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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Bangui in plea to Togolese leader over Patasse

BANGUI, 17 July 2003 (IRIN) - The Central African Republic (CAR) government has asked Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema to dissuade former President Ange Felix Patasse from destabilising the new administration of Francois Bozize, Foreign Minister Karim Meckassoua told a news conference in the capital, Bangui, on Wednesday.

Meckassoua, who toured Lome, the capital of Togo, on 8 July and met Eyadema, said the Togolese leader had assured him that he would not allow Patasse to "carry out any political action from Lome".

Since Bozize overthrew him on 15 March, Patasse has been living in exile in Lome. He announced in April that he would form a rebel movement, the Front de liberation du peuple centrafricain, to remove Bozize from power.

The party Patasse belonged to, the Mouvement de liberation du peuple centrafricain, and which is represented in Bozize's transitional institutions, has denied any link with Patasse's planned rebel organisation.

Meckassoua said that Patasse’s destabilisation threats were based on messages intercepted from his supporters and on a recent visit by militia leader Abdoulaye Miskine to Patasse’s supporters in Cotonou, Republic of Benin.

Suspected to be a Chadian rebel leader, Miskine commanded a pro-Patasse militia group and actively took part in the October 2002-March 2003 fighting between government troops and fighters loyal to Bozize. Most of Miskine's men are believed to be in hiding in the CAR or in exile in eastern Cameroon.

"We are at peace with all our neighbours," Meckassoua said. He added that regional heads of state had pledged their support to the administration.

He said that Patasse, whom he held talks with during a recent meeting in Lome, in Eyadema's presence, had undertaken a number of commitments which, however, he did not disclose at the news conference.

Meanwhile, Meckassoua told the news conference that a CAR vessel that was seized by a Congolese rebel group has been released.

Rebels loyal to Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), seized the vessel in mid-June on the Oubangui river.

The MLC controls most of the Equateur Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which borders the CAR to the south. The MLC backed Patasse in his fight against Bozize.

Meckassoua said that now that the MLC was part of the transitional government in the Congo, the CAR administration was looking forward to establishing relations with its officials.

"With Bemba, who is currently vice-president, we want to have frank but public relations," Meckassoua said.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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