In a country that appears to have coups more often than Japan has elections, you could be forgiven for not really noticing this one. Two weeks ago, in what has become a tiresome drill for the Central African Republic (CAR), the troubled nation had its government deposed by yet another disgruntled army general.
Last week François Bozize has been appointing his cronies to positions of office. The only thing that really stuck out this time was the coup’s target: the CAR’s first democratically elected government.
Not that ousted president Ange-Felix Patasse has had a bad innings. In his 10 years in power he has survived no fewer than nine coup attempts. Owing to his corrupt mismanagement of public finances, Patasse has made so many enemies that coup attempts against him routinely get popular support.
Thanks to backing from Libya he managed to repulse a particularly fierce one in May 2001 when soldiers from a rebellious army unit, led by former dictator André Kolingba, began firing mortar shells into his residence. Then, in November 2001, skirmishes broke out when the government tried to arrest Bozize, the sacked army chief of staff accused of being part of the coup attempt.
Bozize retaliated with support from nearly half the CAR army. In the weeks that followed, thousands of refugees fled fierce fighting between tired, underpaid government troops and Bozize’s feisty rebels, while envoys from Libya, Chad and the United Nations stepped in to try to resolve the conflict. Fifteen months later, Felix’s nine lives are up — and Bozize is calling himself president.
Thus ends a two-year civil war that has cost countless civilian lives and crippled the CAR’s already impoverished economy.
Not that this was ever really a ‘civil warâ€. Since the skirmishes began a glut of foreign armies and militias have been dipping their oars in, among them Libya and Jean Pierre Bemba’s Movement Liberation Congolese (MLC), on Patasse’s side, and Chad and Congo’s government in Kinshasa, on Bozize’s side.
Chad in particular has been manipulating the ‘rebellion†and Chadian troops have been spotted fighting alongside Bozize since the trouble began.
All parties have their motives. Chad has been eyeing the CAR’s oil and diamond reserves and Libya has lucrative mining contracts to defend. Kinshasa is keen to open up another war front with the MLC to the north of Congo, and Bemba is equally keen for this not to happen.
Ironically it was only the presence of Bemba’s unruly Congolese rebels that kept stability. Bemba withdrew at the end of February after recapturing three strategic towns for Patasse. Two weeks later, the regime collapsed.
Eyewitnesses in Bangui spoke of a massive looting spree by the MLC on their way out; residents of the three recaptured towns spoke of looting by Bozize’s rebels and said the MLC liberated them. Needless to say, both militias probably helped themselves to a few valuables along the way.
Then there’s the question of the CAR’s former colonial master. France, of course, paid lip-service to Bozize’s slap on the wrist from the international community.
‘This country has fallen victim to a military coup. As far as we are concerned, this situation is absolutely unacceptableâ€, bleated French Minister for Cooperation Pierre-André Wiltzer. And yet it is hard to forget embarrassing revelations after Kolingba’s 2001 coup attempt when boxes of weapons baring the French flag were found at his house.
Why France supplied the weapons was never satisfactorily explained. In the various coups of the 1990s the French frequently stepped in on the side of Patasse; now they appear to be switching sides. France denied the claims, but it is suspected that their close alliance with Chad, the main backer of the rebellion, may have something to do with it.
Meanwhile, opposition parties are eagerly lining up behind the new ‘president†to take part in the democratic process that we are promised will be resumed just as soon as calm is restored. But when will that be? One thing appears certain: CAR voters aren’t holding their breath.