Government creates committee for return of refugees

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has set up a committee to prepare for the repatriation of CAR refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

CAR Prime Minister Martin Ziguele presided on Thursday over the creation of the "welcoming and reception committee" whose brief is to "examine the modalities for the repatriation", Centrafrique-Presse news agency reported.

The committee will include representatives from the government, political parties and civil society, as well as international representatives from the UN and embassies in Bangui. It will be headed by CAR Minister of Justice Marcel Metefara.

"I have instructed the government to organise, with the assistance of international organisations, the return of these compatriots in dignity and fraternity," Patasse said in a nationwide speech to the nation on 1 December, CAR's independence day.

Thousands of people fled during an attempted coup on 28 May, and hostilities that erupted in early November when former army chief of staff Francois Bozize resisted arrest for questioning in relation to the thwarted putsch.

Many of the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 refugees belonging to the Yakoma ethnic group who fled Bangui across the Ubangui river to the DRC in the wake of the May coup attempt have expressed reluctance to return out of fear of reprisals. Suspected coup mastermind, former president and general Andre Kolingba, is a Yakoma.

The committee will be headed by CAR Minister of Justice Marcel Metefara. It will include domestic representatives from the government, political parties and civil society, as well as international representatives from the UN and embassies in Bangui.

The operation will be conducted in two phases. The first is being conducted in Zongo in northwestern DRC, where many of the CAR refugees have settled, and involves a campaign of informing the refugees of the initiative, registering those who wish to return to the CAR, and determining what kind of assistance will be needed upon their repatriation. The second phase will consist of establishing a reception area in the port of Bangui, equipped with medical facilities and personnel to evaluate the health of returnees. Transport of refugees will be handled by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Security will be handled by a combination of representatives from the CAR police and fire departments as well as civil police from the UN office in the CAR (known by its French acronym, BONUCA).

The first refugees are scheduled to arrive in Bangui on 6 December, where they will be met by Ziguele.

In his speech, Patasse also announced the lifting of a curfew that had been in place following the events of 28 May, from 21h00 to 05h00 local time throughout the CAR, "so as not to hurt the economy", he said.

Meanwhile, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, in his capacity as head of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (COMESSA) in Khartoum, Sudan, convened a meeting on Monday to review the ongoing instability in the CAR. Attendees were reported to have included representatives from the CAR, Chad, Libya, Sudan and Zambia, as well as BONUCA. Discussions were expected to continue on Tuesday in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, under the auspices of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (Communaute Economique et Monetaire de l'Afrique Centrale).

CAR, a former French colony, has a history of military uprisings, with three major rebellions against current President Ange-Felix Patasse since 1996. Last year, the UN ended a peacekeeping mission it sent in 1999 to replace the French-backed African force which restored order after the mutinies in the 1990s, but UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned in January that peace was in danger.