C. Africa leader tightens grip
After taking nation’s helm, coup chief divvies up posts
BANGUI, Central African Republic — Central African Republic’s coup leader solidified his hold on the government Monday after announcing that he will serve as both president and defense minister, and other top posts are going to his fellow rebels.
Michel Djotodia, who led the thousands of rebel fighters who overthrew longtime President Francois Bozize just over a week ago, made the announcement in a decree read late Sunday on state radio.
Not only will Djotodia hold the Defense Ministry, but his allies also will control the ministries of mines, commerce, communication, and security and public order, according to a decree issued on letterhead that reads “presidency of the republic.”
Opposition leader Nicolas Tiangaye remains as prime minister in the new government.
Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at Chatham House, a London-based institute on international affairs, has described the coup as being about “blind ambition” despite the rebels’ claims they are seeking greater assistance for their homeland in the deeply impoverished northeast. The rebel alliance that overthrew the government is known as Seleka.
“All the accounts of Seleka are that they have no development vision for CAR. It’s exclusively about redistribution of patrimony from having captured the state,” Vines said.
“There is so little other activity — capturing the state is sort of the main source of revenue,” he said.
Thousands of Djotodia’s rebels are now residing in the capital and could be seen Monday riding on pickups that were sponge-painted brown and black in a kind of homemade camouflage with “Seleka” scrawled across the sides.
Others camped out on cots in and around the staterun radio building, and some sat beside a drained swimming pool at the luxury hotel that Djotodia has transformed into his presidential palace.
The rebels are identifiable by the turbans they wear, though others have taken to wearing clothes they took from the Central African army soldiers who fled in the face of the rebel advance and adorning them with a yellow ribbon on the shoulder.
Djotodia, who first rose to prominence as a rebel leader in 2006, already had served as defense minister since the formation of an ill-fated national unity government in January.
That agreement had been backed by regional mediators trying to avert a crisis in the country long racked by coups and rebellions, and was to allow Bozize to remain in office until 2016.
However, the rebels soon accused Bozize of failing to deliver on his promises and ousted him during fierce fighting that also left 13 South African soldiers dead.
Bozize and his family have taken refuge in neighboring Cameroon and are now seeking exile in the tiny West African nation of Benin.
The African Union has suspended Central African Republic’s membership, and the United States has urged the country to swiftly organize new elections.
“We also condemn Seleka’s unlawful designation of a head of state or any other unilateral decisions involving the future governance of the country,” U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said in a statement issued over the weekend. “The only legitimate government in the CAR is the government of national unity led by Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye.”
In South Africa on Monday, the opposition Democratic Alliance party called for President Jacob Zuma to withdraw troops from Central African Republic. And a South African soldiers’ union called for Zuma to report Djotodia to the International Criminal Court for purportedly using child soldiers.
The South African National Defense Force Union, a trade union of soldiers, said the South African government is legally bound ask the International Criminal Court to indict Djotodia and his Seleka rebels over child soldiers.
South African soldiers who fought in Central African Republic said they were appalled to find out they had killed some youngsters among the rebels.
“It was only after the firing had stopped that we saw we had killed kids,” said one paratrooper, among the 27 wounded who were flown home for treatment, quoted by The Sunday Times of Johannesburg. “We did not come here for this … to kill kids. It makes you sick. They were crying for help … calling for [their] moms.”
South Africa is increasingly embroiled in debate over why its troops were deployed to Central African Republic. There are allegations the soldiers were sent to protect mining interests of South Africa’s governing African National Congress. The congress denies it has any business in the country rich in diamonds, uranium and gold.
The Mail and Guardian newspapers reported extensively on the purported business interests, saying South Africa’s former defense minister signed a cooperation agreement with the Central African Republic covering defense, minerals and energy in 2006. As a result, a company was set up with shareholders including an African National Congress veteran of the liberation war and the Chancellor House Trust that serves as a fundraiser for the congress, the reports said. The company, a joint venture with the Central African Republic government, was to serve as a national diamond exporter, buying diamonds from the country’s smallscale miners, The Mail and Guardian reported.
A statement Monday from party spokesman Jackson Mthembu said, “The ANC rejects with contempt the damaging and malicious claim by The Mail and Guardian that South African soldiers were sent to the Central African Republic to protect ANC business interests.” It added that “the ANC as an organization does not have business interests in CAR.”
Some have suggested that Zuma should be impeached for purportedly misleading Parliament about the foreign military mission. Zuma has said they were training the Central African Republic soldiers.