Laurent Gbagbo   Le droit a la différence
Channel: Nicoletta Fagiolo
Date: 2012-11-19

Making-of Laurent Gbagbo, le droit a la différence, a documentary film in production by Nicoletta Fagiolo.

Special thanks for the Jazz music by Laurent Digbeu from Album Riflessioni Pielhy Reflexions- Song two Chimpanzee dance  - www.laurentdigbeu.com

Demonstration against the violation of human rights in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and for the release of Laurent Gbagbo   Friday, November 16  - Sit-in Piazza della Rotonda ( Pantheon) ROMA, ITALIA

Pope Benedict XVI will receive the current Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) President Alassane Ouattara at the Vatican on Friday, November 16. Ouattara will also be recieved by the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. 

The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) and the Ivorian resistance movement, comprised of numerous NGOs, will hold a demonstration in Rome protesting the arrest and detainment of ousted Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, held and awaiting trial by the International Criminal Court  in the Hague since November 2011, as Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara arrives in the Italian capital to be recieved by the pontiff.

Since April 2011 there is a severely deteriorating political and security situation throughout the country, concentrated in the western part of Côte d'Ivoire where there is a full-out genocide, targeting the Wê ethnic group.

After contested elections in December 2010 President Laurent Gbagbo called for a ballot recount. Instead of this peaceful option to overcome the post-electora crisis,  a French-UN coup d'etat followed, according to anthropologist and political scientist Michel Galy,  and Alassane Ouattara was subsequently sworn is as the new President, breaching the Ivorian constitution. 
Until now, the Ivory Coast has failed to meet the November 12 deadline to submit voluntary human rights pledges required for entry to the UN Human Rights Council. There is no effective political will to monitor the countrys human rights violations, say opposition groups. 

Daily reports of summary and extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearances, extortion, looting of public and privately-owned property of civilians have been recorded by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and local civil-rights watchdogs.

A system of predation and racketeering, essentially carried out by the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire, (FRCI), the national army, is weakening the official structures of the state security. The country's police is unarmed to protect the population. A recent Amnesty report denouces a «  situation of lawlessness » even in Abidjan, the country's capital. 

The FPI said in an open statement that, despite embracing non-violence, it has been unable to exercise its function as an opposition party. On August 18, the headquarters of the FPI was looted and Dr. Alphonse Douati, Deputy Secretary General of the FPI, was arrested and imprisoned by the FRCI, the national army. A week later, on August 26, the FPI Secretary-General's Spokesman Laurent Akoun suffered the same fate. They join the more than 200 political prisoners in illegal detention and facing torture today. There are many places of unrecognized detention. Some have been held for many months and denied contact with their families and access to lawyers, according to Amnesty International.  Independant sources say the number of political detainees is as high as 1,000. The party is severely put to the test with 23 ministers and six former ambassadors in exile, 4 Ministers in prison, and two others dead, FPI leaders protest. 

The Ivorian Popular Youth Front movement (JFPI) was prohibited last month from holding a demonstation at the Notre Dame du Plateau  catholic church in Abidjan, although the Church authorities had approved the sit-in. The JFPI intended to denounce a reported 400 abductions, 360-380 arrests and four murders in Abidjan alone. One of the country's main trade union leaders, Mahan Gahe Bazile, has not been released from prison despite repeated requests from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 

Press freedom is also suffering. To date at least 26 journalists have fled into exile and do not feel free to return due to lack of safety. The opposition press has organized so-called "Journaux Presse Morte" , "Death Press Days"  to protest the persistant intimidation and arrest of journalists, as well as the pillage, looting and military surveillance of their offices -- one of which was occupied for six months by soldiers.

According to UNHCR data, currently there are still 40,000-80,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 80,000 refugees outside the country.