Highlight

- SRSG attends opening ceremony of journalists' forum
- Enrolment for civic service programme starts in Bouaké
- Passenger minibus attacked in western Côte d'Ivoire

Information

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Côte d'Ivoire, Mr. Y.J.Choi today participated in the opening ceremony of a forum for journalists, politicians and civil society on the "Mission of the Media in the Electoral Period" organized by the Ministry of Communication and the National Union of Journalists in Cote d'Ivoire. Speaking at the event, which was presided over by Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, Mr. Choi said that the international community would do all within its power to ensure the date for presidential elections is respected while calling on Ivorian journalists to help the peace process. The main objectives of the forum are to draw up a strategy that will facilitate the practice of good journalism during the electoral process, to effectively involve the media in the electoral process, and to draw up a guide on reporting during the electoral period.

DDR

Enrolment for the civic service programme started in Bouaké yesterday and some 215 young people out of the expected 250 had already enrolled by the end of the exercise which is being organized financed by the German aid agency GTZ. The participants will be trained in civic education and the value of good citizenship, to help them to reintegrate into society. In addition, they will receive training in running small businesses in areas such as agriculture and animal husbandry.

UNPOL yesterday reported that the DDR site in Man is slowly being destroyed. According to their report, of the 14 tents that have been erected, two are torn, four have fallen over while most of them are invested with termites, ants and reptiles.

Security

The Mixed Brigade in Bangolo is investigating an attack on a passenger minibus carried out by two armed bandits along the Duekoue – Bangolo road in western Cote d'Ivoire, between Baoubly and Diahouin. One woman was injured and the attackers escaped with an unknown amount of money, mobile phones and other personal items.

Arms embargo

Arms embargo inspections were yesterday successfully carried out by UNOCI peacekeepers at the 52nd Battalion of the Armed Forces of Forces Nouvelles (FAFN) located in Massala, near Séguéla (west) and a FAFN unit in Minigun, near Odienné (north), its platoon in Tehini, near Bouna (east) and Boundiali, near Korhogo (north) and at its detachment in Bonguera, near M'bahiakro (east).
Fire

SENBATT's stand-by platoon yesterday quickly intervened when fire broke out near a gas station close to its camp in San Pedro and extinguished the blaze before the national fire brigade arrived. There was no damage to UNOCI property.

Human Rights

The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights (DHC) Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, who yesterday concluded her two-day visit to Côte d'Ivoire has said that all forms of exploitation, including of children, were totally unacceptable and that impunity for such acts would not be tolerated. Responding to questions from the media, Mrs Kang was commenting on the Save the Children report released yesterday on sexual abuses committed, inter alia, by UN personnel. She indicated that the UN would look carefully, into the allegations made by the report and that if they were found to be credible, the mechanism put in place by the UN and to which the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) fully adheres, would be applied.

The Regional Human Rights Office in Bouaké has today organized a training session for human rights clubs in the city. The session will include presentations on international human rights instruments and children's rights. Local NGOs such as the Ligue Ivoirienne des Droits de l'Homme (LIDHO) and the Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits de l'Homme (MIDH) will also be making presentations at the event.

The Human Rights Office and UNPOL in Yamoussoukro are investigating reports that Ivorian law enforcement officers shot and killed five suspected criminals in broad daylight on 15 May 2008 in a neighbourhood called Kokrenou in the political capital.