20110513
REUTERS

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said no exceptions would be made in punishing those responsible for rights abuses, a pledge that will lead to close scrutiny of his forces' actions during its recent war.

Ouattara, speaking on Friday in Senegal on his first visit abroad since taking over from ex-President Laurent Gbagbo, also said he had no information on reports Charles Ble Goude, an influential pro-Gbagbo youth leader, had been killed during the crisis.

The top cocoa grower's four-month post-election wrangle, which started when Gbagbo refused to cede power despite losing a November 28 election, crippled the economy and has left Ouattara the daunting task of rebuilding the deeply divided nation.

Gbagbo, his wife and some 200 others in his close circle have been arrested, or are under house arrest as investigations are carried out, but rights groups say pro-Ouattara forces must also be held accountable for any crimes committed during the crisis that is believed to have killed some 3,000.

"My desire is to ensure that there is no impunity in Ivory Coast. No one is above the law. All those who committed crimes will be punished and the law is there to work out the penalties," Ouattara told reporters in Dakar.

"Ivory Coast wants the rule of law. We want to be exemplary. There will not be any exceptions," he added.

Most of the accusations of abuse have been levelled at pro-Gbagbo forces who were used to crush any attempts in Abidjan to protest. The U.N. said Gbagbo's forces shelled civilians with heavy weapons while Ouattara's government has said pro-Gbagbo militia killed 120 people as they fled Abidjan last week.

But pro-Ouattara supporters have been accused of killing as many as 1,000 civilians in the west of the country as they pushed south.