A U.N. panel investigating political violence in the...

A U.N. panel investigating political violence in the Ivory Coast said that government security forces bore responsibility for hundreds of killings and beatings that took place in the West African nation in October and December 2000.
But the three-man special panel said it was unable to fix the blame on specific individuals due to a "wall of silence" among military and police officials, and it urged the government to press the search to identify those responsible.
"The commission received precise and credible testimony demonstrating the systematic character of torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment inflicted on those detained in the gendarmerie camps and at the national police school," the UN report on the investigation said.