Offices of human rights organization ransacked

The offices of an Ivorian human rights organisation, the Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains (MIDH), were ransacked on Saturday by two armed men in plain clothing, MIDH sources told IRIN. According to the sources, the men went to the organisation's offices in the high-income Abidjan neighbourhood of Deux Plateaux a few minutes after the secretary arrived and asked her for an MIDH document issued on the previous day. They beat her up when she said she was not aware of the document, searched the premises for about 45 minutes and took some documents away. The rights group which, since its creation in 2000, has been vocal in denouncing human rights violations, has informed the authorities of the incident. The sources said it had also informed an international follow-up committee monitoring the implementation of an agreement concluded in January by Ivorian political and rebel groups. Saturday's incident came on the heels of the organisation's latest public declaration in which it denounced numerous "attempts at intimidation" that it has suffered since the beginning of Cote d'Ivoire's crisis. "The objective of all these threats is to prevent us from working properly," one of the sources told IRIN. "They succeed partially, but our determination is undiminished." Cote d'Ivoire's crisis began on September when a military uprising broke out in Abidjan before developing into a rebellion that has divided the country into a rebel-held north and government-controlled south. A ceasefire concluded in October has largely held along the dividing line between north and south. However, a confused situation reigns in the west - along the border with Liberia - with frequent reports of attacks by both rebels and loyalist forces and significant population displacement in recent months. MIDH sources said that prior to the latest incident, armed men had "visited" the homes of several of the organisation's members and threatened to kill them, at times after curfew hours. [A curfew imposed since the start of the crisis now runs from midnight to 06:00 GMT/local time - previously 2100 to 0600 and, at one point, from as early as 19:00 GMT.] The movements of some MIDH members have been monitored by "unknown men", and the organisation has been tagged as a pro-rebel organisation, they said. For security reasons, the organisation's president and vice-president, who are both lawyers, have been living abroad for months now.