A doctor who has treated many women who did not survive said their injuries were clearly caused by heavy weapons, and not by bullets. The doctor and two witnesses at the scene told Human Rights Watch that the head of one of the victims had been completely separated from her body. Other victims, two of whom did not survive due to serious injuries, were injured by machine gun bullets. (The video does appear to show a victim whose head was blown apart.) A New York Times report quoted two named witnesses as follows: “The forward tank started firing,” said one Abobo resident, Idrissa Diarrassouba. “Right away six women were killed. I was right there, beside them. They just fell.” “There was a burst of machine-gun fire,” [the witness, Idrissa Sissoko] said. He also spoke of seeing six women being shot. “I saw six bodies lying there, suddenly,” he said. According to this report30, a military source told a Reuters journalist that the shooting was an accident resulting from the nervousness of the security forces following previous clashes. Conclusion We can say that the date and location are verified to a high degree. The original source is not, and we therefore did not get the opportunity to speak to the person who filmed the footage. Ultimately, though, does the video show what it claims? This we cannot determine to 100 percent satisfaction from a distance, and with the material that’s been gathered. Along with being able to contact and interview the uploader, it would be important to gather additional firsthand testimony from witnesses, doctors who treated victims, and the families of the reported victims. To identify those victims we could attempt a more detailed investigation of the first video, splitting it frame by frame at the key moments of the shooting to try and find ways to the identify victims, and then to track down their survivors. Even with all of the corroborating facts and information I was able to marshal, the verdict is still out on this video. 66