A/HRC/17/48 within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. An investigation was initiated on 13 May 2011 against Mr. Gbagbo and his entourage for corruption, destabilization, confiscation of power after the results of the elections and criminal abuse of office. The Government Prosecutor heard Mr. Gbagbo on 6 May and his wife, Simone Gbagbo, on 8 May. In the west, the Commission met with the Daloa Prosecutor who informed it that preliminary investigations had begun into the events that had occurred in the region. 3. The Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Côte d'Ivoire 97. At the beginning of May, President Ouattara appointed Mr. Charles Konan Banny, former Prime Minister, to chair a Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasked with restoring social peace and achieving reconciliation among Ivorians following the serious erosion of social cohesion in the country after a decade of political and armed crises. Mr. Banny explained to the independent, International Commission of Inquiry on Côte d'Ivoire that he had already begun consultations with social and political groups in order to have their views on the mandate and composition of the Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He also said that the basic texts of the Commission were currently being drafted. According to him, the Commission would not have a “judicial” dimension; judicial matters would be settled through Ivorian judicial process. 4. Referral to the International Criminal Court 98. President Outtara informed the Commission that he had referred the situation in Côte d'Ivoire to the International Criminal Court. IV. The victims 99. Although violence is a recurrent phenomenon in the recent political history of Côte d'Ivoire, most of the persons met by the Commission noted the unprecedented character of the violations committed on the occasion of the electoral crisis. 100. The Commission noted the varying degrees of importance attached by those responsible for violations to the ethnic, political or religious characteristics of the victims, according to the area where the violations had occurred and their perpetrators. The Commission noted, however, that it was generally felt that there was a close link between ethnic group and political allegiance. Accordingly, it was felt that persons from neighbouring countries and Ivorians belonging to the Malinke, Dioula and Senoufo ethnic groups supported Alassabe Ouattara´s RDR and that those belonging to the Guéré and Bété ethnic groups supported former President Gbagbo's LMP. A. Children 101. From the early days of the post-electoral crisis, children suffered from violations of their rights by all the parties to the conflict. Some of those violations concerned the civilian population as a whole (assassinations, whether targeted not, injuries, mutilations, abductions, sexual violence, etc.), while others were specific violations of the rights of the child (enforced or “voluntary” recruitment/use, attacks against schools and hospitals). 102. The recruitment and use of children by all parties to the conflict were documented in the west and in Abidjan. Children, sometimes of very young age, were briefly trained and armed and were used at roadblocks, in neighbourhood surveillance and/or in fighting. In other cases, children were used to cook and help armed groups in other ways. Thus, a young Ivorian who had taken refuge in Liberia recounted to the Commission how he had been captured in Doke by members of FRCI under the command of a man by the name of GE.11-14375 (EXT) 21

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