L. M. SADOVSKAYA

Candidate of Historical Sciences

Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences

Keywords: Ivory Coast, presidential elections, International Criminal Court, A. Ouattara, L. Gbagbo

After the announcement of the results of the presidential elections held in December 2010, an armed conflict broke out in Ivory Coast, which, according to the UN, claimed more than 3 thousand lives. Among the reasons for the confrontation is the split of the country's politically active population into supporters of the elected head of state Allasan Ouattara, supported by the international community, on the one hand, and former President Laurent Gbagbo, who did not accept his defeat, on the other.

By April 2011, the resistance of Gbagbo's supporters was broken, he was arrested and placed in an Ivorian prison, and on November 30 of the same year, he was extradited to The Hague in the strictest secrecy and handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC)¹. He was charged with assisting in the commission of crimes against humanity-murder, rape, persecution and inhumane actions, economic crimes.

L. Gbagbo has been in a Hague prison for almost 5 years. On February 28, 2016, the trial of him and his closest associate, Charles Ble Goude, who previously headed the extremist Organization young patriots, which is responsible for numerous kidnappings and murders, began. In 2013, Gude was detained in Ghana and handed over to Ivorian authorities, and in 2014, he was sent to The Hague to stand trial.

POLITICAL RIVALS

In the history of relations between L. Gbagbo and A. Ouattara, there were periods of both a joint struggle against President A. K. Bedier, who was active from 1994 to 1999, and their complete breakup in 2000 and subsequent confrontation.

Not wanting to allow one of his main political rivals, A. Ouattara, to participate in the 1995 elections, A. K. Bedier, shortly before the start of the election campaign, changed the content of two articles of the Constitution and introduced a new electoral code that defined the rights and criteria that a presidential candidate had to meet. The main thing is not to have parents of Ivorian origin. Since Ouattara's father is a native of Burkina Faso, the current president was suspended from participating in those elections.

In 1995, Gbagbo and Ouattara joined the ranks of the Republican Front, which included supporters of the Union of Republicans (OR) - Ouattara's party, the Ivorian Popular Front (INF) led by Gbagbo and other parties opposed to the Bedier regime and boycotted the elections that year.

In 1999, L. Gbagbo and A. Ouattara supported General R. Gaia, who overthrew their common enemy, K. Bedier, in a military coup. However, by 2000, this union had collapsed. Ouattara did not forgive Gbagbo for his decision to compete with R. Gayi in the 2000 presidential election, in which he was still unable to participate due to the above-mentioned paragraph of the electoral code, and considered it a betrayal to nominate Gbagbo as a candidate for the presidency without his approval.

L. Gbagbo won the 2000 elections. His rise to power was accompanied by an escalation of disagreements between the two main opposition parties - the INF, which relied mainly on Catholic Christians-representatives of one of the country's most numerous peoples - Baule and actively used the gendarmerie, and the OR, supported by the armed militia of the Diula people, which emerged in the Muslim north of the country. During the more than 10 years of L. Gbagbo's rule (2000-2011), the political and military confrontation between these ethnic and confessional groups did not stop.

Following the 2010 presidential elections*, in which both contenders participated, the country experienced a new round of political crisis, accompanied by high levels of violence, which ended in April 2011. Ouattara's supporters managed to establish control over the entire territory of the country, and L. Gbagbo, who refused to recognize the election results, was arrested by French special forces.²

ELECTIONS-2015

In October 2015, the next presidential election was held in Ivory Coast. Out of 33 candidates for the highest state post, only 10 were allowed to run. One of

* In April 2005, by personal order of L. Gbagbo, A. Ouattara was allowed to participate in the presidential elections.

first, A. Ouattara put up his candidacy.

Knowing that the main opposition force against him will be the INF, whose ideological inspirer remains L. Gbagbo, A. Ouattara during 2014-2015 took a number of measures to neutralize some dangerous political opponents. In February 2014, S. B. Gude was arrested, and in October 2015 - Agen Yuan Bi: both leaders of the youth wing of the INF. In December 2014, Abidjan held the trial of former First Lady Simone Gbagbo, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of genocide and crimes against the Ivorian civilian population.

Amnesty International pointed out 20 days before the elections that many of Ouattara's opponents were being jailed as they approached. Its report indicated that in September 2015, about 60 people were arrested, many of them pro - Gbagbo career officers, and at least 30 of them were detained during the elections. ³ Amnesty International called on the Ivorian authorities to "put an end to the arrests of opposition figures, inciting violence against them, and encouraging them to leave the country." an atmosphere of fear that impedes the exercise of freedom of expression " ⁴.

A. Ouattara's opponents were sure that he feared the return of L. Gbagbo. The opposition believed, not without reason, that the incumbent president would never relinquish power, and one of the reasons for this was the fear of punishment for abuse of power and human rights violations.

For the victory of A. Ouattara, all possible means were used: Giant posters of him were put up in large localities; he traveled extensively around the country and promised in his speeches to implement a new program of economic and social development of the country until 2020. 5 A few days before the election, Ouattara announced that if he won, a referendum on the draft new Constitution would be held in 2016.6

International financial institutions and other Western donors and investors were interested in Ouattara's victory. It is no secret that Ivory Coast occupies an important strategic position in the western part of the African continent, has significant reserves of gas, oil, diamonds, gold, and is the world's leading supplier of cocoa. That is why the UN Security Council mandate of July 25, 2014 on the presence in the country of two battalions of "Blue Helmets", numbering 6 thousand soldiers and officers, was extended until the end of the presidential elections on October 25, 2015 by an order of 19 thousand. In addition to peacekeepers, 28,000 people were provided at the polling stations. Ivorian gendarmes, police and military ⁷.

Ouattara's active election campaign pushed the opposition into the background. The main factor that foreshadowed its defeat was the lack of unity in its ranks. It cannot be said that there were no attempts to form a single opposition bloc. Thus, in May 2015, the National Coalition for Change (NCI) was formed, led by prominent politicians such as former Prime Minister Charles Conan Bani and former President of the National Assembly Mamadou Coulibaly. The Charter adopted by the NCI demanded the release of L. Gbagbo and the dissolution of the election commission, which was considered "pro-presidential" ^.8

However, despite all its efforts, the opposition failed to unite parties and movements that sought a democratic change of power. The coalition proved to be unviable and existed only on paper. Each of its leaders defended their own interests: soon S. K. Bahia and M. Coulibaly put forward their candidacies for the post of president, although they refused to participate in them a few days before the elections, explaining this by the lack of transparency of the electoral process. Another candidate, former Foreign Minister Essi Amara Bertan, did the same. It was his candidacy that caused particular concern in the camp of A. Ouattara: Bertan was a fairly well-known politician both in Ivory Coast and in Africa as a whole.

On the eve of the elections, a split occurred in the Ivorian Popular Front. In April 2015, most of its members, who had declared Gbagbo their president, called for a boycott of the elections until his release. However, INF chairman Pascal Affy N'Guessan, who disagreed with the majority opinion, called on members of the Front to participate in the elections in order to avoid the "political death of this organization"⁹. Moreover, he put forward his candidacy for the post of president from the INF, thereby causing discontent among many of his party members.

In the 2015 elections, A. Ouattara received 83.6% of the vote, P. Affi NTessan-9.29%, and other candidates - from 1 to 4%¹⁰. The voter turnout was 54.63%¹¹. Some of the opposition, mostly members and supporters of the INF, boycotted the elections. Thus, the absence of a single candidate from the opposition, especially its ideological inspirer L. Gbagbo, predetermined the defeat of the opposition forces.

ACTIONS OF GBAGBO SUPPORTERS

Even before the trial of the former Ivorian leader began, the "Association of Friends of L. Gbagbo"was created on social networks. It unites those who believe that the charges against Gbagbo are unfair and demand a thorough review of his role as President, as well as his release and rehabilitation.¹²

Supporters of L. Gbagbo found

Some African ex-Presidents, such as Joaquin Alberto Chissano (President of Mozambique from 1993 to 2004) and Nicephore Diendonne Soglo (President of Benin from 1991 to 1996), who wrote to ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in September 2015, asking her to review the Gbagbo case in order to: its termination or suspension. According to the two politicians, "the trial of L. Gbagbo will further increase the contradictions and hostility between Ivorian citizens, and if he is found guilty and convicted by the ICC, it will lead to a real conflict within the country" ¹³.

On 1 October 2015, Gbagbo's lawyers submitted a request to the ICC to move the trial to Abidjan or Arusha (Tanzania). But Prosecutor F. Bensouda rejected the request on the grounds that there was a risk of increased violence in Côte d'Ivoire if Gbagbo and Gude returned to Abidjan. As far as Arusha is concerned, there could be logistical and financial difficulties. ¹⁴

The African Union (AU) has repeatedly expressed concern about the ICC's treatment of African countries, which it considers biased, since out of about 150 complaints of crimes brought to the Court, cases were initiated only against citizens of African States.* Moreover, one of the defendants in 2013 was Uhuru Kenyatta, who, after being indicted by the ICC, won the presidential election in Kenya.

In 2013 The AU has asked the UN Security Council to call on the ICC to postpone cases against current leaders and, above all, against U. Kenyatta, who was accused of crimes against humanity during the 2007-2008 political crisis. In December 2014, the charges against him were dropped due to lack of evidence.¹⁵

In January 2015, during a high-level meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the chairmanship of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, the AU discussed a project to establish its own African criminal court and proposed the withdrawal of African countries from the ICC. ¹⁶

START OF GBAGBO TRIAL

On February 28, 2016, the opening day of Gbagbo's trial, about 1,200 supporters from Ivory Coast, France, Belgium, Denmark, the United States and other countries arrived in The Hague. They promised to cover the proceedings extensively on social media and at press conferences. Their stay in the Netherlands was funded by L. Gbagbo's son - in-law, Stefan Kipre.¹⁷

With portraits of L. Gbagbo and Sh. In front of the Courthouse, supporters of Gbagbo chanted: "Free Gbagbo!" and "Our President is a victim of a French conspiracy!", as well as Ivorian flags and banners with the words "Trial of shame!", "All to The Hague on January 28, 2016!". They claimed that the ex-president was abducted from his country and that it reminded them of the colonial era, when Africans were forcibly removed from the continent and sold into slavery.¹⁸

In Abidjan, supporters of the ex-president are also following the trial, which is broadcast in Abidjan via the Internet and Africa 24 TV channel. Ivorian State television does not show it. But the process can be watched on giant screens in the streets of Abidjan ¹⁹.

Shortly after the start of the court hearings in January 2016, the differences between supporters and opponents of Gbagbo noticeably worsened. In early February, a demonstration in support of the movement took place in Abidjan's Iorugon quarter, which has always been considered pro-Baqbist, during which participants clashed with gendarmes.

One of the features of the Hague trial was that all 138 witnesses in the case of L. Gbagbo and S. B. Gude were included in the program for their protection, according to which the Court should not disclose their personal data. To keep the identity of the witness secret, special means are used to distort his voice, and the face is covered. These measures taken by the ICC to "protect the witness" are condemned by Gbagbo's supporters. They call the trial of the ex-president "camouflaged" and oppose the anonymity of witnesses, against the" closeness " of the process.²⁰

Despite all the precautions, on February 6, the judge made a mistake by disclosing the personal data of the witnesses. To hush up this incident, the prosecutor demanded to hold a court session with "closed" doors and made a statement about the information leak in social networks.

The charges against L. Gbagbo contain 22 thousand pages, which contain 108 witness statements supported by documents.

The ex-president's lawyers prepared arguments to justify the actions of their client in 2010-2011. According to lawyer M. E. Arly, during these years Gbagbo was forced to defend the integrity of the country's territory and defend himself against attacks by pro-Ouattara forces, including Burkini mercenaries, who killed more than 800 people on their way to Abidjan through the western regions of the country.²¹

The lawyer also expressed regret that the party to the violation of-

* Among them are African leaders who have been prosecuted: Thomas Lubangu (DRC), Omar al-Bashir (Sudan), Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Ismama, Abdul al-Senussi (Libya), Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Jean-Pierre Bemba (DRC), Laurent Gbagbo (Ivory Coast) and five so-called Gospara Resistance Army fighters (Uganda).

The prosecution does not take into account the role of external factors in the process, in particular, France ^22,23. After all, it was on the instructions of its then President, Nicolas Sarkozy, that armed units loyal to Ouattara were transferred to Abidjan and supplied with weapons-despite the embargo on the supply of all types of weapons to Ivory Coast, imposed by the UN Security Council in 2004. M. E. Arly considers it illegal for the Elysee Palace to justify its actions by the need to protect the Ivorian population.

The lawyer recalled that his client "was arrested in April 2011 after the French bombing" and that France prevented peace talks between the two "rivals in the presidential elections of late 2010."²⁴ According to Arly, it was Ouattara who prepared the forceful seizure of power, including with the help of mercenaries. ²⁵

Gbagbo's supporters accuse Ouattara of financing the 1999 and 2002 coups d'etat, as well as the 2002-2004 civil war. ²⁶

L. Gbagbo's main prosecutor in the trial, as already mentioned, is the Gambian Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. In 2013, she was criticized by the ICC for not having collected enough dossiers to open the trial. In addition, materials were found in it that did not even relate to Ivory Coast27. In the end, a new dossier was compiled, and this provided the prosecutor with the opportunity to issue an arrest warrant and extradite the former president.

As for Gbagbo himself, while in prison, he maintains relations with members of his INF party and hosts them. The exception is N'Guessan, whom the ex-president considers a traitor. In one of the confidential conversations with visitors in the Hague prison, a few days before the trial began, Gbagbo stated that he did not hate his opponents and that "as president, I could send A. Ouattara to prison 10 times" (referring to the current leader's role in the events of the 2002-2004 civil war)^.28 The ex-president is convinced that he could still be useful to his country, doing everything possible for national reconciliation.²⁹

Few Ivorians hope for Gbagbo's acquittal and release. The ICC carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, but judges can request a more severe sentence if any aggravating circumstances arise.

* * *

Of course, the trial of the former president of an African country causes outrage among many African politicians and encourages them to make great efforts to create an independent African criminal court and withdraw African countries from the ICC.

¹ The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an international body independent of the United Nations, created on a contractual basis to help end impunity for numerous serious crimes committed in the twenty-first century. It was established on the basis of the Rome Statute, adopted in 1998. It officially began its work in 2002. Of the 18 members of the Court, who are elected for 9 years, 3 judges represent Eastern Europe, 3 - Asia, 4 - Africa, 2 - Latin America, and the remaining 5-Western Europe, etc. states.

² See: Sadovskaya L. M. Will peace come to Ivory Coast? // Asia and Africa today. 2012, N 6, 7. (Sadovskaya L.M. 2012. Pridyot li mir v Kot-d'Ivuar? // Aziya i Afrika segodnya. N 6, 7) (in Russian)

³ http://www.france24.com/fr/20151025-cote-ivoire-elections-alassan

⁴ Ibidem.

⁵ http://information.tv5monde.com/afrique/cote-d-ivoire-election. 23.10.2015.

⁶ http://www.jeuneafrique.com/273749/politique/cote-devoire-ouatt

⁷ http://www.bbc.com/afrique/region/201 5/10/151024_ivory_elex

⁸ http://www.ivoirian.net/actualite/P/51.html.25/1/2015

⁹ http://press.ivoirien.net/information/?P-13777

¹⁰ http:/fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%(3%89lection_PRC3%A9sidentielle

¹¹ http://www.france24.com/fr/20151028-election-presidentielle-cote

¹² http://www.lesamisdelaurentgbagbo.com/

¹³ http://www.letemps.ch/monde/2016/01/27/abidjan-haye-cote-ivoire

¹⁴ https:/ivoirejustice.net/?gclid=Oie_49a=t8gCFeL2cgodwQkAsA

¹⁵ http://www.irinneWS.org/fr/report/95652/analyse-vers-la-cr%33%A

¹⁶ http://www.courrierinternational.com/dessin/2015/02/03/1-union-a

¹⁷ http://roaci.com/cote-divoir-mobilisation-exeption-nelle-partisan

¹⁸ http://www.africal.com/spip.php?article63242

¹⁹ http://www.jeuneafrique.com/mag/300302/societe/cote-divoire-pr

²⁰ http://www.jeuneafrique.com/298608/Societe/cpiproces-gbagbo-quatre

²¹ http://www.itele-fr/monde/video/proces-de-laurant-gbagbo-quatre

²² It should not be forgotten that 10% of the ICC budget is funded by France (http://www.panafricain.com/index.asp?page=aetail_article8lart=11-2.X1.2015).

²³ http://www.jeuneafrique.com/298608/societe/cpiproees-gbagbo-1

²⁴ http://www.france24.com/fr/20160201-proces-laurent-gbagb-cpi

²⁵ Ibidem.

²⁶ http://www.vigile.net/Qui-Sent Gbagbo-et-Ouattara

²⁷ http://www.itele/fr/monde/video/proces-de-laurant-gbagbo-qyatr

²⁸ http://ivoirtv.net/actualites/national/703-comment-laurant-gbagbo-Antoine Malo - Le journal de Dimanche.

²⁹ Ibidem.

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