Inquiry into abortive coup ends, report issued

An official commission of inquiry established to investigate the failed coup d'etat launched on 28 May this year in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR) has submitted a preliminary report to authorities after questioning 250 people, more than 100 of whom have been arrested. Speaking to Radio France Internationale (RFI) on Thursday, commission chairman Joseph Bindoumi warned that implicated CAR nationals who fled to neighbouring DRC and Republic of Congo (ROC) "will be tried [in absentia] without using the necessary means made available to them for their defence, and this will not be in their interest." When RFI noted that many people fled for fear of reprisals because they are of the same Yakoma ethnic group as coup ringleader and former CAR President Andre Kolingba, Bindoumi said "that is not true," citing "many Yakomas" who were still living and working in the capital. "The legal action we are taking is not something targeting the Yakomas [...] all those we have in detention today are not only Yakomas," he asserted, adding that Kolingba himself "is indeed the first person I have been looking for since the investigation began" and cautioning any country providing Kolingba refuge that "they are harbouring a criminal with bloodstained hands." Bindoumi noted that the commission's investigation led to the recent detention of former CAR Defence Minister Jean-Jacques Demafouth "because the commission had enough clues likely to justify the measures taken against him." According to RFI, Demafouth has hired three lawyers - two CAR nationals and a French citizen named Herve Dupont-Moneau. RFI also reported that 17 CAR nationals remain in the residence of French Ambassador Jean-Marc Simon as refugees, seeking asylum in France. Kolingba's wife Mireille and her three children had sought refuge at the embassy, but secretly fled the country in late August.