Interview with opposition leader Abel Goumba on recurrent crises

Forty-two years after gaining independence, the Central African Republic (CAR) still suffers from repeated crises that are hindering its development, and now threaten to spill over into neighbouring states in a region already beset by civil wars. To attain an insight into the problem IRIN talked to the chairman of the opposition Front patriotique pour le progres, Prof Abel Goumba. Following are excerpts from the interview he granted IRIN in the capital, Bangui, on 23 November: QUESTION: What are the causes of these repeated armed conflicts in CAR? ANSWER: Military and political crises started in CAR in 1996. Soldiers mutinied because they had not received their usual allowances. The regime had promised to respect their rights [of receiving allowances], but failed to keep this promise, which provoked the second mutiny [in May]. Then a national conference on the armed forces was organised and a number of resolutions were adopted. Unfortunately, the resolutions were not implemented in the manner on which we had agreed. That is why the situation deteriorated and turned into a real military crisis. Apart from being military in character, the crisis also took on a political and social hue as more issues such as salary arrears - not only of soldiers but also of civil servants - pensions and scholarships surfaced. Q: From what you said, the 1996-2002 crises constitute a chain of events caused by the same ingredients. A: Yes. It is almost an uninterrupted chain ... and the same causes led to the same consequences. The nonpayment of salaries always leads to crises ... When the mutinies started pushing people into believing that they would last and become regionalist and tribalist, opposing troops loyal to President Patasse and those loyal to [former President] Andre Kolingba, mostly from the [Oubangui] river zone, we the opposition called on the 7th Franco-African Summit [of 1996] in Burkina Faso [to intervene in the CAR internal conflict]. It was decided that Gen Amadou Toumani Toure [now the Malian president] be sent to CAR as a mediator, and the Missab [Mission de suivi des accords de Bangui - the African peacekeeping force during the 1996-1997 crisis] was sent to monitor the Bangui Accords [of reconciliation and power sharing signed by political parties and the civil society in 1996]. The Bangui Accords included all the domains.... A government of national unity was recommended and the government was asked to achieve economic and financial reforms in order to support the health and education sectors. Q: The previous conflicts were somehow ethnic and regionalist. Was it the case in Nov 2001 and October 2002? A: After the 28 May 2001 coup attempt, for which Andre Kolingba claimed responsibility, about 1,000 soldiers fled into the DR Congo. They were mostly Yakoma [former President Andre Kolingba's ethnic group], and the repression [against the Yakoma] that followed was nearly a genocide.... Yakoma soldiers, civil servants and even high-ranking executives were accused of complicity with Kolingba. Gen [Francois] Bozize, who fled to Chad in November 2001, and the former defence minister [Jean Jacques Demafouth] are not Yakomas, but, generally speaking, President Patasse has put in place a policy of exclusion in favour of his party, the MLPC [Mouvement pour la liberation du peuple centrafricain], which he chairs.... He has instituted a one-party system that is a dictatorship. Now, little by little, divisions are appearing in his party. That is what we are witnessing now. The 25 October [attempt] was not a coup d'etat. Rather, it was an armed rebellion. A coup d'etat takes place in the capital, where soldiers rise up and take the power. Unlike the 28 May 2001 coup attempt by Kolingba, the 25 October events constitute a true war that came from the border with Chad and entered the capital. Q: How do you qualify the 25 October crisis? Was it a military, political, social, or ethnic crisis - or a civil war? A: It was all of them at the same time. First of all, the CAR people's social conditions deteriorated considerably. CAR is among the 10 poorest countries in the world, with a GDP below US $500. Before being a military crisis it was first a social one. Civil servants have not received salaries for 30 months.... Schools have stopped functioning, and we are probably heading to a nullified school year because teachers are unpaid.... Hospitals and health centres have run out of medicines. Q: How do you explain that all the [six] armed conflicts took place under democratically elected President Ange-Felix Patasse? A: What frustrated people is that President Patasse instituted again a one-party system [after his election in 1993]. That is the main cause of all these armed conflicts. It is unanimously believed that a one-party-system leads absolutely to underdevelopment.... He [Patasse] continues to implement his policy of exclusion based on tribalism which we all denounced under Kolingba [1981-1993]. Currently, the president of the republic, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the prime minister are from the same region [north], whereas the CAR has many tribes and regions.... The one-party system certainly leads to divisions, even among the dictator's supporters. In the past [1996-1997 mutinies and 28 May 2001 coup attempt] Bangui's southern neighbourhoods [believed to be sympathetic to Kolingba] were bombarded. Recently [25 October crisis], northern neighbourhoods [sympathetic to Patasse] were bombarded, and President Patasse has lost most of his supporters. Q: The former colonial master, France, was involved in the fall of Jean-Bedel Bokassa's imperial regime in 1979, installed its military base in CAR [until 1998]. Was France involved in the 25 October crisis? A: There was a time when France intervened militarily on the ground. During the second mutiny [1996], President Patasse was nearly overthrown, and France intervened three times to save him.... Now France no longer intervenes in armed conflicts in Africa. Q: The authorities, including the president of the republic, the prime minister and the ruling MLPC, accuse the opposition of lack of patriotism, because it did not condemn Chad's and Bozize's men, who attacked the country and still occupy a portion of the CAR. How do you explain the opposition's attitude? A: This story about Chadians, assailants and so on needs to be checked and proven. When someone or a population is frustrated in his rights, the first reaction is violence. Our army practically no longer exists, because more that 1,000 soldiers fled [in May 2001] into DR Congo, and others followed Bozize in the north [November 2001]. Capt [Paul] Barril [former French gendarme now President Patasse's adviser in matters of security and anti-terrorist campaign] himself said yesterday [22 November on Radio France International] that there was practically no army. The core around which the army is currently built is constituted on a tribalist basis. President Patasse was constrained [by the situation] to recruit among his own people [tribe]. Then he called in foreign troops to protect himself first and then the country.… Where is our independence and dignity? What is happening now is not a coup but a rebellion. Concerning the involvement of Chad, there is one thing that the regime ignores. Once, President Patasse used the condos [meaning] Chadian mercenaries. There are two distinct things: the Chadian Army that is an official and conventional one and the Chadian mercenaries whom our own country recruited to fight the mutineers [1996-1997]. These mercenaries even took part in the Missab, wearing Chadian army uniforms and committing atrocities. At that time, thinking that they were Chadian soldiers, we the opposition wrote to President Idriss Deby [of Chad] asking him to pull out his contingent. But in reality, they were mercenaries called condos, wearing Chadian uniforms, who acted viciously against the population under President Patasse's orders. Now, the opposite has occurred. A mercenary is always looking for money and works for the one who pays the best. Now the same Codo mercenaries are support Bozize.... Therefore, we cannot condemn the Chadian official army.... Mercenaries escape the authorities of their countries of origin. Q: Former Prime Minister Jean-Paul Ngoupande, now in France, is an MP and the chairman of the Parti pour l'union nationale. He told reporters that opposition leaders were being harassed and arbitrarily arrested. Is that true? A: We have to be objective and realistic. President Patasse did not imprison opposition leaders. Patasse did not arrest opposition leaders. It is true that some journalists were arrested. What is true is that in December 2000, during a public meeting in one Bangui suburb, MPs were arrested, put on trial and sentenced despite their parliamentary immunity... Ngoupande is abroad ... but consider the bill presented by the majority [MLPC and allies] that was adopted yesterday [22 November]. It demanded [of] France to silence all the opposition leaders who criticise the regime from France, which is an absurdity. Q: What is your opinion about foreign troops in CAR? A: What is very shocking is that President Patasse brought in rebel troops who have no official status. The rebels of Jean-Pierre Bemba [Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] currently fight the government and [have] excelled in looting, rapes and theft. Libyan troops are here, but they have never engaged in such excesses. Rebels are never paid. They live at the population's expense.... That is why the opposition presented a bill of law to impeach the president and bring him to court for treason. The constitution allows him to negotiate and sign accords ... but for defence treaties ... he must first get the National Assembly's authorisation. He never did it, which we say was treason.... Unfortunately, with this automatic majority [of the MLPC and allies], the bill was rejected. Q: As one of the founding fathers of the CAR, what solution do you advocate to end these recurrent crises? A: There is no other possibility but to organise a dialogue as in Cote d'Ivoire, where all the living strength of the nation and the rebels who are on the ground would gather [and discuss]. A soldier, even if he is alone in the bush, constitutes a danger for society. I have always advocated dialogue, because dialogue is one of the characteristics of democracy. Democracy implies a number of principles, namely fair and free elections... the recognition of the opposition ... tolerance.... Dialogue is a virtue, and it is through it that the issues that divide the nation may be settled ... but as President Patasse refuses to [engage in] dialogue, confrontations with the rebels will continue.