Cote d'Ivoire: MPCI discounts report on mass grave in Bouake

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) - The rebel Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI) has dismissed a report that its troops buried about 86 persons, including gendarmes and soldiers in a mass grave.
Reacting to the report by the Missionary Service News Agency (MISNA), an MPCI spokesman said the agency had no evidence of its report and was spreading false information.

MISNA, a Rome-based news agency, reported at the weekend that gendarmes and servicemen of the third battalion of the Ivorian army, who had been stationed in Bouake, were among the victims buried in a mass grave.

Bouake is Cote d'Ivoire's second largest city and currently the base of the MPCI.

The agency reported the existence of a second mass grave after that of Dania village, also located in the rebel-controlled area of Vavoua.

Quoting a number of witnesses, MISNA said the mass killings, "perpetuated by rebels", took place during early clashes with loyalist troops following the 19 September mutiny.

In a "right of reply", a copy of which was made available to PANA Monday, MPCI wonders about the objective "of this false scoop which comes at a time when the whole world discovers the true face of (Ivoirian President Laurent) Gbagbo's regime."

"We strongly protest against this news agency which, without the slightest evidence, chose to spread a totally false information with undisclosed intentions," the MPCI said in its statement.

In the early days of the crisis, Ivorian state-run radio and television reported accounts by children of gendarmes and servicemen as well as other survivors who claimed to have witnessed bodies of their parents being buried in mass graves.

"MPCI appeals to human rights organisations and MISNA to go to these different areas and get true information," said the MPCI statement that was signed by the movement's secretary general, Guillaume Soro Kigbafori.