{"id":962,"date":"2010-03-14T00:28:32","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T05:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomathon.com\/mphp\/?p=962"},"modified":"2010-03-14T00:46:46","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T05:46:46","slug":"car-coup-or-election-foiled-by-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/car-coup-or-election-foiled-by-government\/","title":{"rendered":"CAR: Coup, or election, foiled by government?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"KABO,<\/a>

Image by Getty Images via Daylife<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The French press initially reported midday Sunday (14 March, local time) that the Central African Republic<\/a> government had foiled plans for a coup attempt, set to take place between the 15th and the 20th. No one does coups quite like Bangui<\/a>, usually with the French government pulling the strings<\/a>: they’ve had a lot of practice. Jules Bernard Ouanda, the Minister of National Security and Public Order, recorded an announcement for Radio Centrafrique, passed on to the press, and since confirmed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ouanda claims that on Friday, the government of President Fran\u00e7ois Boziz\u00e9<\/a> obtained a “Plan of Action” made by the coup plotters, whom they refused to name, but described as “several political and military figures.” Ouanda red from a detailed plan: a “special form” dated March 8, subtitled “Preparations for coup from the period from March 15 to 20.” The government notations on the plan describe it as (according to a brief glimpse by reporters) “hatched by elements KAMIKAZE commandos, mercenaries, militias and expatriates in the pay of former President Ange-F\u00e9lix PATASSE” Ouanda repeatedly refused to name names, but did read a portion of the “plan” that included orders to “reinforcement elements in the home of AFP.”<\/p>\n

Reporters also spoke with former President Ange-F\u00e9lix Patass\u00e9<\/a> who in his thirty years of political leadership has been more than once a coup plotter, like current President Boziz\u00e9 who ousted the President Patass\u00e9 on 15 March 2003. Patass\u00e9 told reporters “I phoned the minister. He told me that it was not me” who was blamed for the coup plan. He added that he expected it still might be an attempt to “eliminate” him from the scheduled 12 and 23 April two round Presidential elections.<\/p>\n

Another such rival, Charles Massi<\/a> was a Minister under both Patass\u00e9 and Boziz\u00e9, in 2008 left political life to become the respectable front on the northeastern CPJP. When I first saw report in the CAR expat press and on the CPJP website around Xmas saying he was “kidnapped in Chad and turned over to the CAR”<\/a>, I assumed this was infighting or overreaction. I was wrong. Sometime around January 9, Massi was tortured to death by the CAR government in Bossembele prison, a fact which the government admitted last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lord preserve the CAR from political leaders, near and far.\u00a0 It brings to mind a Brecht poem a friend of mind often repeats:<\/p>\n

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Empires collapse.
\nGang leaders Are strutting about like statesmen. The peoples
\nCan no longer be seen under all these armaments.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

See Also:\u00a0 Centrafrique: When a neocolony collapses (17 December 2009)<\/a><\/h5>\n
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More:<\/p>\n