Regional peace force begins patrolling Bangui streets

Peacekeeping troops from the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (known by its French acronym CEMAC) have begun street patrols in Bangui, capital of the troubled Central African Republic (CAR). "While waiting for the right conditions for the fulfilment of our two other missions, the CEMAC forces began patrols throughout Bangui today," Gen Rachid Ahmed Ratanga, the commander-in-chief of the force, told reporters in Bangui on Thursday. The force has already started to protect President Ange-Felix Patasse. Its two other missions are to monitor the CAR/Chad border, and to restructure the CAR army. "We have the necessary means to accomplish our mission," Ratanga said. Gabon's 231-troop contingent, which has been deployed in the CAR since early December, is the only CEMAC force in the country so far. Others are expected from the Republic of Congo and other countries. The full withdrawal of the Libyan troops, who have been protecting Patasse ever since the failed May 2001 coup by former President Andre Kolingba, is due to coincide with the arrival of the full complement of 350 CEMAC troops. "There is no doubt that Libyan troops will pull out when all my contingents, especially the Congolese, arrive in Bangui," Ratanga said. The Libyans were part of the withdrawing Community of Sahelo-Saharan States force, which also included units from Djibouti and Sudan. There is no word yet on when Patasse's other ally, the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC) rebels from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will leave the country. Some 3,000 MLC fighters, many of whom had never used guns before, had been accused of widespread killings of civilians, the looting of homes and of rape, the BBC reported on Saturday. Quoting independent sources, it also reported that "up to 125" MLC troops had been killed last week in the village of Mallo, near Damara. The MLC and the Libyans have been credited with repulsing forces loyal to former CAR armed forces chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize, which invaded Bangui on 25 October. In another incident, armed and uniformed men believed to be policemen shot and killed a Libyan soldier in the company of a CAR woman on 26 December. Government-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on the 27th that neither the motives nor the identities of the killers were known. However Maj Abdel Baset Al-Lafi, among the Libyan troops who returned home on Saturday from their yearlong mission in the CAR, told the Associated Press that none of the 81 Libyans deployed to CAR were killed during the mission.