Hague court to investigate Ivory Coast killings

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, requested in June the right to investigate crimes allegedly committed by forces loyal to ousted leader Laurent Gbagbo as well as those backing his rival Alassane Ouattara.

ICC judges said today they would allow the prosecutor to open an investigation, marking the Hague-based court's seventh formal investigation. All of its probes have so far been in Africa. It has issued an arrest warrant for Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

"Everyone who committed violence must be prosecuted in order for there to be reconciliation," said Gnenema Coulibaly, Ivory Coast's Minister of Human Rights and Civil Liberties.

Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara following the Nov. 28 election, triggering months of violence and economic havoc in the West African country before Gbagbo was captured in April in Abidjan.

The former leader is being held in the north of the country. Ouattara said last month he would be tried in Ivory Coast for "economic crimes" and also face justice at the ICC.

Gbagbo's supporters have complained that no member of Ouattara's camp has been arrested, despite evidence of abuses by the former rebel troops.

"We just hope that the ICC conducts its work independently and transparently, as we have always rejected 'winner's justice'. We are hopeful and we are calm," said Sylvain Ouretto Miaka, interim head of Gbagbo's party, the Ivorian Popular Front.

The party also called on the ICC to investigate the 1999 military coup and 2002-03 civil war that sought to depose Gbagbo, but the court only has jurisdiction to investigate crimes from 2002, the year it was established.