Regional concern over tension with Chad

Regional leaders agreed on Wednesday to send a delegation to the Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad in a bid to ease the tension over the presence in Chad of a former CAR general now on the run, news organisations reported. The Associated Press cited a statement released after an emergency summit held on Wednesday in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo (ROC), as saying that representatives from Central African Economic and Monetary Community, the Organisation of African Unity and the UN would be sent to the border region of the two countries to promote peace. The statement made no mention of when the delegation would make the visit. "Our region is at the core of the African continent, with huge human and natural resources," the Panafrican News Agency quoted Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso as saying at the opening of the one-day summit. "We have enough means to take part in the development of our continent. It is very important that we remove from our path the few hitches preventing us from proceeding" he added. The summit was attended by presidents Omar Bongo of Gabon, Idriss Deby of Chad, Ange-Felix Patasse of CAR, Sassou-Nguesso of ROC; prime ministers Peter Mufany Musonge of Cameroon and Ribas Candido Muatetema of Equatorial Guinea. Accusations by the CAR government that Chad was backing rebellious soldiers gained momentum when, in November 2001, General Francois Bozize, a former CAR army chief-of-staff, fled to the southern Chadian town of Sarh with about 300 armed supporters after security forces tried to arrest him. He was accused of involvement in a failed coup attempted on 28 May 2001. Since then, his supporters who remained in the CAR have had several confrontations with government forces along the CAR-Chad border. The UN Security Council expressed concern last week over the mounting problems affecting the political and economic situation in CAR. It asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to harmonise the various initiatives launched at the regional level to restore stability to CAR.