Reconciliation commission recommends government shakeup

Central African Republic's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, meeting at the ongoing national reconciliation conference, has suggested that the head of state, Francois Bozize, enlarge his transitional government to allow for broader consensus in his administration. This was among a set of recommendations the commission tabled to the plenary on Saturday, after reviewing the government's actions since Bozize seized power on 15 March. The commission said that since then Bozize had failed to manage the post-coup period effectively. It pointed out that public and private property had been destroyed or looted, human rights violated, and that the present government was adversely affected by a state of geopolitical imbalance. When Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse, he dissolved the government and the national assembly and suspended the constitution. He then set up a government and National Transitional Council made up of representatives of all the nation's political, social, professional and religious affiliations. Bozize has said the transition will end in January 2005. The commission's chairman, Andre Denamsse, said the aim of his work was to identify the causes of the country's crises between 1960 and 2003. He called on all politicians to apologise publicly for their mistakes; the army for having fired on the public; intellectuals for having contributed to the crises; the labour unions for involving themselves in politics; and the general public for having engaged in looting and destruction of public and private property. He called on the army to stay neutral; for all the country's ethnic groups to be represented within it; all army recruits to be taught international humanitarian law; and for a national centre for conflict prevention and resolution and a national mediation council to be set up. He also called for the establishment of a solidarity fund for the compensation of victims of the nation's crises. Furthermore, the commission wants to see another structure set up to continue hearing the evidence of key political and military personalities during the nation's various crises. In this context, the commission has already heard some testimonies. The recommendation flows out of days of debate during which the commission examined the causes of the country's troubles under Patasse's rule from 1993 to 2003. The commission denounced corruption, impunity, arbitrary arrests, nepotism, ethnicity in the army, non-respect of the resolutions of the conference that ended the 1996-7 mutinies and Patasse's refusal to hold talks with the opposition during that period. Although Patasse, now in exile in Togo, was the initiator of the national dialogue in November 2002, he has been excluded from the current process. An international warrant has been issued for his arrest, an action which analysts have perceived as a hindrance to reconciliation. Bozize has come under some criticism for excluding Patasse from the talks. "He should have waited for the dialogue to decide whether Patasse deserved forgiveness or judicial action," Francois Gueret, a retired magistrate, said during the talks. The commission also reviewed the actions of the country's other former leaders. Analysing former President Andre Kolingba's administration between 1981 and 1993, the commission pointed to ethnicity in the army and administration, corruption, nepotism and impunity. As for the government of the late self-styled emperor, Jean Bedel Bokassa, which lasted from 1966 until 1979, the commission described it as ideologically and politically incoherent. It also said Bokassa's government had been responsible for human rights violations and political abuses. Bokassa was sentenced to death in 1986 for having killed hundreds of school children in January and April 1979. The commission also reproached David Dacko's administration (1959-1966 and 1979-1981) for its single-party system of government, and the manipulation of electoral results in 1981, which led to riots and a coup by Kolingba, who was at the time army chief of staff. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the fifth and last to present its report to the 350 delegates to the talks. Others were the commissions on Politics and Diplomacy; Defence and Security; the Economy and Finance; and Social, Educational and Cultural issues. Their reports have been amended and adopted. Meanwhile, the chairman of the talks coordinating team, the Rev Isaac Zokoe, said the plenary period would be extended beyond Monday 6 October, the date initially scheduled for its termination.