More than 170 people have been killed in Ivory Coast during clashes related to the disputed election results.
|||Abidjan/Geneva - At least 173 people have been killed in Ivory Coast in recent days following last month's disputed election, the United Nations said on Thursday, as international pressure grows on defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down.
The United Nations also reported many people had been tortured and detained, while the United States said it feared the death toll since the November 28 election may be close to 200.
Led by African states, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously condemned the political violence and called for reconciliation to avoid renewed civil war.
World powers and African states have thrown their support behind rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara in a violent standoff in the West African country since the election.
“Between 16 and 21 December, human rights officers have substantiated allegations of 173 killings, 90 instances of torture and ill treatment, 471 arrests and detentions and 24 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances,” Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a special session of the UN rights council.
US ambassador Betty E. King told the council's meeting in Geneva that yet more may have died. “We have credible reports that almost 200 people may have already been killed, with dozens more tortured or mistreated, and others may have been snatched from their homes in the middle of the night,” she said.
The United States, UN, European Union, African Union and West African bloc Ecowas have all recognised provisional electoral commission results showing Ouattara as the winner.
But Gbagbo has shown no sign of caving in to the pressure and insists he won the election after the Constitutional Court, which is headed by one of his allies, threw out hundreds of thousands of votes from pro-Ouattara constituencies.
In Geneva the UN rights council adopted by consensus a resolution brought by Nigeria on behalf of African states that strongly condemned the loss of life and called for all crimes to be investigated and civilians protected.
The United States and EU have slapped travel sanctions on Gbagbo and his inner circle, and the World Bank froze funding on Wednesday to the country, to which it has aid commitments of over $800-million.
Ministers from the central bank of the West African Monetary Union were due to meet on Thursday in Guinea Bissau to discuss the standoff amid speculation that it could also freeze Ivory Coast funding, which would hinder Gbagbo's ability to pay public wages and foreign debt.
Ivory Coast's $2.3-billion bond due 2032 fell nearly a point to a record low on Thursday as investors worried that the country would be unable to meet a $30-million bond payment on December 31.
But Ivory Coast's state-run newspaper said Gbagbo's signature was, for now, still being recognised on state accounts at the central bank and public salaries would be paid this month. - Reuters
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