Former president calls on mutineers to lay down arms

Central African Republic (CAR) dissident leader Andre Kolingba told mutinous soldiers on Thursday to lay down their arms after Libya and Congolese rebels came to the aid of President Ange-Felix Patasse. “I have agreed to stop the hostilities from this evening,” Kolingba, who is Patasse’s immediate predecessor, told Radio France Internationale. “I ask the mutinous soldiers to return to their respective residences.” He urged the mutineers to enter into negotiations with the CAR ministry of defence “in order to avoid a bloodbath”, particularly in the south of the city where the rebels had taken refuge. After Patasse’s residence came under attack in the early hours of Monday, Kolingba told the press that this was not an effort at a coup d’etat, but rather a “healthy intervention” over which the mutineers had asked him to preside. On Wednesday, Kolingba asked Patasse to resign, and pledged to ensure his safety and the protection of his property. Later on Wednesday, Patasse raised fears of a bloody showdown by vowing to crush the dissidents, and sources in Bangui told IRIN that Patasse’s spokesman announced on Thursday that it was too late to negotiate. Patasse said Kolingba would have to answer to CAR justice as well as to an international tribunal for mutiny. Forces loyal to the CAR government were on Friday still attempting to root out pockets of resistance in the southern Bangui districts of Petevo and Bimbo, where the rebels were reported to still be in control. However, both districts were said to be surrounded by government troops. Meanwhile, an NGO source told IRIN on Friday that a local, independent radio station Ndeke Luka reported that government forces had recaptured the main army barracks of Camp Kassai from the rebels, and that summary executions of Yakoma civilians - Kolingba’s ethnic group - were being carried out. The source also expressed fears that the mutinous soldiers would not follow Kolingba’s orders to lay down their arms. According to reports, Kolingba has also enlisted two Rwandan generals commanding some 300 Rwandan and Angolan mercenaries. The rebels were said to be well organised, carrying modern weapons and wearing uniforms. On Thursday, Libya’s Colonel Mu’ammar Qadhafi sent in an additional two military helicopters to support Patasse, news organisations said. Soldiers of Jean-Pierre Bemba’s rebel Congolese Front pour la Liberation du Congo (FLC) are also helping Patasse, and the NGO source told IRIN that they were positioned along the Oubangui river to cut off any escape route of the mutineers. As relative calm returned to the centre of Bangui on Thursday, some people reportedly ventured out of their homes to try to buy food for the first time since Monday. The death toll so far is impossible to determine, although at least 20 people were confirmed to have died in the coup attempt and subsequent skirmishes. A witness in Bangui told IRIN that corpses were still lying on the streets. The European Union (EU), France, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the UN Security Council have all publicly condemned the coup attempt.