Abdoulaye Miskine flown to Togo

Abdoulaye Miskine, defended by the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) as an army officer named Martin Koumta Madji, but accused by N'djamena of being a Chadian rebel leader, left the CAR capital, Bangui, on Tuesday, for the Togolese capital, Lome, state-owned Radio-Centrafrique reported.

Before flying out of Bangui's Mpoko Airport, President Ange-Felix Patasse decorated Miskine with the highest CAR military honour, that of Commandeur dans l'Ordre du Merite Centrafricain. During the ceremony, attended by senior CAR officials, as well as Miskine's mother, family and friends, Patasse delivered a speech in which he defended Miskine as a full CAR citizen.

"Our family code, our constitution and our laws provide that any person having a Central African parent is Central African," he said.

Then he accused the CAR Human Rights League of complicity by its silence while a citizen was being unjustly chased away from his mother country.

"Here is the mother of Martin Koumta Madji - nicknamed Miskine, but who has nothing to do with the [Chadian rebel leader,] Lt Laokin Barde," Patasse added.

He said he had agreed to expel Miskine from the CAR "to avoid causing embarrassment" to Chadian President Idriss Deby. "I accepted that sacrifice, but it is an injustice. It is up to you, lawyers of the CAR, to draw conclusions," Patasse said.

He told Miskine he would be at ease in his new home, and thanked him for having agreed to leave his motherland. "You are going to be at home in Togo. I lived there in exile for 10 years ... Our relatives are there ... I have talked to [President Gnassingbe] Eyadema, he is waiting for you," Patasse said.

Miskine's expulsion in return for the expulsion of Gen Francois Bozize - the former chief of staff of the CAR army - from Chad was decided by the Libreville regional summit of 2 October. N’djamena accused Miskine, and Bangui accused Bozize of carrying out cross-border attacks.

Since late October, Bozize has been in France, from where he allegedly coordinated the 25-31 October attack on Bangui.

Analysts say Togo was chosen as the land of asylum for Miskine because Patasse considers it his second home. Patasse’s wife, Angele, is Togolese. Radio France Internationale reported on Tuesday that Miskine would reach Togo aboard a Libyan Tupolev aircraft.

This latest development occurs as troops from Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) are due to arrive in Bangui this week. In a government communique read on Radio Centrafrique on Tuesday CAR government spokesman Gabriel Jean Edouard Koyambounou said, "The CEMAC force was expected tomorrow [Wednesday] or the day after."

He said when the CEMAC troops arrived, the combatants of Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de liberation du Congo rebel movement - widely accused of pillage and rape despite their mission to liberate Bangui from Bozize's siege - would withdraw from the CAR.