United Nations

SG/SM/9240
                                                                                                                 AFR/881
                                                                                                                 5 April 2004

Secretary-General Asks Human Rights Commissioner to Create Body to Investigate 25 March Events in Côte d’Ivoire

NEW YORK, 2April (UN Headquarters) -- The following statement was issued today by the spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

Following requests from the Monitoring Committee, as well as President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, urging the United Nations to institute an international commission of inquiry to investigate the tragic events that occurred in Abidjan on 25 March 2004, the Secretary-General has asked the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to take the lead in the establishment of such a Commission, which will commence its work as soon as possible.

The Secretary-General expects all Ivorian authorities and political forces to extend all the necessary cooperation to this Commission.  In the meantime, he calls on all Ivorians to continue to exercise restraint and avoid any steps that could cause further deterioration in the situation in the country.

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