Ruling party accuses opposition of complicity in rebel attack

The ruling party in the Central African Republic (CAR) has accused an opposition alliance of 13 political parties of complicity with former soldiers who invaded the capital, Bangui, in October, in an unsuccessful attempt to oust President Ange-Felix Patasse.

In a statement read over state radio on Sunday, the administrative secretary-general of the ruling Mouvement pour la libération du peuple centrafricain, Jean Joseph Tchendo, condemned the alliance - the Groupe des partis d'opposition (GPO) - for issuing a communiqué on 7 November criticising Patasse. The communiqué accused him of "violating his constitutional oath by allowing foreign air and land forces - namely Libya - to bombard the northern suburbs of Bangui".

Some 200 Libyan troops were sent to CAR, in the wake of a failed coup bid launched in May 2001 by former President Andre Kolingba, and are still in Bangui.

The ruling party's executive board said the alliance's statement was proof of its sympathy for and complicity with the attackers, whose leader was the CAR's former army chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize.

"The parties gathered under the GPO have finally unmasked themselves. They are accomplices and intellectual authors of all the coup attempts that the country has suffered since 1996, and particularly the one planned by Chad and executed by Bozize," Tchendo said. He added that his party was particularly indignant over the opposition's claim that Chad had had nothing to do with what was essentially an internal crisis in the CAR.

Through its spokesman, Paul Bellet, the opposition alliance denied involvement in the coup. However, he told IRIN on Thursday, "Patasse's refusal to hold political talks could only lead to what is happening."

Apparently in no way intimidated by Patasse's expressed intention to prosecute some opposition leaders, Bellet said: "We are an opposition and we are not here to applaud the regime."

He said Patasse had used the Chad ruse to divert the attention of the international community from the country's social and economic problems.

Meanwhile, the government remains suspicious that Chad is keen to annex the CAR's oil deposits in the north of the country.

In an attempt to head off a widening and deepening crisis between the two countries, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (known by its French acronym CEMAC) has decided to send a monitoring force of between 300 and 350 soldiers to the CAR. They are expected to be deployed this week.