Preliminary civilian toll: 22 dead, 98 wounded, says government

The government of the Central African Republic announced on Friday a preliminary toll of 22 dead and 98 wounded among civilians, although sources in Bangui told IRIN that this figure was expected to increase significantly as additional assessments were conducted in the coming days. A humanitarian assessment mission was conducted on Saturday morning to some of the worst-affected northern neighbourhoods of Bangui, which had served as the stronghold of rebel forces of former CAR army chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize, during their six-day siege of the capital. The mission was comprised of representatives from United Nations organisations such as the UN Office in the CAR (BONUCA), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Programme, as well as international humanitarian relief NGOs such as Medicos Sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain) and Cooperazione Internazionale (Coopi) of Italy. Massimiliano Pedretti, head of Coopi, told IRIN that the overall situation "was not as serious as we expected", but said that the assessment mission was concerned about a lack of access to areas still deemed to be insecure by CAR military authorities. In response, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's Representative to the CAR, Lamine Cisse, met with government authorities on Saturday afternoon in an effort to negotiate for increased access to all areas. Pedretti said that the mission had decided to make its first priorities the identification and burial of bodies, in order to avoid the outbreak of disease, and the assessment of the needs of the population in order to appeal to donors with precise figures. Meanwhile, church parishes and local health centres were serving as the primary conduits of humanitarian aid. During their tour, the mission found two corpses on the street, said to be Congolese soldiers killed during battle. The local population said they were refusing to bury the corpses because of widespread looting and rape committed by the Congolese forces during the joint CAR-Congolese counter-offensive that drove Bozize's forces out of the capital, retreating northward along the road to Chad. Hundreds of Congolese forces of Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) came to the aid of CAR government forces, reportedly at the request of the CAR government. Bangui residents expressed concern that the results of government investigations into crimes allegedly committed by Congolese forces would not be fully revealed out of embarrassment for having called for their assistance. In related news, the Observatoire Centrafricain des Droits de l'Homme (OCDH), a local human rights NGO, announced that it would be organising assessment missions of its own in order to investigate reports of pillaging, summary executions, and rape. Speaking to government-owned Radio Centrafrique on Friday, CAR Prime Minister Martin Ziguele announced that CAR forces had recovered many documents from vehicles abandoned by Bozize's forces, including an itinerary for the assault and lists of names and to which battalions they were assigned. According to Ziguele, the documents, which were made available to foreign diplomats, provided proof that six-day battle was, in fact, an attempted coup backed by an "exterior" agent. Responding to Chadian allegations of a massacre of 120 Chadians by CAR government forces, Ziguele led a group of foreign diplomats to the northern neighbourhood of PK 13, where the incident was said to have occurred, in an effort to prove the allegations false. Ziguele also announced that the Bangui-M'Poko Airport was scheduled to reopen on Saturday afternoon, and that schools and government offices would reopen on Monday. Meanwhile, as at Saturday, CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse had still not appeared in public or spoken on the radio, although government officials assured reporters that he and his family were safe at home. The fate of Patasse's spokesman, Prosper Ndouba, remained unclear, as he had not yet been released by Bozize's rebels, who abducted him from his vehicle at the beginning of the coup on 25 October. Bozize and an unknown number of his supporters fled to neighbouring Chad in November 2001 after leading an armed resistance against Bozize's arrest for questioning in relation to the failed May 2001 putsch. As for Bozize, who has claimed responsibility for the latest attempted coup, Chadian and French sources confirmed on Tuesday that he had returned from the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, to Paris. Since the election of Patasse in 1993, the CAR has suffered repeated internal armed crises. Additionally, repeated clashes attributed to Bozize's supporters based in Chad and to the alleged Chadian rebel leader, Abdoulaye Miskine, based in CAR, have taken place along the two nations' common border since Bozize and soldiers loyal to him fled to Chad.