With allies like this...

摘要

Wearing green-and-blue pyjama bottoms, Amade Oueremi casually bantered with government soldiers and posed for mobile-phone pictures as he entertained them recently at his encampment in the Mount Peko national park, in the west-central part of Ivory Coast. Mr Oueremi's personal militia, believed to number at least 100, had occupied the protected forest for more than a decade. A few hours later, government soldiers arrested him, dragging him kicking and screaming into a blue van. "Why am I the only one accused of crimes?" he said. "They want to eat without me." Ever since Ivory Coast's short but murderous crisis after a disputed election in 2010, Mr Oueremi enjoyed close relations with the rebels who have now become the national army. Alongside bands of traditional hunters, called dozos, he helped to wrest the country's west from forces loyal to the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, on behalf of Alassane Ouattara, who was internationally recognised to have won the election. In the process, they allegedly slaughtered hundreds in Due-koue, a town near Mount Peko.