Interview with spokesman of CEMAC peacekeeping force

In an effort to appease tensions between the Central African Republic (CAR) and neighbouring Chad, the regional Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC) decided in November 2002 to send a 350-strong peacekeeping force to Bangui, the CAR capital. The force's original mandate, which was the protection of then President Ange-Felix Patasse, the securing of the CAR-Chad border and the restructuring of the army, became obsolete when former army chief of staff Francois Bozize ousted Patasse in a coup on 15 March. A CEMAC summit that took place on 3 June in Libreville, capital of Gabon, armed the force with a new mandate. Here are excerpts from IRIN's interview on 18 June with CEMAC force spokesman Col Augustin Bibaye of Gabon regarding that mandate. QUESTION: What is the force's new mandate after the 15 March coup? ANSWER: It has seven points: Controlling Bangui M'poko Airport; Controlling vital sites and infrastructure; Securing and defending Bangui if necessary; Providing security for traffic on the main roads such as Bangui-Bossembele-Bouar [Bouar is 454 km northwest of Bangui], Bangui-Damara-Sibut [Sibut is 185 km northeast of Bangui] and Bangui-Mbaiki-Carnot [Carnot is 281 km west of Bangui]; Controlling the north of the CAR; Securing major cities; and Disarmament. Q: When is the force sending troops to provinces where insecurity has been increasing? A: For the time being, we are focusing on securing Bangui and surrounding areas. However, there are some selective operations that we conduct in some areas in the countryside to settle particular security problems. For instance, we recently intervened on the road from Bangui to Cameroon via Bouar. Little by little, we will extend our operations to other parts of the country. Q: Bangui residents criticise the CEMAC force, saying it is slow to intervene during instances of armed robbery. How do you respond to that? A: The CEMAC force can operate efficiently only if the population makes its own contribution. We deplore the fact that CAR people seem to be uncooperative. We need clear information in order to intervene promptly and efficiently. Since the beginning of our operations to secure Bangui [on 23 May], we have received only four telephone calls from Bangui residents informing us of armed robbery or other cases of insecurity. People in neighbourhoods know those who have arms and go out at night to rob. Q: Do you think that your operations are helping to improve the security situation? A: Yes, but we are not yet satisfied. Q: How many Chadian troops have joined the force? A: 121. Q: The CAR foreign minister has announced that a Chadian officer would join the force's staff. What will his position be? A: We heard this from the press, where we read the foreign minister's interview announcing that the officer commanding the Chadian contingent had been appointed as deputy commander-in-chief by the Libreville Summit. We are now awaiting confirmation. Q: How many troops does the force have now? A: 380, among whom 139 are from Gabon, 121 from Chad and 120 from the Republic of Congo. Q: The foreign minister has also announced that Cameroonian instructors were due to arrive in the near future. When are they expected? A: We have no information about that. Q: The force's staff has complained of having an insufficient number of troops relative to their mandate. Was the integration of Chadian soldiers a response to that? A: The originally mandated size of the force was between 350-380 troops, and we are now at that level. We expect the heads of state to implement their decision to reinforce the force. Q: On Tuesday, armed former rebels barricaded a road in a northern suburb of Bangui. How did it happen while they were supposed to have been disarmed and cantoned at the Regiment de defense Operationnelle du Territoire (RDOT) military base? A: Those people have freedom of movement. They are not obliged to stay in one place, because they are not under house arrest. They circulate freely in the city and we are very surprised because they are supposed to have been disarmed. Q: Did the disarmament effort target those at RDOT? A: There are many factions of Patriots [those who fought alongside Bozize]. There are those we qualify as uncontrolled, and those qualified as controlled who are part of determined military structures. We disarmed the first group. Q: How many Patriots have you disarmed so far? A: In addition to the 187 that we presented to the press [on 5 June], we disarmed another 42. We handed them over to the government. Q: How many arms has the force recovered and where are they? A: All of the 1,500 arms that we have recovered since 15 March were handed over to the government.