbagbos supporters believe their
leader has been unjustly singled out for blame, and that the proceedings in The Hague will
vindicate and free him.
Its the trial of all hopes, said Kon Boubakar, the secretary general of one of the current
divisions of the Ivorian Popular Front, the political party Mr. Gbagbo founded. This kind of trial
can last for years, so we have many chances for the truth to come out. The real question is, When
will the other bad guys be judged?
Many international observers agree that Mr. Ouattara and his supporters should be held
accountable for their actions during the upheaval. The Ouattara side has been accused of torture
and killings, too, including what is known as the Dukou massacre of hundreds of targeted
civilians.
The perception among opposition supporters that commanders of pro-Ouattara forces will
not face justice for the egregious abuses they committed is undoubtedly an obstacle to
reconciliation, said Param-Preet Singh, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights
Watch. Supporting the investigation and prosecution of commanders from pro-Ouattara forces is
essential if President Ouattara is to keep his promise to govern for all Ivorians.
The International Criminal Court is investigating the Ouattara side, but according to a
Human Rights Watch report, the work has been slowed by budget constraints and a lack of
cooperation from the Ouattara government.
The tribunal is currently pursuing cases involving 10 countries, eight of them in Africa. In
most cases, national governments asked the court to intervene. Even so, critics often call the court
a tool of imperialism because it pursues cases in developing countries while major powers like the
United States, Russia and China refuse to join the court and submit to its jurisdiction.
A number of former leaders have faced justice at special-purpose international tribunals,
including Charles Taylor of Liberia (a 50-year sentence for war crimes) and Jean Kambanda of
Rwanda (a life sentence for genocide). Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia was tried by the United
Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, but he died before a verdict was reached; that tribunal
is still trying Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of the Serbian part of Bosnia, for crimes
including genocide.
The International Criminal Court has had some highly visible misses. Judges issued an arrest
warrant for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya in 2011, but he was killed soon afterward. The court
pursued President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya on charges related to postelection violence in his

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