Planned withdrawal "a serious mistake"

Meanwhile, a regional analyst said that the UN would be making "a serious mistake" by withdrawing MINURCA's troops in mid-November as scheduled. "The UN seems to be focusing on the completion of democratic elections as its goal, but ... the completion of the elections is going to increase rather than decrease the probability of armed confrontation between rival groups within the country," the analyst told IRIN this week. "The task to complete is the reform of the military in the CAR, not the completion of elections." To prevent an outbreak of violence like the 1996-97 army mutinies, MINURCA troops need to remain until the CAR's own armed forces no longer "constitute a serious threat to the Central African people", he added.