Former pilots on trial over 2004 Ivory Coast attack

The trial of three former pilots – a Belorussian and two Ivorians – over an air strike that killed nine French peacekeepers in the Ivory Coast in 2004 has begun in Paris. An American aid worker was also killed and 40 other people were injured. BBC News reports that a Russian-built Sukhoi fighter jet attacked the French camp at Bouaké during former President Laurent Gbagbo's campaign to quell a rebellion. Voice of America reports that some believe the attack was a blunder by Ivorian authorities. Former French ambassador to Ivory Coast, Jean-Marc Simon, told Radio France International he believed even Gbagbo had not been informed of it in advance, but suggested high-level members of his government must have given the orders. France destroyed the entire Ivorian Air Force in retaliation, sparking riots that forced the French army to evacuate French citizens from Ivory Coast. The three former pilots are being tried in absentia. There are questions about why the defendants were never caught, and international arrest warrants against them not carried out. France’s former ministers of defence, interior and foreign affairs have been called as witnesses in the trial.