Bozize orders recovery of Japanese firm's looted equipment

Central African Republic (CAR) leader Francois Bozize has ordered security forces, administrative authorities and the public to help recover equipment belonging to a Japanese road construction company that was looted after his 15 March coup, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Friday. The recovery of the equipment would enable the company, Kajima, to resume building roads in the northwest, the radio said. Bozize made the appeal on Thursday in Baoro, 392 km northwest of Bangui, the capital, when he visited a Kajima construction site. The radio said the looted equipment, worth about 200 billion francs CFA (US $363 million), included tractors, telecommunication equipment, cars and other machinery. "The best thing to do to repair the affront is to do our best to recover voluntarily or by force all the looted goods belonging to Kajima," Bozize was quoted as saying. He added that the loss of the equipment would delay the paving of the remaining portion of road from Bangui to the Cameroonian border. Bozize directed security officials to guard the equipment remaining at the site, pending the return of Kajima staff. The road to Cameroon, which is paved up to Baoro, is vital for the economy of the land-locked CAR. Most of the country’s imports and exports are channelled through the road to the Cameroonian seaport of Douala. Moreover, Baoro is strategically located, as agricultural products and other commodities from the north and neighbouring Chad pass through it. The tarmacking of the road would facilitate traffic during the rainy season when roads become muddy and impassable. Despite the looting of the Kajima equipment and the alleged embezzlement of a $8.7 million grant made by the Japanese government in November 2000, Japan has maintained its cooperation with the new administration. On 1 August, the Japanese ambassador, Nabuyoshi Takabe, gave the Ministry of Finance equipment worth $646,000 to enable it to computerise its tax-collection services nationwide.