Bozize honours payment deal for former rebels

Former rebels who fought alongside Central African Republic (CAR) leader Francois Bozize during his October 2002-March 2003 rebellion have received payment following a meeting with Bozize, and some of them have already left for Chad, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Monday. The radio reported that according to a communiqué issued by the presidential communication adviser, Alain-Georges Ngatoua, Bozize reached the agreement with the former rebels, also known as ex-liberators, on Sunday at a military barracks in the capital, Bangui. The former rebels received a "certain sum of money as agreed upon", the radio reported. "Later, they formed two groups: One group took the road of Kaga Bandoro and the other group took the road of Bossangoa. These two convoys were escorted by the CAR and CEMAC [Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa] soldiers." A third group of 200 former rebels is still in Bangui, awaiting departure, the radio reported. Bozize met his former comrades-in-arms to resolve a protest over compensation for supporting his rebellion. A government official who requested anonymity told IRIN on Tuesday that the former rebels each received the local equivalent of US $1,000 and that those who left for Chad included eight who are considered leaders of the groups. Soldiers sent by Chadian President Idriss Deby escorted the eight out of the CAR. A spokesman for the former rebels, Abakar Saboune, told IRIN that they had no political demands. Rather, they were just claiming their compensation that Bozize had promised. They had pressed this claim by setting up roadblocks and staging demonstrations in the northern Bangui suburb of PK11. Calm has since returned to the suburb, where violence by the former rebels resulted in eight deaths on 17 April.