CEMAC force commander pleads for greater support

Regional peacekeeping troops are hampered by logistical problems caused by lack of donor response, the force commander, Gen Mohammad Hachim Ratanga, told IRIN on Wednesday. "Everything is there, but in insufficient quantities," he said.

The force, deployed by the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC), has been in the Central African Republic (CAR) since December 2002.

To date, only France and China had provided the force with aid, he said. France has given money and logistical support, and China has granted 100 million francs CFA (about US $153,800). The force was using the Chinese money to meet daily expenditures, he said. Germany has also pledged to contribute.

Ratanga said that as the national reconciliation dialogue was drawing near, the CEMAC force might be asked to provide security for the participants. His troops would reinforce its street patrols during the talks, he added.

The dialogue is provisionally scheduled for March, and the coordination team, headed by Bishop Paulin Pomodimo, is touring France, Belgium and the United States for preliminary talks with CAR exiles, and with UN officials in New York.

Until now, only three countries have provided soldiers for the force: Gabon has sent 46 soldiers, the Republic of Congo 126, and Equatorial Guinea 31. Malian and Cameroonian contingents are still expected, for a total authorised force strength of 350.

The CEMAC force was mandated to protect President Ange-Felix Patasse, monitor the securing of the CAR-Chad border, and restructure the CAR army.

In the meantime, a Bangui newspaper, l'Echo de Centrafrique, quoted Patasse as telling members of parliament of his ruling party, the Mouvement de liberation du peuple centrafricain, on 7 February that his Chadian counterpart, Idriss Deby, was to visit the CAR very soon.

Relations between the two men have been strained since November 2001, when the CAR army former chief of staff, Gen Francois Bozize, fled to Chad with a part of the CAR army.

Meanwhile, Radio France International reported on Thursday that Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) which has been backing the CAR army, had confirmed that the withdrawal of his troops would begin on Saturday. The MLC is based in the northwest of neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo.