Fifty-five bodies found dumped in pile in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast's new government pledged Saturday to track down the killers of dozens of young men whose bodies were found dumped in a field - men who opposition officials and witnesses say were executed by government security forces.

The gruesome discovery of the 55 bodies Friday, and the allegations that the country's paramilitary police could be involved, cast a shadow over the new government. Less than a week after an uprising drove the military ruler from power and only two days after street fighting here ended, the reports also fueled the uneasiness that regularly sparks rumors of renewed violence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's main city.

The corpses all appeared to be young men who had been shot. They were still tangled grotesquely on top of one another Saturday in a field surrounded by forest on the edge of Abidjan's Yopougon neighborhood. Twisted at obscene angles, most of the bodies were naked or only partially clothed.

Officials in white gowns, rubber boots and plastic gloves sorted through the corpses as the country's new interior minister arrived in a large motorcade, accompanied by soldiers and paramilitary police.

''I am ashamed of what we are seeing here,'' said the minister, Emile Boga Doudou, a surgical mask to ward off the stench hanging around his neck. ''The police must do their work to find the author of this atrocity.''

But to followers of opposition leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara, who say those dumped in the field were fellow members of his Rally of the Republicans party, Ivorian authorities cannot be trusted to investigate the crime.

''It is security forces that killed them,'' said Amadou Coulibaly, a party spokesman. He said at least 155 Ouattara supporters have been killed in Abidjan since Wednesday, and at least 22 in other Ivorian cities. Those numbers could not be independently confirmed.

Coulibaly said that in Abidjan, some of those killed were grabbed by militant supporters of newly installed President Laurent Gbagbo, handed over to security forces and not seen again until their corpses were spotted in the pile.

Area residents backed up his account, saying on condition of anonymity that Gbagbo militants, backed by paramilitary police and soldiers, had forced their way into the homes of Ouattara's most ardent followers, beating young men and hauling them away.

''They broke down the door,'' said one man, a taxi driver who said six of his relatives were taken away by Gbagbo supporters backed by security forces. The driver escaped by fleeing the house.

The discovery of the bodies followed three days of violence that drove out military junta leader Gen. Robert Guei and then turned to fighting between rival opposition forces. The unrest has left some 200 people dead.

Guei had claimed victory in Ivory Coast's Oct. 22 presidential election, a vote that was dogged by fraud and unfair competition charges. In less than a day, he saw power slip from his grasp as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets. Later joined by security forces, they swept Gbagbo, who ran against Guei in the election, to power.

Gbagbo's victory, though, set off another round of unrest as Ouattara's supporters launched protests to call for new elections. Those protests led to even more violence, with political fighting turning into horrific sectarian attacks. Gbagbo's mostly southern Christian supporters battled Ouattara's followers, most of them northern Muslims.

Ouattara was thought to have more support than Gbagbo, but he was barred from Sunday's vote by the Supreme Court, as were other opposition figures.