The Central African Republic (CAR) and a leading rebel group came closer to drafting a peace deal in talks that resumed in Gabon on Monday following collapsed negotiations last month.
”This meeting allowed for a resumption of the dialogue between the government and the political-military movements. This is already an accomplishment,” the UN special representative to CAR, Francois Lonseny Fall, said.
”The containing” of the rebel movements ”will come. It will happen with the support of the international community,” said Fall.
On August 1, the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) withdrew from peace discussions after opposing draft amnesty legislation being discussed in Parliament, among other grievances.
APRD leader Jean-Jacques Demafouth said crimes ”pertinent to the International Criminal Court’s competence” should not be covered by an amnesty, though the rebel leader, living in exile in France, would himself have benefited.
Fall said the committee overseeing an agreement reached in June on Monday called on the Mission to Consolidate Peace in the Central African Republic to implement the ceasefire.
The government this month accused the APRD of killing 16 civilians in the north-east of the country.
APRD ”decided to return to the negotiating table, we cannot remain insensitive to the suffering of the Centrafrican people”, said Demafouth.
The rebel leader said that following territorial conditions in the June agreement, APRD ”never crossed these zones to attack the government forces, so we are asking the government forces to not go onto APRD bases”.
Demafouth heads both the APRD and the New Alliance for Progress (NAP) party, the creation of which Centrafrican authorities approved in August.
One of the world’s poorest nations, the Central African Republic is plagued by insecurity in its northern territories, where rebels and bandits have been battling government troops since President Francois Bozize’s election victory in 2005. — Sapa-AFP