France punishes generals over death in Ivory Coast

Two senior French generals have been reprimanded and relieved of their command after the defence ministry concluded that they failed to report to their superiors the suffocation of an Ivory Coast man by three French peacekeepers. The troops will face a criminal investigation by civilian prosecutors after an internal defence ministry report.

France's military chief of staff, General Henri Bentegeat, said the punishment of General Henri Poncet, the former commander of French peacekeepers in the west African country, and his deputy, Renaud de Malaussène, was the highest non-statutory sanction the ministry could have taken. The four-star general had been accused, in leaked reports, of covering up for the soldiers found guilty of killing Firmin Mahé, 30, in May last year. General Poncet has been "transferred to other duties".

The killing of Mahé, described as a member of a gang that set up roadblocks to extort money from passing vehicles, came at a time of extreme tension between French peacekeepers and the Ivorian government of Laurent Gbagbo. France's 4,000-strong Licorne peacekeeping force has been stationed in the former colony since civil war started in September 2003.

President Gbagbo, who is clinging to power after ignoring a United Nations power-sharing deadline, has long argued that France favours northern-based rebels who want to remove him from power. Mahé was killed a few days after mercenaries hired by the government attacked French positions. In the same period, French troops opened fire on civilians demonstrating against their presence outside a hotel in the commercial capital, Abidjan.

While observers have welcomed the openness by the French defence ministry over the Mahé killing, they claim it disguises other abuses by French troops that have gone unpunished. Given that Mahé was a criminal, killed in connection with an anti-racketeering operation, his death was far less politically sensitive than was, for instance, the use of live bullets at Hotel Ivoire a few days earlier.

The unusually high level of openness over the Poncet affair comes as France is being forced to rethink its permanent deployments in Africa. The African Union, backed by the United Nations, wants former colonial powers to leave peacekeeping to Africans and to limit their involvement to logistical support.

The widely leaked report into Mahé's death establishes that he " was killed by suffocation by French soldiers in an armoured personnel carrier between Bangolo and Man on 13 May''. It says Licorne commanders were informed but did not pass the information to their superiors. "The report reveals two levels of responsibility ­ that of direct or indirect involvement in the homicide on the one hand, and that of falsifying reports and dissimulating facts on the other," the ministry said.

Mahé was killed on 13 May after being shot in the leg, then captured and taken for treatment by French soldiers. He died in a jeep on the way to hospital and it is understood that the three soldiers who travelled with him are those who will face a military tribunal.

According to Le Monde, the internal report by Admiral Patrick Hebrard that informed yesterday's decision, contained evidence that General Poncet was aware of the killing within 24 hours. Yet when General Bentegeat visited Ivory Coast four days after the killing it was not mentioned. In July this year, General Poncet was decorated with the French Cross of Valour by President Chirac.