Central African Republic: Suspension of Negotiations at Peace Forum A new attempt at national reconciliation to establish peace in CAR was launched on Monday, July 21 in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo. However, while communitarian violence continues, the chances for success remain slim. On Tuesday, the ex-Séléka delegation did not show up to the peace forum, effectively interrupting the negotiations. The Brazzaville Forum will last three days and is supposed to finish Wednesday with a ceasefire agreement and a disarmament accord between the anti-Balaka and Séléka, prior to a new political peace process. According to one member of the committee, the Séléka delegation has received the final draft of the proposed accord and is still reviewing it at their hotel. BREAKING UP THE COUNTRY? Before the second day of negotiations, numerous delegates brought up a recent RFI broadcast in which the chief of the Séléka delegation, Mohamed-Moussa Dhaffane, demanded a splitting up of the country as a prerequisite to any negotiations. Guy-Hervé Gbangolo, delegate for the Democrat Front of the Central African People - an armed group based in the western part of the country- judged that Dhaffane’s statements caused a “slight hampering [of the negotiations].” Jean-Félix Riva, president of the National Council of Central African Youth, a civil movement, remarked that Dhaffane’s stance consisted of “claims that must be avoided because they only bring more frustration [to the peace process].” Nevertheless, General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko, Chief of MISCA, the African Union Peacekeeping Force currently deployed in CAR, declared that Séléka has never made a similar demand until now. PARTIAL REPRESENTATION If the ex-Séléka rebellion is represented in Brazzaville, then that’s certainly not the case for its opposition. The anti-Balaka militias are represented by a national coordinator who can not speak for all of the armed groups scattered throughout the country, and the anti-Balaka movement has no centralized structure. The transitional government is present, but both religious leaders and civic leaders are divided, and a good number of people refused to even take part in this peace forum located outside of CAR. Outside intervention is poorly received, whether it comes from Congo or even Gabon and Chad, the latter two of which have already hosted summits without producing any results. SITUATION STILL TENSE At the opening of the forum, Catherine Samba Panza, transitional president of CAR, mostly confined to the sidelines in previous peace conferences, underlined that the moment had “come to stop hostilities, destruction, and the forcing of child soldiers to fight in the rebellions,” and that Central Africans must “disarm their hatred and desire for vengeance.” The situation is still volatile in CAR. Monday, a former fighter of the Séléka rebellion (mostly Muslim) was killed in Bangui by anti-Balaka militiamen (mostly Christian). In response, ex-Séléka fighters took numerous youth hostage and injured the father of one of the boys. Since the March 2013 overthrow of president François Bozizé by the Séléka rebellion, CAR—former French colony rich in diamonds, oil, and uranium—has fallen into chaos. Violence between communities occurs on a daily bais and has led to thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. Original Source (en Français):
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 14:31:49 +0000