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Ivory Coast sets up 'war crimes' inquiry

Ivory Coast is to set up a commission of inquiry into crimes committed during the country's post-election violence, a council of ministers said last week.

See Al-Jazeera’s report here

The commission would "help understand how and why people were able to conceive, plan and execute such grave violations of human rights," the ministers said.

"As a duty to memory, Ivory Coast intends to provide the means to establish the truth of the facts in order, if necessary, to take legal action against the perpetrators," their statement said.

Alassane Ouattara, the president, signed the decree establishing the commission, giving it six months to reach conclusions.

After losing the presidential election in November last year the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, now under house arrest, refused to accept his loss.

Instead he used loyal soldiers, gangs of armed youths and mercenaries to crush dissent and retain power.

The power struggle rekindled a civil war the election was supposed to resolve, killing at least 3,000 people, displacing a million and sending tens of thousands fleeing into neighbouring Liberia and Ghana

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