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Background to Events Surrounding the March 25, 2004 Demonstration

On March 17, 2004, seven opposition groups, including political parties and rebel factions from a coalition called the Group of 7 (G7), announced their intention to demonstrate to both reiterate their demands for a comprehensive implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement and protest obstacles to its implementation placed by President Laurent Gbagbo. The demonstration was scheduled for March 25, 2004 in Abidjan.

On March 22, 2004, President Gbabgo issued Presidential decree # 2004-236 that mobilized the military to establish a strict security apparatus in and around Abidjan. The same day, Army chief of staff, General Mathias Doue decreed that the area around the presidential palace, which is near the intended point of gathering for the march, be considered a “red zone” in which demonstrators would be considered “enemy fighters and treated as such without warning.”  He further admonished all parties to respect the authority of the state, “or else, the defense and security forces will not hesitate to inflict on those, who still haven’t understood, the sanction they deserve.”⁴

On March 24, 2004, President Gbagbo convened a meeting with the prime minister, the ministers of defense and internal security, as well as the chiefs of all security forces, including the national police, the gendarmerie and armed forces of Côte d’Ivoire (FANCI). According to members of the security forces interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the planned security operation was to cover the entire district of Abidjan and involved coordination between all branches of the security forces. The task of crowd control and maintaining order was conferred primarily to the national police and the gendarmerie. The FANCI were to ensure the protection of Abidjan in case of a military attack and to participate in patrols around the city.⁵

The security forces took up their positions in the early hours of March 25, around 4:00 a.m., especially at the entry points of traditional political strongholds of the G7 coalition.  Their mission was to impede the access to downtown Abidjan by potential marchers originating from the outlying districts of Abobo, Adjame, Anyama, Koumassi, and Yopougon.⁶ From the early hours of the morning thousands of marchers began gathering in groups of varying sizes within these districts in anticipation of marching to the city center. However, the security forces often violently broke up the groups and impeded the demonstrators from proceeding both as they were in the process of gathering and after they had formed into groups.

During the week before the march, numerous appeals for peaceful conflict resolution were made by Ivoiran, regional, and international actors. These included the U.N. Secretary General, the U.N. Special Representative to Côte d’Ivoire, the European Union, and the Ghanian President John Kuffour, in his capacity as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The G7 were urged to desist from marching and instead engage in a dialogue promised by President Gbabgo and scheduled for March 29, 2004.