The new leader of Cote d�Ivoire, Mr. Allassane Ouattara, was in Accra yesterday to ask President Mills to repatriate Ivorian refugees living in Ghana back to the Ivory Coast.
Furthermore, Ouattara had come to thank the Ghana President for returning the President of the Ivorian Constitutional Council from Ghana to swear in Ouattara following the capture of Gbagbo by French troops. Mr. N�dre, President of the Constitutional Council, had taken refuge in Ghana when Ouattara took over, because he had genuine fear for his security and life. However, instead of according Mr. N�dre refuge, in accordance with the 1951 UN convention on Refugees, he was put on a plane back to Cote d�Ivoire to swear in Ouattara. While here, the discussion with Mr. Ouattara did not include the continuing human rights abuses that are currently taking place in Cote d�Ivoire.
Ghana has made no comment about the massacre of over 200 women and children in Douekoue by Ouattara forces. The current human rights situation in Cote d�Ivoire is dire although the world has chosen to keep silent about it. There are also reports that Mr. Ouattara is not in control of the north of the country. This is because two of the warlords, Wattao and Vecho, whom he encouraged to commit atrocities in Abidjan, are currently locked in a conflict to control the collection of illegal taxes from the population.
Meanwhile Ouattara has several journalists imprisoned just because they are considered supporters of Gbagbo. One of such journalists, Mr. Hermann Aboa, who was in Ghana in the early days of the Ouattara take-over, isn ow facing life imprisonment after he was lured back to Cote d�Ivoire by Ouattara with inducements that he would be allowed to continue his work as a journalist. In July, Ouattara lied when he told journalists in New York that Mr. Aboa was guilty of getting money from Gbagbo �to buy arms, to distribute to mercenaries.�
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