Highlights
-Sector East Commander holds talks with FAFN Military Chief
-Some arms destroyed during the Flame of Peace celebration to be disposed of;
-Journalist arbitrarily arrested and detained in Abidjan

Military

The Sector East Commander, Brigadier General Tariq Javed, had a meeting with the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Forces Nouvelles (FAFN), General Soumailia Bakayoko on Saturday 8 September at the FAFN headquarters. Brigadier General Javed was accompanied by some of his front-line officers and the acting head of the Human Rights section based in Bouaké, Manuela Schild. The meeting was called to increase information exchange and cooperation between SEHQ military and the FAFN, and to raise a few specific problems concerning insecurity in Korhogo and human rights violations in Bouaké.
Brigadier General Javed reported that General Bakayoko was very accommodating and cordial and that the meeting was constructive. General Bakayoko promised to look into the human rights and security questions immediately and stated that he would report back to the Sector East Commander as soon as he could. Brigadier General Javed stated that this was the first of what he hoped would be routine meetings between himself and the Chief of Staff of the FAFN. "I hope that these meetings will help our coordination with the FAFN to improve," he explained today at the Morning Military briefing.

Arms disposal

The Chief of Staff of Sector East and the Chief of Operations stated that the three goals of the SEHQ this week were:
To dispose of the some weapons that were destroyed or gathered for the Flame of Peace ceremony held in Bouaké on 30 July 2007. As reported earlier, of the 2121 arms all but 515 were burned during the ceremony. Over the weekend SEHQ and other UN sections met with the Integrated Command Center (CCI) to develop a system for disposing these arms. Each and every day this week officers from the CCI will go to Bouaké to work with ONUCI military to transport, store and dispose of these arms. This is considered a high priority. Whether the arms will be listed as part of the ONUCI DDR process is not clear and will need to be further investigated. The Brigadier General Javed stated that the agreement for disposing of the arms did not include registering them, but the DDR representative stated that he was going to attempt to register the arms before they are destroyed. ONUCI French Engineers, BANBATT 4 and MORBATT will all participate in this disposal operation.

Political Affairs

The chief of the Political Affairs Division of UNOCI, Modem Lawson, is visiting and working in Bouaké today. Political Affairs officers from Bouaké, Daloa, Korhogo and Yamoussoukro went to Bouaké for meetings with Mr Lawson and other UNOCI officials. All section chiefs and military officers were invited to a meeting with the visitors. An overview of the political situation was given and the work that the UN is doing to support the Ouagadougou Political Accord (OPA) was described. Lawson stated that he would remain optimistic about the implementation of the OPA as long as the facilitator, the President of Burkina Faso, remained engaged. He said that it was important for the Prime Minister and President to make some headway with the implementation of the Accord before the Security Council meets in October 2007. The meeting was appreciated by all of those who attended.

Human Rights

The Regional Human Rights Office in Duekoué reported on 6 September that FAFN elements posted in Facobly (140 km from Duekoué), are committing several violations against the local population, ranging from harassment and ill-treatment to denial of freedom of movement. In this respect, a 21-year-old man named Karim was arbitrarily arrested on 25 August and detained at the military base for two (2) days, for having refused to give two chickens to the FAFN elements. During his detention, he attempted to escape and was injured at this leg by a military element who fired twice on him.
The Human Rights Regional Office in Odienné raised concern over the practice of Female Genital Mutilation in the village of Bohisso, 50 km from Odienné. At Sokorodougou, 57 km south of Odienné, the Office reported that a one-year-old child, Koné Saindou, had been abandoned by his parents and was suffering from malnutrition due to lack of care. The Office is following up these issues with local authorities.
In Bondoukou, the newly established Human Rights Regional Office undertook courtesy visits on 6 September to the Police and Gendarmerie officials to present its mandate and activities. In this regard, the Office discussed future promotional activities on human rights training and sensitization campaigns. On 5 September, the Office visited Bondoukou Prison, which has 263 inmates, including 4 women and 3 minors. The Office is planning to organize human rights training for penitentiary officials in the near future.