PRESIDENTIAL BODYGUARD FROM COTE D'IVOIRE ALLEGES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ACCRA 002350

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/29/2014
TAGS: GH IV PGOV PHUM PINR PREF
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL BODYGUARD FROM COTE D'IVOIRE ALLEGES
ABUSES

Classified By: PolChief Scott Ticknor for reasons 1.5 d and e.


1. (C) Summary: Post is processing a refugee request from a
Cote d,Ivoire presidential bodyguard currently in a safe
house in Accra. This message relays a rambling statement he
made to us on November 12, 2004 detailing an attempted
assassination against him by forces under the orders of
Ivorian President Gbagbo. Gbagbo, he claims, has set up a
clandestine security service that has carried out targeted
killings of political opponents. Among the leaders of this
clandestine unit is Lieutenant Colonel Nathanael Ahouman.
End Summary.


2. (C) The following is a paraphrase of a statement made by
an Ivorian presidential bodyguard during a private meeting
with Embassy officers in Accra. The Ivorian has been in
hiding in Accra for several weeks and has been granted
refugee status; he will be departing Accra for the U.S. soon.
He uses third person, is often unclear about his
allegations, and rambles on at length about fighting his
would-be assassins. Washington contacts may be able to
debrief him further when he arrives in the U.S. POC:
Jennifer Christenson in PRM/A, tel 202-663-1050.


3. (C) Begin Text:

The new security directors feel obliged to take my life,
because I know too much about their practices (massive human
rights violations, including kidnappings and killings, which
no investigation by an international organization has yet
been able to discover).

This is their method of directing security for the President.
I need to be resettled for safety,s sake, following failed
assassination attempts against me and other employees of the
presidency.

Arrangements to assassinate me in my home came from within
the offices of the Ivorian presidency, an assassination
planned by high-ranking persons responsible for presidential
security.

The Facts
--------------

During the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 2, 2004, I
was not expecting anything unusual, but my life was saved
only by the grace of God after armed killers of the Republic
descended upon my residence. I should note first that I have
faithfully served the state since the era of Feliz Houphoet
Boigny, Bedie, Guei and now Gbagbo, as part of the GSPR
(Group for the Safety of the Presidency of the Republic),the
official and legal security unit created in 1996. I spent my
military career without the least reproach from my superiors
as an assiduous soldier who was respectful of constitutional
law.

For the alleged good of the new Republic of Cote d,Ivoire,
several &security8 units were created by some individuals
with special interests, leading to chronic insecurity at all
levels of Ivorian society. The government created a unit
parallel to the GSPR that fell under the authority of certain
high-level GSPR officers, including Lieutenant Colonel
Nathanael Ahouman B. This group was charged with carrying
out clandestine missions ordered by Gbagbo, his wife, and the
leaders of the FPI. This parallel unit that did not
officially exist would take control of the GSPR and initiated
my attempted assassination.

About two in the morning on June 2, five men in military
uniform, armed with Kalashnikovs and assault rifles, wearing
black clothes bearing the GSPR emblem, broke into the kitchen
of my residence as if they were professionals. They then
climbed the staircase and cornered my youngest son. The
intruders warned the child to keep silent and to respond to
their questions.

The Guerrilla: Where is your father?
The Child: He is not here; he is away on a mission.

This response so irritated them that one in the group raised
his voice and yelled, &You are lying! We were told that he
is in the house.8

Oddly, during the morning of June 1, I had received a phone
call from Koula Doh, a Sergeant Major with the police force,
who asked about my location. Yet Doh had no friendship with
me, which I found intriguing.

After this question, they led the child into the hall and
shoved him against the wall. With difficulty the child said,
&I told you he is on a mission,8 and asked, &Did you see
his car here?8 The absence of the car seemed to confound
them.

Angrily, the killers questioned each other about the mission
in these terms: &But why did he not verify this and ask us
to come?8 This admission revealed the truth about who
orchestrated the murders in Abidjan and who executed them.

Other examples of recent killings include:

- The murder of: General Guei, whose torturers
still form part of the President,s
close security unit.
- The assassination of the Captain Dosso
(Aide-de-camp of ADO (Ouattara))
- The assassination of the Fabien Captain and the family
of General Guei
- The assassination of Mr. Coulibaly Herve
- Owners of the Mercedes 600 (sold today in Ghana) and of
the 4X4 Cherokee of ADO to the palace (used by karate expert
Bai Patrice)
- Wholesale slaughter of the protesters of 25-26 March,

2004.

The intruders then made the child show them my room. When my
wife heard the cries of the child and moved toward the door,
a guerrilla was waiting with a weapon pointed toward her.
She was thrown into the hall near the two other guerrillas
posted in the corridor. There, she was told to explain her
husband,s &mission,8 while fearing the worst for herself
and her children. She courageously kept silent and prayed to
God that nothing worse would happen.

Hand-to-hand Combat
--------------

I awoke at the sound of violence in the hallway and, rather
than taking the time to deploy my weapon, I resolved to
engage in hand-to-hand combat. Seeing the silhouette of the
first killer entering the room, I managed to punch him in the
face and knock him to the floor behind the two others. This
attack occurred during the night, which the organizers wanted
because there would be no witnesses. In the course of this
struggle, the largest guerrilla lost his left little finger
and stayed behind so that the others could attack. This
combat on the second floor of my house continued into the
living room, as we tumbled down the staircase. One of the
first guerrillas to regain his footing seized his P.A. and
ordered me to lie down so that he could shoot me. I answered
that I would prefer to die on my feet.

At this moment, the idea came to me to make him believe that
I had reinforcements. I shouted, &Wait! Don,t kill me!8
When the guerrilla diverted his glance, I gave his arm a
kick. The weapon flew from his hand and landed not far from
the one who was missing a finger; he seized his weapon and
fired in my direction. The bullet merely grazed my scalp.
Believing I had been injured, they looked for a light switch.
I bounded upstairs to my room, where I had time to arm
myself and fire a burst. When they heard the noise, my
killers fled, saying, &He has a gun.8

After this scene I received threatening phone calls. For my
safety, I had to change phones, but the person who kept my
old phone number continued to receive threats such as, &You
think you have won, but it is not over. Next time you will
not be allowed to leave.8 The call came from a cellular
phone box located at Yopougon Toits Rouge, in the district
where I lived before moving to Cocody.

Following this incident, several questions arose concerning
our brother soldiers who are of the same ethnic group as the
current President. The current mantle of power is exercising
ethnic favoritism among government positions. However, this
policy is based on intimidation, subjugation, the &purchase
of consciences,8 and the elimination of those thought to
constitute an embarrassment to Laurent Gbagbo. Such moral
failings were decried in 1990 upon the advent of multiparty
democracy in Cote d,Ivoire, but massive human rights
violations, particularly kidnappings, increased. (For
example, the last attempt to kill Mr. Bedie at his residence
at Daoukro, during the first vacation President Gbagbo took
in Yamoussoukro, where the MIG 24 launched toward his home
failed because the government did not have the support of
ground troops, which an officer of the GSPR had ordered).

I refused to participate in this act, because it was one of
Ahouman,s ideas.

Such are the intrigues of President Laurent Gbagbo,s
entourage, which now imperil the Republic with the assistance
of death squads that are well known to certain secret Ivorian
units.

End Text.


YATES