Ivorian group urges Paris meeting not to cover-up crimes

Paris, France (PANA) - A grouping of Ivorians based in France has urged participants at the forthcoming peace meeting in Paris to seriously examine the crimes that have been committed since the beginning of the conflict in Cote d'Ivoire
The chairperson of the Action group for Democracy and Human Rights, Oumou Kouyate said her members were mobilised to ensure the meeting does not rob those directly or indirectly affected their right to justice "through a vague process of national reconciliation, pardon or general amnesty".

"We appeal that this moment of truth supposed to turn the page on this tragic period does not make us ignore the need to dispense justice, the only way to ensure the restoration of peace in the country, and above all to prevent a repetition in the future," she added.

The group's chairperson denounced what she termed as the glaring failure of the ECOWAS mediation conducted by Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema.

"The mishandling of the talks in Lome led to a stalemate in the conflict and France's full involvement at the diplomatic and military level," Kouyate said.

Her group's initiative is backed by various academicians, including Jean Pierre Dozon of the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences; Assiba Johnson, professor of Economics and Management Sciences at the University of Paris 12 and Haytham Manna, President of the Arab Human Rights Committee.

Others are Judge Zoro Bi Diallo, President of the Ivorian Human Rights Movement, Ardiouma Sirima, President of Cofanzo, a Burkinabe NGO and the President of the Federation of African Workers in France.

The group stressed the importance of reparations for crimes committed so as "to combat impunity and tolerance of crimes against humanity, torture, genocide rendered possible by the absence of tools of prevention and sanctions on one hand and the revival of ethnic an regional rhetoric on the other".