UN: Ivory Coast should act on violations

Alassane Ouattara has urged the ICC to investigate major crimes committed during Ivory Coast's political standoff.The west African nation plunged into bloody chaos after a disputed vote "We need concerted action designed to break the cycle of impunity," U.N. official saysU.N. official expresses concern over violence

(CNN) -- The Ivory Coast should break a cycle of impunity and arrest perpetrators of human rights violations and other abuses after a disputed election last year, a top U.N. official said.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she is concerned by the violence following the disputed election, including reports of summary executions, rape, torture and the use of children by parties to the conflict.

"We need concerted action designed to break the cycle of impunity, bring perpetrators to justice and rehabilitate victims in their rights and dignity," Pillay said in a statement Wednesday.

The west African nation plunged into bloody chaos after a disputed presidential vote in November.

Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo defied international calls to step down after he lost the election to Alassane Ouattara.

Forces loyal to Quattara seized the leader in April, essentially ousting him and ending the political stalemate that had raged for four months.

Rights groups have said both sides violated human rights.

"Some of the crimes committed during the post electoral crisis are particularly serious and might well constitute crimes against humanity," said Vitit Muntabhorn, who leads the commission of inquiry into Ivory Coast.

"This can be said for example of the generalized and systematic attacks on communities who were targeted because of their supposed political beliefs or their ethnicity."

More than 300,000 people are still displaced two months after the political crisis was settled, the United Nations refugee agency said this week.

Displaced people are further at risk because they are in areas with food shortages and the threat of disease, heightened by the rainy season,

Ongoing violence has also prevented their return home.

Communal tensions are still high in the southwestern Sassandra region, where more than 280 civilians were killed last month by mercenaries on the run from the commercial capital of Abidjan, the U.N. refugee agency said.

"Many of the dead are buried in mass graves," said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the refugee agency.

About 17,000 people are displaced in that region, including an unknown number still hiding in the forest, she said.

Ouattara has urged the International Criminal Court to investigate major crimes committed during the political standoff.

This month, the United Nations called for investigations after reports of attacks by forces loyal to Ouattara in areas known to support Gbagbo.

"The new government must show zero tolerance for the behavior of some elements of the Republican troops who continue to commit exactions," Muntabhorn said.

Ouattara has said he plans to set up a truth and reconciliation commission.

CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report

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Death penalty for food safety violations

A recent wave of exploding watermelons has spotlighted safety fears in China's food sector.The directive also calls for harsher punishment for officials who protect violatorsA series of scandals have outraged consumers106 people have been convicted in recent monthsAmnesty: China executes more people than all other countries combined

Beijing (CNN) -- Amid deepening public concerns over the country's food safety following a wave of recent scandals, China's highest court has ordered judges nationwide to hand down harsher sentences, including the death penalty, to people convicted of violating food safety regulations.

In a directive released by the state-run Xinhua news agency over the weekend, the Supreme People's Court said in cases where people die from food safety violations, convicted suspects should be given the death sentence, while criminals involved in non-lethal cases should face longer prison terms and larger fines.

It also called for harsher punishment for government officials found protecting food safety violators or accepting bribes from them.

"The overall food safety situation is stable and improving, but incidents that still occur regularly have seriously endangered people's lives and caused strong social reactions," the directive quoted Wang Shengjun, the country's top judge, as saying. "Our task to maintain food safety remains challenging."

From milk laced with melamine, pigs fed with performance-enhancing drugs to watermelons juiced up with growth-stimulating chemicals, a series of recent scandals have outraged Chinese consumers, despite ramped-up government crackdown and state media campaign against food safety violations.

From last September to April this year, Chinese courts have tried and convicted 106 people accused of violating food safety, including two who received life imprisonment last month in a "melamine milk" case, Xinhua reported.

"It's clear that the credibility of the system will suffer," said Peter K. Ben Embarek, the World Health Organization's food safety official. "The (Chinese) consumer will continue to lose confidence in Chinese products and consumers abroad will equally lose confidence in Chinese products."

The latest announcement by China's supreme court, however, seems to run counter to another recent initiative to limit the use of the death penalty by the same court.

In its annual work report, the Supreme People's Court last week instructed lower courts to suspend death sentences for two years if an immediate execution is not deemed necessary.

The Chinese legislature had earlier amended the country's penal code to reduce the number of crimes punishable by death by 13 to 55.

China executes more people than all other countries combined, according to Amnesty International. It estimated the figure, considered a state secret, to be in the thousands last year for "a wide range of crimes that include non-violent offences."

The number of executions elsewhere in the world in 2010 was at least 527, according to the London-based group's annual report released earlier this year.

CNN's Eunice Yoon contributed to this report.

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