Arrest of second priest made public

The detention of a second Roman Catholic priest in the Central African Republic (CAR) by order of a judicial commission probing a foiled coup bid in May was made public by AFP on Tuesday.

"Father Julien Koyenguia of the Berberati diocese was arrested on September 2 and taken by night under military guard to be locked up at the gendarmerie," AFP cited a Roman Catholic church source, who asked not to be named, as saying. Koyenguia was "accused of preaching violence and tribal hatred in his sermons and of sheltering some of those behind the putsch of May 28," the source added.

Koyenguia is a Yakoma, the ethnic group of failed coup mastermind and former CAR president Andre Kolingba.

Koyenguia is among scores of people reportedly under arrest. The commission early in October said that 70 people would appear for trial, while 628 others would be judged in absentia, including Kolingba. They are wanted for threatening state security, murder or abetting murder, desertion, destruction of public and private property and theft.

Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Saturday the arrest of Reverend Tolino Falagoista, director of Radio Notre Dame in Bangui and correspondent of the Rome-based Roman Catholic news agency MISNA. He was arrested in connection with a story he allegedly wrote in June regarding mass executions of Yakomas and the existence of three mass graves in Bangui.

"A priest should tell the truth and not lies," CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse was quoted by AFP as having told the commission.

When government authorities summoned Falagoista at the time, he allegedly denied writing or approving the story. A source told RFI that authorities asked Falagoista to send a handwritten denial to the government and MISNA on the story attributed to him but that three months later, they had still not received it. He has, therefore, been summoned for another hearing.

The failed coup and subsequent 10 days of fighting claimed 59 lives, according to an official toll - though many more according to witnesses. Forces loyal to Patasse managed to repel the offensive, with military support from Libya and the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo, the armed resistance movement of businessman Jean-Pierre Bemba in northwestern DRC.