Trial for 28 May 2001 coup attempt begins

The case against those accused of involvement in the failed coup attempt of 28 May 2001 in the Central African Republic began on Friday in the capital, Bangui, before the criminal session of the Court of Appeals, news agencies reported. The trial was then adjourned until Wednesday following a request from some 20 defense attorneys, who originally sought a two-week postponement, arguing that they had not been given sufficient time to prepare their cases. Of the more than 680 accused in this trial, only about 80 are present in Bangui, including former minister of defence Jean-Jacques Demafouth. More than 600 people will be judged in absentia, notably former president Andre Kolingba, considered by Bangui authorities as the mastermind of the putsch. The attempted coup in May, and the resulting ten days of violence in Bangui, led to some 59 deaths, comprising 25 soldiers and 34 civilians, and 89 injured, according to government estimates. However, civil society sources said that the number of victims was far higher, especially among Yakomas, the ethnic group of Kolingba. An estimated 80,000 people were displaced as a direct result of the violence, their homes having been destroyed or pillaged. CAR, a former French colony that stretches from northern savannah bordering Chad to southern rainforest bordering the DRC, remains one of Africa's poorest countries. The country's present leader, Ange-Felix Patasse, first became president in 1993 in the country’s first-ever multiparty elections. Kolingba led two earlier unsuccessful coup attempts against him, in 1996 and 1997, reportedly motivated by insufficient military salaries, after which a French-backed African force, followed by a UN peacekeeping mission, was sent to CAR. Patasse won re-election in 1999 amid opposition claims of fraud. Division in Bangui mirrors the country’s ethnic split between Patasse’s north and the south - home to Kolingba, as well as to independence President David Dacko and the late Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who crowned himself emperor before being toppled in 1979.