D-2 before the return of Laurent Gbagbo: divergent opinions among the victims
Audio 01:27
Demonstration of victims in Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Monday, June 14, 2021, two days before the return of Laurent Gbagbo. © François Mazet / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Ten years after his 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 variously appreciated by the various associations of victims of political violence.
Some still ask for justice, others want the priority to be reconciliation and forgiveness.
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With our special correspondent in Abidjan,
François Mazet
A group of a few dozen people gathered in front of the town hall of Abobo in the early afternoon.
Slogans and placards: a brief demonstration of young people and women from the neighborhood to demand justice, demand to send Laurent Gbagbo to prison or under house arrest.
Among them, Issiaka Diaby, the President of the Collective of victims in Côte d'Ivoire (CVCI)
Laurent Gbagbo, for certain communities of victims, it is like the wolf which was driven far from the sheepfold and which is in the process of returning.
The victims in Ivory Coast thirst for justice, one thirst for truth, thirst for repentance, thirst for reparations, through criminal justice actions.
It is an element which always lacked in Côte d'Ivoire to go to reconciliation.
One to the end that Mamadou Soromidjo Coulibaly does not share.
In the building opposite, he heads the National Federation of Victims of the Crisis in Côte d'Ivoire (Fémavipelci).
He acknowledges
the defeat of the judicial option
and prefers to stress the need for reconciliation.
What puzzles us a bit 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 designate one by one.
All we ask of them is that they ask our forgiveness for wronging us.
You can't fight for life.
Mamadou Soromidjo Coulibaly is especially worried about seeing political leaders "
not playing the game
".
Like other victims' organizations, Fémavipelci and the CVCI shared their proposals on reconciliation with the minister in charge of the case, Bertin Konan Kouadio, last week.
► To read also:
Laurent Gbagbo: the key dates of an eventful political and judicial journey
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