Chirac says French killing in Ivory Coast a mistake - Killed the wrong guy

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09140866.htm

PARIS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac said on Monday the killing of an Ivory Coast man by French peacekeeping troops last year was a "serious mistake".

An Ivorian believed to have led a gang accused of a string of murders and rapes was suffocated to death in the back of a French military vehicle in May during an attempt to arrest him.

French investigators are checking the identity of the dead man, after reports he may not have been the highway bandit they had been targeting. snip

It was his first public comment on the affair that, besides dividing the French military and public opinion, has served to aggravate relations between France and its former colony which are already at a low ebb because of a political crisis gripping the world's top cocoa producer.