Ten years after the transfer to the ICC, the former president, acquitted of the charges of crimes against humanity against him, will return to his country on Thursday afternoon. This return is appreciated differently by various associations of victims of political violence. Some still ask for justice, others want reconciliation and forgiveness to be a priority.
With our special correspondent in Abidjan, Francois Mazet
A group of a few dozen gathered in front of the town hall in Abobo in the early afternoon. Slogans and posters: a short demonstration of young people and women from the neighborhood to demand justice, demands to send Laurent Gbagbo to prison or under house arrest. Among them Issiaka Diaby, Chair of the Ivory Coast Victims Collective (CVCI)
Laurent Gbagbo, for some communities with victims it is like the wolf that was driven far from the furrow and is on its way back. The victims in Côte d’Ivoire are thirsting for justice, a thirst for truth, thirst for repentance, thirst for compensation, through criminal law measures. It is an element that was always missing in the Ivory Coast to go to reconciliation.
One to the end that Mamadou Soromidjo Coulibaly does not share. In the building opposite, he leads the National Federation of Crisis Victims in Ivory Coast (Fémavipelci). He’s behaving the defeat of the legal alternative and prefers to emphasize the need for reconciliation.
What puzzles us a little is that people want both reconciliation and justice. In this country, we know that everyone is involved. Either we go to reconciliation and we erase everything, or we go to justice and we will all be appointed one by one. All we ask of them is that they apologize for wronging us. You can not fight for your life.
Mamadou Soromidjo Coulibaly is particularly worried about seeing the political leaders “not play the game.” Like other victims’ organizations, Fémavipelci and CVCI last week shared their proposals for reconciliation with the minister responsible for the Bertin file. Konan Kouadio.
► To also read:Laurent Gbagbo: the most important dates for an eventful political and legal career
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