Timber licence withdrawn from another Patasse firm

Central African Republic leader Francois Bozize has withdrawn the exploration licence for a second timber company belonging to former President Ange-Felix Patasse, government-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Thursday. Bozize ousted Patasse in a coup on 15 March. The presidential decree banning Colombe Foret from exploiting the country's forests follows an earlier one in April that saw the withdrawal of the licence for Colombe Mine, another company owned by Patasse. Patasse, currently in exile in Togo, reportedly owned several companies dealing in the timber, mining and oil sectors. The government has suspended all companies exploiting the country's natural resources pending a judicial inquiry into their fiscal situation. However, a few of them have been granted provisional licences, allowing them to continue working for the time being. Late in April, the government recovered US $2 million that timber companies owed the government. The director of the prime minister's cabinet, Marcel Djimasse, told IRIN on 1 May that Patasse's companies had been exploiting one-third of the country's three million hectares of forest.