Arrest warrant issued for Patasse

The state prosecutor of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), has issued an international warrant for the arrest of former President Ange-Felix Patasse, now in exile in Togo, state-controlled Radio Centrafrique reported on Monday. Speaking during a news conference, prosecutor Firmin Feindiro said the warrant resulted from the work of a joint judicial commission set up on 1 August to investigate embezzlement and corruption under Patasse's administration. Overthrown by Francois Bozize on 15 March after a six-month rebellion, Patasse spent 10 years in power. His administration failed to pay salaries for at least 30 months, which the new administration blames on embezzlement and corruption. Patasse was believed to own timber, oil and diamond firms, which had all been suspended for suspicious financial dealings. The warrant for Patasse comes only days after his former minister of state of communications, Gabriel Koyambounou, was arrested for his alleged involvement in an embezzlement scandal. Koyambounou is also a vice-chairman of Patasse's political party, the Mouvement de Liberation du Peuple Centrafricain (MLPC). The report also comes about two weeks after the National Transitional Council, the country's law advisory body, voted against Patasse's participation in national political reconciliation talks scheduled for 10-25 September. The council justified its decision saying that Patasse had to answer for alleged human rights violations before the International Criminal Court, where a French-based rights body, the Federation Internationale des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), has already filed a complaint. Another MLPC vice-chairman, Hugues Dobozendi, told IRIN on 17 August that most of the bank accounts of former ministers that had been frozen in April pending investigation had since been unblocked.