Dialogue committee saves US $33,000 due to UN support

The team coordinating national political reconciliation talks in the Central African Republic has saved US $33,000 due to logistics support UN agencies have given, according to an official. At a news conference in Bangui, the capital, the second deputy chairwoman of the coordinating team, Catherine Samba Panza, said on Saturday the UN was helping to load conference documents into a computer and providing copies for the 350 delegates attending. The UN has also provided 15 experts to the five commissions that are debating issues of truth and reconciliation; politics and diplomacy; economy and finances; defence and security; and education, culture, social and sports. The commissions are due to complete their debate on Thursday, when all 350 delegates will start examining each commission's recommendations. Grants to the coordination team or the national debate have come from China, with $191,000, and Gabon with $166,000. Panza said the government in Bangui had, so far, disbursed 25 million francs CFA ($41,000) of the 150 million francs CFA ($250,000) it had agreed to provide. The dialogue, called to chart a new and stable political direction for the country after years of strife, will now end on 6 October. Initially, it was due to end on 30 September. Support for this transition appears to be emerging. Niger President Mamadou Tandjia said in Bangui on Saturday, during a four-hour visit, that he would seek money and security aid for the CAR government from the 16 members of the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States (CEN-SAD). Tandjia, who is the chairman of the community, was in Bangui for a meeting with Prime Minister Abel Goumba. CEN-SAD Secretary-General, Mohamed El Mazari El Madani of Libya, accompanied Tandjia. They arrived in Bangui after visiting Libya, Sudan and Eritrea. From May 2001 and December about 2002 CEN-SAD troops from Libya, Sudan and Djibouti were in Bangui to protect President Ange-Felix Patasse, who Bozize oterthrew on 15 March 2003.