US embassy cable - 04ACCRA2350

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, refugees 
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