A/HRC/17/48 32. In Liberia, the Commission met with a mercenary leader known by the name of Bob Marley and his deputy Prince Baroley. They operated side-by-side with the forces supporting Mr. Gbagbo in the region of Guiglo and are reported to have been responsible for an attack on the Bloléquin Prefecture, which took the lives of some 50 people. E. Impartial forces 33. The United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) is a peacekeeping operation set up under United Nations Security Council resolution 1528. With a strength of some 10,000 men, ONUCI has been deployed since 4 April 2004 and is tasked with monitoring the application of the 2003 and 2005 cease-fire and peace agreements and assisting the Ivorian authorities in the implementation of the various measures provided for in those agreements. France participates in ONUCI through Force Licorne, a third-tier quick-reaction force with a strength of 1,650 men. It could intervene only after the Ivorian armed forces and the UNOCI forces. III. Facts and characterization of the facts A. Origin of the crisis: remote and immediate causes Remote causes 34. Following the death in 1993 of President Houphouët-Boigny, a fierce struggle to succeed him broke out among Ivorian political figures. The ensuing tension helped pave the way for the development of the concept of “ivoirité”, a political battle weapon created by Mr. Henri Konan Bédié, which he put into effect through rural land rights legislation that barred part of the Ivorian population from owning property.5 Xenophobia was rampant, targeting in particular Ivorian agricultural workers originating from Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Togo and Benin or migrants from those neighbouring countries who in many cases had been living in Côte d'Ivoire for several decades. 35. It became common for politicians and the media to speak of the inhabitants of Côte d'Ivoire as being indigenous or non-indigenous or indigenous of non-indigenous descent; in time, ordinary people did the same. From that time on, there were increasing numbers of political incidents tainted by xenophobia until the accession to power of President Robert Gueï, then Mr. Gbagbo in 2000, who remained in power until the 2010 presidential elections. Immediate causes of the crisis: the 2010 elections 36. The electoral campaign and the first round of the presidential election took place in a peaceful and free atmosphere, notwithstanding a few sporadic incidents6 between 5 6 Under the 1998 Rural Land Act, only the State, public authorities and Ivorian natural persons are allowed to own rural land. Because of the fears expressed by a large number of non-Ivorian landowners who had been cultivating the land for sometimes as long as several generations, and in particular the exclusion of their non-Ivorian heirs from land ownership, the 1998 Act was amended pursuant to the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement. A law dated 14 August 2004 thus stipulated that rural land ownership rights acquired before 2004 are transmissible to heirs. Landowners to whom the exception applies are required to be included in a list drawn up by the Council of Ministers. There were some isolated minor clashes in Bouaflé, Daloa, Guiglo, Katiola and Niablé, and election posters were destroyed in some regions. GE.11-14375 (EXT) 11