By Loucoumane Coulibaly

ABIDJAN, May 21 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's authorities must eradicate violence and intimidation by pro-government youth groups to ensure a peaceful election in the world's top cocoa producer later this year, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

A report by the U.S.-based rights body called on President Laurent Gbagbo to support the investigation and prosecution of members of pro-government groups like the FESCI student body which it said had attacked and killed opponents since 2002.

A failed coup that year triggered a brief civil war that split the West African state into a rebel-held north and a south controlled by Gbagbo's government.

Gbagbo, elected in 2000, agreed a peace deal with the New Forces northern rebels last year which has led to the scheduling of a long-delayed presidential election for Nov. 30, combined with a disarmament and reunification process.

Human Rights Watch said that since 2002, the Student Federation of Cote d'Ivoire (FESCI) had effectively been acting as a violent "pro-government militia" in support of Gbagbo and his ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party.

Citing interviews with victims and witnesses, it said FESCI and other pro-Gbagbo groups like the Young Patriots committed politically and criminally motivated violence, including murder, assault, extortion and rape of Gbagbo's political opponents.

"For years, the government of Cote d'Ivoire has demonstrated a sustained and partisan failure to investigate, prosecute or punish serious criminal offences by FESCI members," Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said.

"The impunity enjoyed by groups like FESCI has got to stop now in order to create a climate conducive to peaceful elections," she added in a statement.

HRW urged Ivorian authorities to act to prevent student and other youth groups being used by parties to intimidate opponents and provoke violence in the runup to the November poll.

"There is a history of calamitous elections in Ivory Coast," said HRW's Dustin Sharp, who researched and wrote the latest report entitled "'The Best School': Student Violence, Impunity, and the Crisis in Cote d'Ivoire".

RISK OF KENYA SCENARIO

"The government needs to send a strong signal that the era of impunity is over. If the government is ready to send that signal, the risk of what happened in Kenya happening in Ivory Coast is reduced," Sharp told Reuters.

He was referring to violence in Kenya after a disputed Dec. 27 election which killed more than 1,200 people.

Although the March 2007 peace deal has eased tensions and brought relative calm, analysts fear political manoeuvring and rivalry ahead of the elections could erupt into violence.

"The possibility of proxy battles between youth groups is there," said Sharp. Analysts also cite delays in sensitive pre-election disarmament and national identification programmes.

In the presence of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ivory Coast's political parties, including the FPI and parties representing the New Forces rebels, last month signed a good conduct code. This committed them to shun violence, promote fair voting and respect the outcome of the November election.

Sharp said prosecuting FESCI members would be a strong deterrent to election violence. But his report cited police, professors and students testifying to the unwillingness of state security services to act against the pro-Gbagbo student body.

"We know those among them who have killed, stolen, and beaten, but we can't do anything against them in the current system," it cited one unnamed police officer as saying. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)

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