Rebels with a cause, but no training

“I carry out the investigations, put them in prison, and I and my boss-man decide when they can be freed,” said Wassa-Wassa, one of two rebel-come-police operating in the remote northeast Ivorian town of Bouna. Wassa-Wassa was half way through police academy in the northern town of Korhogo when war broke out in September 2002. The conflict left Cote d’Ivoire fractured in two between a government-held south and rebel-controlled north. Born in Bouna, where his mother still lives, Wassa-Wassa moved back there shortly after the war erupted and joined the rebel New Forces. At the time he was the only New Forces member in Bouna to have had any police training at all. “To make sure to uphold human rights, the New Forces decided to form a police force here,” said the slim 38-year-old officer, a fast-talking hyper-active sort who jerks his hands about to emphasize each point. Because of his status as almost-trained policeman, Wassa-Wassa gets to drive a Turbo-charged 4x4 Nissan spray painted military green. The windows have been blacked out and a thumping sound system added along with flashing disco lights at the rear. There can be no doubt about who’s behind the wheel. His name is painted over the number plate. Bur Wassa-Wassa, which means fast-fast in the local language, is not his real name. His real name is Tiemoko Ouattara. The cop car has a blue light on top that can be switched to flash mode when he’s in hot pursuit, or just if he feels like it. A fluffy red and yellow lobster dangles from the rear-view mirror. Ghanaian peacekeepers stationed in this part of the country to monitor a January 2003 peace deal between the insurgents and President Laurent Gbagbo, reckon that most vehicles used by the rebels were commandeered – either from wealthy residents, or from one the NGOs that have long since fled. Wassa-Wassa's boss is Vesiliki Keita, a trained long-serving police officer who was assigned to the town by the rebels to become Bouna chief of police. He still wears his old uniform.

Bouna's New Forces police chief

"I've selected 25 men from our ranks to begin training them for police duties," said Keita, as he explains how he is trying to improve policing operations in the rebel-held region. Little military training Like Wassa-Wassa, the majority of New Forces fighters in Bouna were born and raised there, and also like him few have had any previous military training or experience. But many like to resort to “juju”, or black magic, though Wassa-Wassa says fetishism is a criminal offence that can land you in jail. The rebel second in command, Lieutenant Ibrahim Ben, one of the few to have rubbed shoulders with the armed forces before the civil war, did a stint as a nurse in the Ivorian army and wears amulets around his neck and wrist to ward off harm, especially bullets. But like most of the rebels, one of his subordinates, a chubby man known as “IB” (short for Ibrahim), learnt to use a weapon only recently. “I used to be unemployed before the war," he said. These days IB has a pistol in his pocket, an AK-47 over his shoulder and his own moped. When his commander is away he gets to bark the orders at the frontier post with Ghana, 30 km east of Bouna. Now and again the commander comes to the border post to check on him. The senior officer refused to give his name or rank but just stood and looked on. His eyes were heavily drawn around with what looked like blue biro ink – the so-called ‘black power’ of juju magic. “This is a free town, people pass freely. We don’t bother them,” said IB in front of his boss. “For (almost) three years now we have been running this town, and we have not enriched ourselves.” Complaints about checkpoints

Vonkoro on the Cote d'Ivoire/Ghana border

At the border post, women traders have crossed the 50-metre wide river marking the border with Ghana by boat. They cautiously eye the young and edgy armed rebel sentries who are the self-appointed immigration, customs and security force. Traders and merchants complain that rebel tariffs are crippling the fragile local economy. “If I want to send a lorry of cashews out of the region for example, it costs me 750,000 CFA (about US$ 1,500),” said one Muslim trader. Residents of Bouna are also regularly forced to empty their pockets at the checkpoints that have mushroomed across town and along trade routes, especially on market days, the best days for collecting “fines”. “You have to have a license for everything – even for a bicycle! And if you can’t produce your permit or identity papers, they fine you. If you can’t pay the fine then you go to prison until someone pays the fine for you,” said one angry town resident. But the rebels deny that they harass the citizens of Bouna. “It’s them,” said IB, meaning the enemy government forces. “We are the liberators, we are the ones that respect the law!” Major Ouattara Morou, the rebel commander of the entire northeastern zone, spends a lot of time in larger rebel bases, either in Korhogo or at headquarters in Bouake. Both large towns are reached by travelling west along an arduous 300 km stretch of dirt road that runs parallel with the Burkina Faso border. One Ghanaian officer in Bouna, serving as part of the 6,000-strong United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (ONUCI), said that despite their lack of training, the New Forces rebels are fairly well disciplined compared to rebels he saw in action in Liberia, Congo or Rwanda. “The leaders know that if they behave badly, if they mistreat the population too much, then they will lose the political battle,” said an ONUCI officer who asked not to be identified. More than two years after the signing of the so-called Linas-Marcoussis peace deal in January 2003, the peace process is deadlocked and the country’s 16 million people increasingly mired in economic hardship. As unemployment rises and cash runs short, ONUCI soldiers are concerned that some of the rebels are not old enough to be serving in an army. “There are a few that I know of that can’t be more than 15,” said one Ghanaian peacekeeper. Residents too worry their children are being lured into rebel ranks. “There is no school for them to go to, there are no jobs. What else is there for them to do?” said one old man.