U.N. team checks out CAR appeal for peacekeepers
Source: Reuters
By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - U.N. security experts on Tuesday began evaluating an appeal from Central African Republic for U.N. peacekeepers to protect its borders, days after the country's president held peace talks with some rebel leaders. The United Nations Security Council is considering whether to deploy U.N. blue-helmets to Chad and Central African Republic to secure their frontiers against rebels and armed raiders spilling over from Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region. An assessment mission sent by the Council, the second since November, visited Chad last week and arrived in Central African Republic on Tuesday to tour northern areas hit by rebel attacks last year and earlier this month. "This second mission will go to the affected zones so we can make contact with the reality on the ground, collect information and recommend to the Security Council what measures to take," mission leader Francois Dureau told reporters. Central African President Francois Bozize, who seized power in the impoverished former French colony in a 2003 military coup, has appealed for the U.N. peacekeepers to counter the rebels striking over the northern border with Chad and Sudan. "We are expecting a positive report and the deployment of U.N. troops to prevent the return of the rebels to our territory," Acting Foreign Minister Marie Reine Hassen said after meeting the U.N. mission. Late last year, French Mirage fighters, helicopter gunships and special forces helped Central African Republic's army to recapture a string of northeastern towns seized by rebels whom Bangui said were backed by Sudan. Khartoum denied this. In the northwest, in what aid workers call one of Africa's forgotten humanitarian crises, tens of thousands of civilians have been driven from their homes by fighting between the army and rebels or bandits who loot and burn towns and villages. PEACE MOVES Some U.N. officials have expressed reservations about deploying U.N. troops to Chad and Central African Republic, saying political solutions to their rebellions should be worked out first to create a "peace to keep". In an apparent move in this direction, Bozize last week met rebel leaders opposed to his rule on the sidelines of a gathering of African leaders hosted by Libya in advance of this week's African Union summit. Confirming the meeting in Libya, Bozize said he held talks with Abdoulaye Miskine and Ringui Le Gaillard about ways of achieving peace in Central African Republic. Miskine and Le Gaillard are viewed as associates of exiled former President Angel Felix Patasse, who after his 2003 overthrow by Bozize has been accused by the latter of promoting rebellion in the north of Central African Republic. Analysts say the anti-Bozize groups operating in the north are sometimes difficult to distinguish from common bandits. The International Rescue Committee on Tuesday became the latest humanitarian organisation to launch an emergency relief effort for the tens of thousands of civilians who have fled the violence in northwestern Central African Republic. "An already dire situation is getting worse every day," said Bob Kitchen, who is leading the IRC initiative. "This has reached the level of a humanitarian disaster," he added in a statement sent to Reuters.
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