'No blood on my hands', I. Coast ex-youth leader to ICC

Former Ivorian youth leader Charles Ble Goude on Tuesday denied any role in deadly post-poll violence in his country in 2010 and 2011, saying he had "no blood" on his hands.

And the 44-year-old's lawyers also tried to bill him as a man of peace in the same mould as celebrated American civil rights activist Martin Luther King.

"When it comes to my fellow citizens, I do not have a single drop of blood on my hands," Ble Goude told the International Criminal Court, where he and ex-president Laurent Gbagbo face charges of crimes against humanity arising from the 2010-2011 bloodshed in the west African nation.

"I feel like I have become the target of a hunt," said Ble Goude, telling the three-judge bench he was "afraid of war in the Ivory Coast."

Gbagbo, 70, and Ble Goude -- known for his fiery rhetoric -- have denied four counts including murder, rape and persecution after some 3,000 people died in five months of violence in the country.

Their landmark trial opened on Thursday at the court based in The Hague and is set to last three to four years.

Gbagbo declared himself the winner of a November 2010 presidential election, but France, the former colonial power, the United States and the United Nations said victory belonged to his bitter rival Alassane Ouattara.

The row triggered a bitter standoff that saw bloody clashes erupt on the streets of Abidjan.

- 'Falsifying history'-

Prosecutors accuse Ble Goude -- dubbed Gbagbo's "General of the Streets" because of his powerful oratory skills -- of ordering his "Young Patriots" militia to murder, rape and burn alive hundreds of people during the crisis.
But lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops said the exact opposite was true and his client was a "man of peace".

"Charles Ble Goude never ordered the violence," Knoops said.

Ble Goude was "even considered to be too pacifist, like Martin Luther King," said Knoops, referring to the 1960s civil rights icon.

Another defence lawyer, Claver N'Dry, accused war crimes prosecutors of "falsifying history."

Speaking in French, but switching briefly to English to make a point, the stylishly-dressed Ble Goude told the judges he would never foment ethnic or religious tension in the world's largest cocoa grower.

"We know in the Cote d'Ivoire that we will never use ethnic group against ethnic group... religion against religion."

"It is dangerous. So don't play with it," he warned.

Lawyers showed a video of Ble Goude accompanied by American civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson, who was close to King, to underline their contention that he was a man of peace.

Ble Goude himself told the court "I am not ashamed to say that I am afraid of war."

"Not because I am a coward, but because of my sense of responsibility."

- 'No Street General' -

He said he took exception to being called a "militia leader" adding Gbagbo "never sent me out to commit crimes".

Knoops said there was "a major difference between a person who uses his rhetoric skills to call for liberation... and a person who uses his rhetoric skills to get control," as prosecutors have suggested.

"He was no General of the Streets," Knoops stressed.

After Gbagbo's fall, Ble Goude was arrested in January 2013 in Ghana. He had been on the run for more than 18 months and was transferred to the ICC in 2014.

Judges in March 2015 joined Gbagbo and Ble Goude's cases to speed up proceedings.

Prosecutors are expected to present the first witnesses to testify in their case on Wednesday.
Source: AFP